Only superficially. He is just as much a calculating political animal as the other candidates already in Washington. The conceit that he is somehow more genuine (e.g., “telling it like it is,” etc.) is the biggest con ever. (Ted Cruz has been trying to pull the same con, too, just not as effectively.) The media are all up in arms because of his style, more than anything, and that’s what his supporters are falling for, too. They think he’s “real,” just like they think his “reality” TV shows are real.
That’s the paradox of Trump. It’s more appropriate to call him direct and blunt rather than honest, because he’s one of the most successful con men in history. But in a world of bullshit, even a liar being blunt can be seen as better than what we have now.
Well he is far more honest in comparison to any other other Republican candidate.
I am surprised in all the postings I have seen about the election no-one has ever made reference to Scott Adams blog. The linked page is the first post of his I saw about the election and since, at that time, Nate Silver on fivthirtyeight only gave Trump a 2% of getting even the GOP nomination, I was interested to read along and see what Adams had to say.
At the time I thought, like most people, that Trump’s campaign was laughably futile, however I largely agree with Adams’s view of how people actually make decisions compared to the post hoc self justifications they come up with to explain them. And I am a firm believer in the importance of being aware of the presence of cognitive dissonance, particularly in myself. So I have followed along with a good deal of amusement as Adams’s view of what is happening keeps proving to be closer to reality than others would like to believe.
Maybe its all arrant nonsense to those invested in the fates of the two parties involved but to me it’s just entertaining because I don’t think anyone involved in the race to be President is ever worthy of the job. Looking back at that first post I’m reminded that he wrote
With some of his new prognostications this could be interesting.
Or Democratic other than Sanders. Trump is taken seriously because our political class has failed and they still don’t seem to get it.
He says what he thinks. He lies like a rug.
If you really study his discourse you’ll see that propositionally his language is no more honest than theirs, and often simply contrary to fact. He merely creates the illusion of “honesty” by being blunt. It’s a facade–he’s a shyster selling a monorail.
Just the opposite. He has exposed the extreme racism and bigotry of the Republican base to the Republican leadership. The leadership imagined that they could control the extremism, and they’re learning that somewhere and somewhen it all came unglued. Now virtually all their candidates have jumped on the wingnut bandwagon right along with Trump and the establishment is trembling with fear over their own Frankensteinian monsters.
The best part is the fact that, to coin a phrase, they built that. The GOP Establishment has spent the last few decades serving up a pink slime of (barely) deniable anti-intellectualism and tribalism, and now somebody’s serving up the real red-meat version, leaving the “respectable” party elders to sit on the sidelines wailing and gnashing their teeth.