Maybe, just maybe, the GOP has finally gotten the message that you can’t beat Donald Trump by making personal attacks. With the number of attacks finally dying down, Trump’s poll numbers might have even peaked. One thing is for certain, there are a lot of people in this country that like the things Trump has been saying, and they aren’t in the least bit concerned about how he expresses his opinion of Rosie O’Donnell (and many probably agree with him), nor are they concerned about his phone call with Bill Clinton.
The question remains, however, if you are opposed to a Trump presidency, how do you fight back? Believe it or not, fighting back is easier than many people might believe; in fact, Trump himself exposed his own weakness in a recent interview with Sean Hannity.
During the interview, Trump assured Hannity that he intended to move on from the controversial comments and focus more on issues. When discussing issues Trump gave us a good example of why this is going to be problematic when he defended Planned Parenthood, saying “they do good things that aren’t having to do with abortion.”
This is the way Trump can be stopped dead in his tracks; not by calling him sexist, rude, or talking about his comments on Rosie, McCain, or Megyn Kelly. The way to stop Trump is to focus on his position on important issues.
Obviously, Trump’s comments on Planned Parenthood reveal a significant degree of naiveté on the issue, one that many hard-core right-to-life voters will not overlook. Another issue that will hurt Trump will be his views on taxes. Trump supports fiddling around the edges of the tax code without making significant changes to the system and has even suggested raising tax rates.
Obviously, there is a significant number of people who will continue to support Trump based on his personality and his fearlessness when it comes to the media, but among his supporters are many who have strongly held positions on issues that are important to them. These voters support Trump now because they are not aware of his positions on those issues and are likely to lose their affinity towards Trump when they find out exactly where he stands.
As these voters begin to fall off the Trump bandwagon, the shine will begin to dull and Trump’s popularity will begin to wane. Most likely this will be a slow process, but the chance that something is going to knock him out of the race with one good shot looks rather unlikely.
The bottom line, gotcha questions won’t beat Trump, issues will.
