GOOD FOR AMERICA

Let's just assume he can't be elected.

I know, I know--the common wisdom has been Trumped time and time, but for sake of argument let's just agree that the likelihood of the Donald ever becoming the leader of the free world, is nil and zilch.

Should that assumption fall--as others have this summer!--I take what I'm about to say back. But let's just assume he'll never be POTUS, okay?

If that's true, then I say (gulp!) he's been good for us.

It's hard to believe I just said that, but I'm not going to delete a word. Not a word. 

Look, he's really not a Republican in any 2014 sense. He's no Tea-Partier, that's for sure. Of course, he's no Democrat either. He and Bernie are a ton alike that way--neither of them are party-line people. Bernie, after all, has always called himself a socialist.

The Donald rather likes single-payer heath insurance systems like Canada and most of the rest of the free world. In case that's news to you, you might want to read through that sentence again because it's true. The Donald will not repeal Obamacare on his first day in office like Scott Walker and a host of others probably falsely promise. Sorry.

The Donald clearly believes the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United makes Presidential candidates pawns of the super-wealthy. He should know. When he says pols are puppets, no one says otherwise because he's been a Gepetto himself. He and the socialist make a formidable tag team on that one.

In the not too distant past, the Donald has been libertarian enough to be unopposed to abortion. He's on tape saying that, to no one's real surprise. Should he be elected (remember this whole argument is premised on a contrary idea) it's quite silly to think he's going to somehow repeal Roe v Wade. 

Dr. Ben Carson is soaring in Iowa, the favorite of Iowa's huge Christian right. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is evangelical Christians opting for Trump. He's been many things, but never a Sunday School teacher. He says he used to listen to the best preacher in America, Norman Vincent Peale. But Peale died 22 years ago. Has he been back to church since? There's also the matter of his multiple marriages and the fact that his billions come, at least in part, from casinos.  

Why Donald Trump has risen to rise to such power is a question everyone asks and many answer. I'll throw in my lot with those who says he's capitalizing on the sincere distaste for politics-as-usual in this country, a system constantly stale-mated, made up of forever bickering men and women who are basically sitting on fists stuffed with currency to finance their next re-election.

I can hardly believe these words are soon to be marching across my computer screen, but here they come, one after another, upper case: TRUMP HAS BEEN GOOD FOR AMERICA. He isn't traditional, isn't a party animal, isn't just another Ted Cruz. 

Would he be a good for America as President? Seriously, heaven forbid. 

Would I vote for him? Never.

But has he done us a favor by monkey-wrenching a system that seemed in lockdown? Absolutely. Right now, he's making another tired Bush v Clinton sweepstakes as unlikely as it is impossible. 

I say, good for him.