The Buzz: A Faker’s Guide to Keeping It Real

I’m watching CNN right now and Don Lemon is asking a group of politicos if Donald Trump has a woman problem. Which is itself a problem. The real question should not be whether the female electorate would continue to vote for a man quick to dismiss and belittle a woman journalist by referencing her menstruation. Instead, it should be whether our country’s entire GOP voting population—including those who do not have blood coming out of their whatevers—will finally realize that Trump himself is the problem.

Or is he?

That Trump is running for President is less troublesome than people’s reactions to his comments about women and minorities. That a good number of attendees at the recent Republican debate cheered and laughed not at but with Trump when he clarified that he only called Rosie O’Donnell fat, a slob, and a pig, as if that were OK and as if that were true, is problematic. That every one of his contenders on stage remained silent during this portion of the debate is unfortunate. That voters continue to support Trump despite Trump being Trump or because Trump is Trump is ridiculous.

The usual explanation for Trump’s appeal is that people appreciate Trump’s authenticity. You know, The Donald keeps things real, right?

Keeping it real involves proposing real solutions for real problems. It is not trumpeting (sorry about that) evidence about this or that and never releasing it. Nor is it reliably dodging questions about political positions. There is almost nothing genuine about Trump’s campaign for publicity the Presidency.

Here’s some insider knowledge about people who boast that they always keep it real: They’re usually the same individuals who claim that they hate drama. They’re the same ones who insist they’re really good at reading people. The reality is that such people are self-serving drama queens who would probably benefit from reading more books than people. Sometimes, one of them even runs to lead a country.

When you refuse to talk intelligently about issues, instead preferring to make sexist jokes and throw out nonsense to stoke bigotry, you’re not injecting authenticity into a campaign so much as stripping it away. The further irony is that the most politically-correct thing to say these days is that you abhor political correctness—so that you can then use that statement to justify saying…well…just about anything.

But hey, given that the media is trumping Trump (sorrier about that) days after the debate to the point where you’d think he was the only candidate on stage, it’s clear that Trump won. The rest of us lost.