
There are far too many candidates. There are a half-dozen of those in the race who should step aside. Snow White only needed seven dwarves — there is no way we need 16 candidates in a primary.
I honestly don’t know how anyone has chosen a candidate yet. None of them have said anything inspiring - although all of them appear to have been inspired by pork at the Iowa State Fair. I have to tell you, I have eaten my share of pork chops and I have never felt inspired. Tired, maybe, but not inspired.
I will be really impressed when one of the candidates wears that “Pork: Be Inspired” apron in California or New York City.
The only candidate who has given voters a reason to like him is the one candidate people really shouldn’t like.
Donald Trump has found himself in a big early lead because he is offensive and brash. He isn’t intelligent or honest, but people just love the fact that he isn’t politically correct.
Even Fox News’ Lou Dobbs wrote a love song about how Trump isn’t scared to call children of illegal immigrants anchor babies.
Dobbs was so excited about Trump using the term anchor baby even after being told people find it offensive that he let loose an old pale chuckle and said “liberals have been trying to shut down descriptive terms as offensive” for years.
Dobbs was immediately taken back to the glory days of Archie Bunker “using descriptive words” about his neighbors and Tanner Boyle “describing” his teammates with multiple derogatory terms in the original “Bad News Bears” movie.
If you feel your vocabulary is overly restrained by people who don’t want to be described in terms that are at least borderline racist, the other people may not be the problem.
I’m always compelled to ask why using politically correct terms is so difficult. I don’t want to use a term if it bothers someone. I don’t feel a need to say “anchor baby” or any other questionable terms.
I always tell my children that intelligent people can avoid offensive and vulgar language where those who are less intelligent might not have the vocabulary to accomplish that.
The most problematic thing for me has been the religious right’s adoption of Trump and his policies and terminology.
If you believe a man in this race or any other truly has a plan to deport 11 million people, force another country to pay for a wall to keep their own residents out of our country, or if you even believe a wall is in any way an efficient or effective way to prevent illegal immigration, your ideology is leading your IQ by a good distance.
If you think any president of this country can use oil in a Middle Eastern country to reimburse us for our war efforts without destroying our relations now and in the future with every other country in the region, I’m surprised you have been able to sound out the words in this column.
What Trump says is more than just politically incorrect, it is factually incorrect.
I know he is going to fade. That fade might be slower than I first expected because I overestimated the intelligence and decency of voters answering polls early in the primary process.
However, I think in the end, responsible adults will control the debate and the party.
Until then, rather than longing for the days where you were allowed to offend people with terms that are “descriptive” if not patently racist, try instead to use the advice of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians.
In advising people there on how to deal with people in and outside the church, Paul said, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6)
If your words meet that criteria, political correctness won’t be a problem for you.