Roy Exum: Where Will George Go?

  • Monday, June 27, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

George Will, easily one of the most respected conservative columnists in America and a Republican commentator, was a guest on Fox News Sunday yesterday when he made a very revealing statement. He announced he has left the Republican Party “for the same reason I joined it” and that he is not only disappointed by the party’s actions but its increasingly-inept leadership as well.

Will spoke for many conservatives, including myself, when he said he became leery of the GOP after Trump made significant – and most surprising -- progress in becoming the nominee. Then, after House Speaker Paul Ryan met with Trump and Ryan “stressed their common principles and said their vast shared ground was much more important than their differences,” the famous columnist Will had stomached quite enough.

“That was puzzling doubly so because Paul Ryan still didn’t endorse him,” Will told the Fox cameras. “After Trump went after the Mexican judge from northern Indiana, then Paul Ryan endorsed him and I decided that, in fact, that this is not my party anymore. I changed my registration to unaffiliated 23 days ago.”

I believe millions of Americans feel “unaffiliated” right now. And the biggest elephant in the room is where George Will and many disenfranchised others go? I’ll be candid – I am not a Trump guy. I don’t blame my feelings on what the liberal media feeds me each day but rather for the scornful, rancor-filled way Trump spends his every day.

When told of Will’s decision Sunday, the Master of Arrogance responded via his tweeter, “George Will, one of the most overrated political pundits (who lost his way long ago), has left the Republican Party. He’s made many bad calls.”

Will countered, “He (Trump) has an advantage on me because he can say everything he knows about any subject in 140 characters and I can’t.”

Ain’t that great? A public fist fight where the rest of America sighs and wonders what in the world will happen to our country by November. I keenly dislike Hillary Clinton. I am not put off by her “surprise (and widely publicized) visit” to a New York City gay pride march as much as I am by the ruthless behavior. It’s not a joke that she treats her Secret Service in a fashion that leaves me gasping and there is far too much smoke both in her past and her present for me to follow her in any way.

This is the last week of June and never can I remember when both the Republican and Democrat parties have appeared so rudderless.

Will, now 75 and still one of America’s most influential minds, wrote in the Washington Post last Wednesday, “Events already have called his bluff about funding himself and thereby being uniquely his own man. His wealth is insufficient.

“Only he knows what he is hiding by being the first presidential nominee in two generations not to release his tax returns. It is reasonable to assume that the returns would refute many of his assertions about his net worth, his charitableness and his supposed business wizardry.”

Donald’s comeback: “You know he looks smart because he wears those little glasses,” Trump chided the writer, “If you take those glasses away from him, he’s a dummy.” And this guy expects my vote?

A new ABC-Washington Post poll – the likes of which I hold in light regard – shows Clinton with a double-digit lead over Trump after he has faltered often during the month of June. It reads, “Roughly two in three Americans say they think Trump is unqualified to lead the nation; are anxious about the idea of him as president; believe his comments about women, minorities and Muslims show an unfair bias; and see his attacks on a federal judge because of his Mexican American heritage as racist.

But get what else the poll revealed: “A slimmer majority (majority being the key word) say they disapprove of the way Clinton has handled questions about her use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state, and half of Americans are anxious about the prospect of a Clinton presidency, underscoring the historic unpopularity of the two major-party candidates.”

Do you see what I mean? I’m with George – terribly disappointed by the Republican Party – yet I am scared to death of Hillary, and more so the Clinton family.

So I am waiting for some messiah to tell us not that he has left the Republican Party, but where he thinks all of those fed up by Washington, the liars and the phonies, will all wind up. It is the question of the hour throughout the United States. And the clock is ticking.

royexum@aol.com

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