Enough of Trump

My son Marc, who lives in Florida, stopped here last week as he often does on his way to conduct business in Hampton Roads. Our tongues loosened by an after-dinner digestif, we wasted no time getting into a sometimes heated discussion about Donald Trump. Marc is avid supporter, but I'm not.

It's easy to understand why a quarter of Republicans polled have bought into Trump's aggressive approach. His frank comments resonate with voters who are fed up with Washington politicians and want somebody who will confront our adversaries abroad. Heaven knows we need someone who will reverse Obama's devastating domestic policies and restore America's standing in the world. But I want more than bluster and arrogance; I want to know specifically what Trump has in mind before I jump on his bandwagon, and so far he has offered little in the way of specifics.

Trump wants to send all illegals back to where they came from, but the sketchy program he has offered is totally impractical and unaffordable, not to mention devastating for targeted families; Trump clearly has not thought this policy through. As for building a wall on our southern border and getting Mexico to pay for it, only a person with Trump's ego would ever set such an unrealistic goal.

Many policy proposals are coming from Trump's primary opponents. Even if we don't agree with all of them, they present serious issues that deserve consideration. Bush on education, Walker on Social Security, Perry on immigration, Christie on terrorism, Jindal on healthcare, Paul on cyber security, Rubio on China, Cruz on taxes, and so on. Trump, for his part, has yet to give us specifics on any of these policy issues.

Trump gets a lot of air time, but he wastes it bragging about how rich he is, how many friends he has, and how many hotels he has built. Many of us are getting a little tired of his insults, too; calling people stupid and incompetent may resonate with an angry electorate, but it is not what we need to hear.

My son says that when Trump is president he will surround himself with smart people who will bring the necessary expertise to the table. Maybe so. But Trump, like Obama, thinks he is the smartest person in the world and, like Obama, is not likely to take anybody else's advice. As for me, I've had enough of narcissists in the White House.