Today's article in the New Republic, "
Donald Trump Has Blown Up Republican's Racism Defense," revisits a subtext about Trump's candidacy that most of the media and punditocracy want to avoid talking about. Namely that Trump is not a real candidate, and never has been. That he never set out to run for president to be president. That he always intended his candidacy, whether as an independent, or now shockingly as the Republican nominee, to be about something other than the stuff he is talking about.
To say that he is a "Manchurian Candidate" is not simply the realm of fringe conspiracy theory. Salman Rushdie said it last year, implying that his real goal was to elect Hillary Clinton. It's certainly true that Trump has a long, friendly history with both Clintons, and one that remained quite friendly until very recently. As much as it would pain most of Hillary's supporters to entertain the idea that she and Trump might be working together in some way, or that the Clinton's are ok with the nasty demagoguery Trump is putting on as a reality show if it makes it easy for Hillary to become president, that's a real possibility. If there is one thing the Clintons are known for, it's ruthless street fighting in politics, using all weapons and opportunities at their disposal to win.
While such a working relationship between Trump and the Clintons is probably somewhat of a stretch, it's pretty clear nonetheless to anyone of ordinary intelligence who looks at the type of campaign Trump runs, the people he hires to run his campaign, and the choices he makes, that his campaign is, and never has been, a serious one.
If Trump is not working with the Clintons, he still may be working in their interests deliberately on his own as a free agent, or he may be running simply to feather his own nest financially.
The "real" Donald Trump is the one who will make money off of his fake presidential run in several ways. He will find a way to launder the campaign contributions he is now getting (to the tune of 80 million in July alone) in various ways, including paying his own businesses premium allowable rates for air travel, campaign expenses, etc. (read David Cay Johnston's The Making of Donald Trump for a more involved explanation on how Trump will do this).
Trump will also "own" a huge angry and aggrieved "market" of tens of millions of dumped voters who will buy his conspiracy spin on a stolen election and gobble up any books, media products, freeze dried "Trump" Prepper food, etc. he will offer them in the future to help "take back America." And lastly the Clintons will owe him, literally, the election, so you can bet the Clinton Justice Department will never take a first, let alone, a second look at any dubious business or tax schemes he gets involved in over the next eight years.
The actual political "sin" of Donald Trump is not that he is running as a serious "racist" candidate, but that he is reigniting very real and smoldering racist and xenophobic passions into a flame in the service of his self serving fake candidacy. And the equally self serving Republican leadership, turned sociopathic after decades of Atwater/Ailes/Rove wedge baiting, is politically damned for their failure to condemn him, and cut ties with him. And if he is doing this with a wink and a nod from Bill and Hillary Clinton, then they also are also to blame for any nasty consequences resulting from it.
