Dividing America: The Trump card.

Usually by this stage of the US nomination race it is clear who would be the front runner for the race in each party and by and large the race is down to two candidates for each of the party nominations. While the Democratic Party nomination race has crystallized to Hilary versus Sanders, the Republican Party on the other hand is down to Trump versus others. In truth the vanguard of the GOP are not amused by Donald Trump who in effect has done a hostile take over of the party. As amusing and entertaining Mr Trump has been thus far, many serious pundits know that when the final showdown happens for the Presidential campaign Trump may well lack the seriousness to beat Hilary Clinton or even Bernie Sanders.

To simply say Donald Trump is not Presidential material is political snobbery, but that aside there is no denying that he has attributes and a political stance that, on a serious note, makes one wonder how can he be taken seriously. He is not only a bundle of contradictions he also lack finesse and manners and, more recently, added a vulgarity that demeans the stature of a candidate for such an important office. There has been little to the man that indicates he can unite Americans having already dismembered the GOP. One could cynically claim that Mr Trump has been placed by the Democrats into the Republican party to destroy the roots of the GOP.

The big question is whether Mr Trump can pull himself out of the gutter of cheap insults, tantrums and fantasy proposals to really tackle the seriousness of the issues that a Presidential race will demand. The GOP stalwarts realise that this is precisely the Trump parade will fail and have encouraged Ted Cruz and Senator Rubio to remain in the race with the hope that if there is a deadlock of delegates then there may be chance to wrest back control of the GOP. Polls suggest that a Hilary-Trump show down will favour Hilary and the only GOP candidate, if polls are to be believed, who can derail Hilary Clinton will be Ted Cruz. Given rumps verbal diarrhea on the issue of immigration it is not surprising that the Hispanic vote will certainly not be in his bag.

The GOP also as a strategy has exhausted itself trying to weaken Trump and the division within the party cannot be healthy for the final race. Judging by the quality and content of the debates the Democrats have managed to show a more deeper understanding of both domestic and international issues, where as the Republican debates while passionate have degenerated to mudslinging and little in terms of solutions. Clearly the stark contrast between the Republican and Democrat race for the nomination must worry the GOP establishment. Irrespective of whether it will be Trump or Cruz in the Presidential race the GOP will face the challenge of changing the tone and texture of their message. The problem is that Trump is not a Republican party man and his gambit has been to appeal to the Republican voters ignoring the party politics. This is a division that is messy and begs the question whether these divisions can be healed to taken on Hilary or Sanders if Trump were to win the nomination.

Both Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have had the luxury to debate the issues with intellectual depth and keeping their campaign clean of insults and personal attacks. In a sense they are talking now on a national platform while the GOP is still addressing their Republican vote bank only. For the GOP a Trump nomination would mean a deeper division not only in their party but also split the nation and the floating undecided vote may move to the Democrats. One thing is certain the times ahead are going to be very interesting.