The Ultimate Trump Card

Did you know there are 12 people vying to become the Republican presidential candidate?

That might actually come as a surprise to some people, depending on how plugged into American politics you might be.  If you're a casual news observer, you probably had no idea.

I'd like to think of myself as pretty plugged in.  But, truth be told, even I had lost track of where we were in the grand scheme of things as we head towards the next US election.  We're not even in the full election campaign stateside yet, but it feels like it's gone completely off the rails already.

We have been bombarded with what feels like nothing of substance so far when it comes to the presidential races, in particular around the GOP.  And maybe it's because I'm in Canada and we're just simply innocent bystanders watching this all develop from the outside.  But one man has dominated all of the headlines for that particular party.  And it doesn't matter if you like Donald Trump or not, this isn't good for democracy.

An educated electorate is what we're supposed to be aiming towards.  Each of the twelve candidates should be able to get their messages out there.  Yet we hardly know who those candidates are, let alone what they stand for.  The Republicans could have some of the best candidates available in this election, but no one would ever know.  Because day, after day, after day, we're inundated with stories about "The Donald".  What kind of controversial thing did he say today?  Could it be crazier than it was yesterday?  Where is he appearing tonight?

And you (the electorate) are eating it up with a giant spoon.  Trump continues to poll better and better.  And don't sit there and pretend like you're not lapping it up.  Just look at what web traffic is like for stories involving him.  More people are reading those stories than they are reading about what Ben Carson is saying.  Or Mike Huckabee.  Or Marco Rubio.

How many of the Republican candidates are getting one-on-one "exclusive" interviews with the major news outlets?  How many news clips are you seeing about each of them?  And how many are getting guest host gigs on Saturday Night Live?  Ted Cruz?  Chris Christie?  Jeb Bush?  Didn't think so.

I despise the fact that I have to talk about this on this blog.  But this is a very real issue here that we need to start talking about.  When did it become so important to be a celebrity when running for political office?  And since when did that mean more to the coverage you got, versus actually having substantial policies.  This is the exact issue that continues to stymie the oilsands (for example).  Why is it more important that they have the support of the celebrities like Neil Young or Robert Redford than the support of scientists and the people who actually live and work there?  This is a VERY real issue.  And it's going to continue to cloud the American election as well.

I guarantee some people haven't even heard these names before.  If only they had been on a TV show or two before they entered the political spectrum, maybe they would have stood a chance.

Does anyone actually know what these candidates stand for?  Jim Gilmore?  Rick Santorum?

Just do a Google search on some of these names.  I did that for Carly Fiorina.  The top result in news: "Fiorina on Rose Bowl tweet: "It was tongue-in-cheek, for heaven's sakes!"

For John Kasich: "Kasich's TV ad debut: "Never Give Up!"

For Trump: "Donald Trump: Hilary Clinton, Obama "created ISIS.""

So enlightening on all fronts. (note: sarcasm)

The real question I have in all of this is: is this what the American electorate wants out of this race?  Or is this what the electorate deserves?  I honestly don't know.

I think back to the race for the federal Liberals in Canada.  Believe it or not, there were six people in the running for that.  But the only name that EVER made headlines was Justin Trudeau.  I'd be shocked if many people knew more than one other name (they were Joyce Murray, Martha Hall Findlay, Martin Cauchon, Deborah Coyne and Karen McCrimmon).  I remember seeing Hall Findlay in Calgary at one point during the race and I was really impressed with what she brought to the table.  Yet all anyone could or wanted to talk about on both sides of the political debate was Trudeau.

And that's the thing.  This goes beyond the "left-wing" vs. "right-wing" debate.  That's not what this is about.  This is about the electorate's apparent ignorance towards getting as much information as possible to make informed decisions.  I was chatting with a friend recently about this conundrum.  You could have the most important story of the year, and it will get you five web page views.  You could have a "mean nothing" story and it will get you 5,000.  Guess which kind of story is going to be pushed more down the line?  And that's what feels like is happening here.  What's going to get you better ratings (for example): an exclusive with Trump, where who knows what he's going to say, or an exclusive with Rand Paul, where the majority of the discussion will likely be based on policy?

I'm not saying Trump doesn't deserve to be brought in as the GOP presidential candidate or to become president.  That's for you (the voter) to decide.  What I am saying is that I've been floored by how much more publicity he's received compared with the other 11 candidates, yet no one seems willing to talk about it.  There's a very real possibility that he will be the GOP candidate.  Is this cycle going to continue as he faces whoever is running for the Democrats?  Or will we actually get to start talking about real issues and policy by then?

Maybe the next president should be whoever does the best job of guest hosting SNL.  That'll get you all watching.