Donald Trump’s flight to victory may be nonstop

My family and I flew out of The Eastern Iowa Airport the other day on our way to my niece's wedding in Mexico. It occurred to me the last time I ascended skyward from Cedar Rapids I was on George W. Bush's campaign jet.

It was June 1999, and Bush had just given his first speech as a presidential candidate to a crowd in Amana.

'My first goal is to usher in the responsibility era. An era that stands in stark contrast to the last few decades, when the culture has clearly said: If it feels good, do it. If you've got a problem, blame someone else,” Bush said that day.

'Tell families, from the barrios of LA to the Rio Grande Valley, 'El sueno americano es para ti,” he said. That's 'the American dream is for you” in Spanish.

That was nearly 17 years ago. In political terms, we're talking light-years.

Super Tuesday propelled a candidate toward the Republican nomination whose first goal is to let his angry supporters know that no American problem is their responsibility. In Trumpland, everyone else is to blame: Mexicans, Muslims, minorities, China, media types, women who pose tough questions, senators captured serving their country, low-energy losers, you name it.

And if it feels good, do it, say it, attack it. Insult, jeer, mock and threaten. There's no time for political correctness, but hours of airtime are available for fear-fueled bigotry and bluster.

The American dream? No mas. Register with the deportation force.

Republican Donald Trump is on his way to the nomination, barring mathematic miracles. I'm watching with the same shellshocked look on my face as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's as he stood with Trump Tuesday night. Should I chuckle, cringe or book a flight to Manitoba?

Last summer, I said Trump would fade. I was dead wrong. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won our caucuses, but picking Cruz over Trump is like switching from Everclear to absinthe. Headaches either way.

I should have known better. When our politics and government are so profoundly broken that no pressing national problem can be addressed beyond blame and brinkmanship, what difference does it make if the president has no realistic or sane policy objectives?

It's far tougher to counter dangerous demands of voters seeking an authoritarian strongman to build walls and hand out punishment when the alternative is democratic dysfunction. This is what we get when politicians decide gaining partisan advantage is more vital than governing. These are the fruits of a fractured, partisan media landscape eagerly cashing in on our darkest fears.

Keep telling us our democratic institutions are the enemy and, eventually, we'll send someone to burn them down.

And don't think Trump can't win the whole thing. He can. Democrats are meh-ing their way through the primaries. A cloud of uncertainty hanging over Hillary Clinton dwarfs her depleted reservoir of voter enthusiasm. A sure thing? Hardly.

Only the kids are fired up, yearning for Bernie's increasingly unlikely revolution. Who can blame them? They came of age with Bush v. Gore, the Iraq War, Katrina, the dashed hopes of Obama and now our moment of Trump. An era of smart technology and stupid politics.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com