The Republican Party cannot and should not win with Trump

Trump supporters are akin to channellers, people who can convey thoughts or messages from supernatural sources, when they try to put a positive spin on his incessant flip-flops. The DNC should arrange protesters to greet Trump at rallies with a shower of actual flip-flops like Republican groups did to John Kerry in 2004.

Trump supporters claim he is “evolving” and that Trump 2.0 is a “kinder and gentler” capitalist who really cares about African-Americans and minorities more than Democrats. Trump maintains that because he is “different” they should vote for him to reverse any diminution of economic power and civil rights they have experienced.

He claims he will strongly support “choice” in education and this will give inner-city children an alternative to public schools which have failed. He hopes that “choice” will resonate positively with urban and minority voters. He omits any explanation about how “free market” educators will guarantee the good results that elude public school educators. However, he doesn’t have to explain trifling details because he is the Doninator.

He, in Hollywood fashion, promises to terminate all problems in America and eliminate all enemies of America. He cannot explain how he will do anything or why he would be better prepared for the challenge. Mere promises, especially fantastic and constantly changing ones, are no substitute for solutions.

Charter schools are not private schools. They utilize tax dollars and every dollar directed to them is a dollar taken away from public education. Many charter schools are abysmal failures. Everyone wants a good education for children and charter schools definitely have a place in education. Competition and choice are good things but they are no panacea for the education or societal problems that interfere with the day-to-day mission of educators.

The U.S. Department of Education funneled $3.3 billion to charter schools. In one of Trump’s first debates, he promised to eliminate the Department of Education in order to balance the budget although the $700 billion saved would not accomplish the task. Is Trump’s promise of “choice” a promise to privatize public education completely? His catastrophic failure as an “educator” with Trump University should give any reasonable person pause before buying into any of his promises on education.

Trump supporters pooh-pooh Hillary Clinton when she claims Trump is “xenophobic, racist, misogynistic.” However, the kinder and gentler Trump, while acknowledging there are “great” people among the 11 million people he has promised to deport, still promises to build a wall and throw out all 11 million undocumented individuals.

He has not retracted his claim that illegal Mexican immigrants are rapists. He continues to insist he’ll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it. He fails to provide details on how it will be built or how he will force Mexico to pay for it. However, in a recent interview, he sounded like Jeb Bush as he discussed an exemption from deportation for law-abiding undocumented Americans.

He still offers no plan or answer to questions that will be raised by mass deportation including what to do with elementary school children born in America after their undocumented parents are deported.

Trump promises urban and minority voters he will eradicate crime but fails to acknowledge that good policies and great police work have already reduced crime in most American cities. On gun violence, the most he can do to distance himself from NRA gun policies is to promise fewer rules and background checks to make it easier for Americans to get guns legally. Trump supported gun control before he was a candidate.

Trump accuses Hillary Clinton of being a bigot and then whines that she is a negative campaigner when she responds to his ugly and unsupported rhetoric. If Trump’s best argument for African-Americans and minorities to support him is that Democrats have not ideally served them over the past 50 years, then he has already lost the election. His bizarre comments and position flip-flops will not help him.

Trump supporters portray the flip-flops as “pivots” to appeal to minorities and college-educated whites but he is unable to abandon the simplistic and impractical promises made on education, immigration and crime without alienating the voters who gave him the Republican nomination.

This recent mouthing of less negative statements may sound better but it is at odds with his nationalist, protectionist and xenophobic positions. His twists in the wind are an acknowledgment that the Republican Party cannot and should not win with Trump.