At a time when the entire world is watching the US elections primaries with absolute astonishment as Donald Trump wins state after state, a Democratic advertisement from 1964 is making a comeback.
Even though the video talks about Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, much of the disbelief and worry concerning his statements and rhetoric is reflected in how many feel towards Donald Trump today.
Confessions of a Republican begins with the actor, who was hired by the Democratic party, firmly establishing his credentials as a Republican.
But with Senator Goldwater, he says they’re “up against a very different kind of a man. This man scares me.”
Now maybe I’m wrong. A friend of mine has said to me, listen, just because a man sounds a little irresponsible during a campaign doesn’t mean he’s going to act irresponsibly. You know that theory that the White House makes the man. I don’t buy that.
Taken in the context of Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has openly declared that he is against gun control, loves the poorly educated, wants to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants and wants to stop Muslims from entering the country amidst his many sexist and racist remarks, the video poses an important question.
You hear a lot about what these guys are against. Seem to be against just about everything, but what are they for?
As comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert showed in his 2016 Top Tremendous All-You-Can Trump Luxury Presidential Debate, Donald Trump has often contradicted himself, leaving everyone wondering where he really stands on several issues.
In 1964, apparently this was also true of Senator Goldwater:
The hardest thing for me about this whole campaign is to sort out one Goldwater statement from another. A President ought to mean what he says.
The campaign video also laments that while Democratic nominee Lyndon B Johnson is talking about facts, often it’s not easy to figure out just what Goldwater means by the things he says. Trump’s not really adding a lot of factual input to his agenda to ‘Make America Great Again’ either.
Watch this video from the 23rd minute in and you’ll get an idea about how Donald Trump plans to stick to his campaign slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’.
Look, we will bring the American Dream back, that I can tell you. We’re bringing it back, okay and I understand what you’re saying. And I get that, I get that from so many people: ‘Is the American Dream dead?’ They’re all asking me the question, ‘Is the American Dream dead?’ And the American Dream is in trouble, that I can tell you. Okay? He said it’s on life support, it’s in trouble. But we’re gonna get it back and we’re gonna do some real jobs. How about the man with that beautiful red hat. Stand up. Stand up. What a hat! What does that say on it? Wow. ‘Make America Great Again’. That’s beautiful. Beautiful.
Trump seems to want a more aggressive approach on the international front, stating that US, under his presidency would hit ISIS so hard and fast that they wouldn’t know what happened. He also wants to use force on North Korea to stop the country’s nuclear development.
From decades ago, the words ring true:
I wish he had the imagination to just shut his eyes and imagine what this country would look like after a nuclear war. What he says about total victory scares me.
I tell you those people who got control of that convention, who are they? I mean when the head of the Ku Klux Klan, when all these weird groups come out in favour of the candidate of my party, either they’re not Republicans or I’m not.
Now, plenty of people will say, “But the Ku Klux Klan is just not a problem anymore, is it?”
Well, Trump’s got an endorsement from David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. And Trump never rejected the support nor the group. In fact, he said he didn’t know what group was being talked about and that it would be unfair to condemn a group that he knew nothing about.
To echo a voice from 52 years ago, this man scares me.
I’ve thought about not voting in this election, just staying home, but you can’t do that because that’s saying you don’t care who wins and I do care.
And looks like he scares a lot of other people too. Here’s John Oliver’s campaign to #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain.
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