Tonight is important. The tenth Republican Presidential debate will air on CNN, just five days before the Super Tuesday primaries, and just two days after Donald Trump's victory in the Nevada caucus. Having won that contest, along with victories in South Carolina and New Hampshire, Trump leads the field of remaining Republican candidates with 81 delegates to the equal 17's of both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. It is now presumed by many that he will inevitably be the Republican nominee for President, in spite of his being both perhaps the most unpopular Republican candidate among Republicans and being the most disliked of all candidates from both parties among the larger voting public. There is good reason for this: in addition to being temperamentally unsound and often insistently dishonest, he is historically inconsistent in his position on nearly every issue of political relevance. While it is possible that there is nothing that can be said that will shake his core support, it would be monumentally clarifying if this stage were used tonight by either Sen. Cruz or Sen. Rubio to put the following questions to Republican voters who have yet to cast a ballot:
In the months since Donald Trump announced his candidacy last June, he has amassed great support with his promise to "Make America Great Again." Essential to achieving this end, he has argued, is being tougher on illegal immigration than any administration since the Eisenhower years. Mr. Trump pledges that he will construct a great, big wall--on the dime of a foreign sovereign--and deport twelve million illegal immigrants in the space of a few years. He promises that he can and will see to it that the very best trade deals for America possible are negotiated, and that good jobs will come back from China and Mexico. He insists that only he can be trusted to do this, because he is a businessman and not a politician, and he may have you convinced that I can't be trusted because either too "weak" or too inconsistent on these issues. And it is true that Mr. Trump is not a politician, but over many years he has frequently felt behooved to share his thoughts on political issues with the world, and has had many chances to put what are apparently his deeply-held principles to action in his business. And tonight I'd like to ask, when was it that Mr. Trump displayed that he, not I, is the individual most worthy of your trust to handle issues like immigration and trade? Was it five years ago when he said the government should undertake a lengthy and costly project of awarding amnesty "case by case"?Was it four years ago when he said that Mitt Romney, who he now considers "weak", was too mean spirited when he proposed that illegal immigrants should be legally blocked from getting jobs or obtaining welfare benefits was too "mean-spirited"? Was it when he told illegal immigrant activists three years ago that they'd "convinced" him they deserve legal status? Was it when he tweeted later that same year that amnesty could be done if Congress secured the border? Was it when, more than thirty years after his organization was first caught employing illegal immigrants in substandard conditions, the Washington Post discovered his companies still employ illegals to build his buildings? Was he fighting for the American manufacturing worker when he made a few bucks by putting his name on department store jackets and ties that were made in China and Mexico--ties he tried to give us as parting gifts at a previous debate? Was he fighting for the American worker when he turned down all but 17 of 300 job applications from American workers at his Mar-a-Lago club since 2010, claiming too many were unqualified, when he pursued over 500 visas for foreign labor, importing workers from as far as Romania?
My fellow Americans, Donald Trump may have you convinced I cannot be trusted to correctly handle these issues, and for the moment I am not trying to convince you otherwise. What I am asking you right now is to consider Mr. Trump's true history in business and politics, and then ask yourself whether you can really trust him any more than you can trust me. Can you tonight truly say you trust a man like that, who changes his political leanings with the seasons and admits to making bold pronouncements just for the sake of keeping an audience, with the incredible powers of the American Presidency?
