Are you ready for another Republican debate? Are you ready to hear what outrageous thing Donald Trump will say? And what slap-down is in store for him from his rivals?
Ready or not, here it comes!
Tuesday night, at 8:30 p.m., millions – yes millions! – of viewers are going to tune in to CNN for the latest episode in the year’s most successful reality TV show.
You tell yourself you’re going to skip it this time, but you know you probably won’t. The suspense is too great.
And yet you can surely predict what will happen.
The focus, according to the pre-game hype – will be on “foreign policy.” And that would normally be enough to turn viewers away in droves. Who in today’s America wants to hear a debate about “foreign policy”?
Unless, of course, one of the debaters is Donald Trump.
His foreign policy is different. Banning Muslims, for one thing. That’s right – closing the US border to any and all Muslims, every one of the billion Muslims inhabiting this globe of ours. (I suppose that includes Black Muslims. You know, like Mohamed Ali).
Of course it’s a ludicrous suggestion.
If Trump had suggested closing the border to Pakistanis or Saudis or people who live in any of the other countries from which terrorists have originated so far, you might at least consider it possible. These people can usually be identified by their passports.
But how do you identify Muslims once they lose the hijab and the turban?
I suppose you ask any arrival with a dark or darkish skin, “Are you a Muslim?”
And if they say yes, you tell them to go home. If they say no, you let them in to blow up the place if that’s what they plan to do.
I’m sure the other debaters will be asking Trump about this identification problem. And I’m sure Trump will have an answer, although I don’t expect it to be coherent. Insulting, yes. Obscene perhaps. Coherent, no chance.
Of course, the absurdity of his proposed ban won’t be the main target of Trump’s detractors.
They’ve got hotter fires to stoke – religious intolerance, racial divisiveness, and so on. Apparently, stupidity is acceptable, “bigotry” is not.
Not to most Americans, anyway. But bigotry is what Trump’s followers are all about. It’s their common cause, their core doctrine. Accusations of bigotry only make them more devoted to the Donald.
So sparks will fly and mortal insults will be exchanged. But this “debate” will change nothing. It will shed no light on anything of any importance.
Sounds like another night of great reality TV.
