Why They Like Donald Trump...I Think

I was trying to get some writing done at a local cigar shop when all of a sudden, "Hey, did you see the last Republican debate? 
Well, of course I saw the debate.  So did 20 million other people.

"So what did you think?"

"Well," I say, "I thought it was very entertaining."

"Entertaining?"

"Sure.  Wasn't it set up for the sake of entertainment?"

"I don't understand," says the stranger.

"Well, you had Trump standing next to Jeb Bush and Ben Carson.  Trump's slapping fives and ribbing up Jeb.  Carson is trying to spit out words that are read on a cue card in his mind.  Meanwhile, Chris Christie is posted to the far right nearly hidden from camera view.  Rand Paul is debating with Jeb Bush about marijuana.  Carly Fiorina is looking weird in the face meanwhile Trump's on the spot for saying that she looks weird in the face.  I'm tellin' ya, it was good entertainment."

"Well, they did talk about the issues though," the stranger says.

"Yeah, it's a debate...so I'm glad they did talk about the issues."

"But still, I think I really like Trump."

"Yeah," I say, "everybody likes Trump."

My stranger takes a pull of his cigar.  I can feel his eyes studying my soul as I'm glued to my keyboard.  "I don't understand.  What do you mean by that?"

I finally look up.  "Everybody likes Trump, man.  We like that he speaks his mind.  We like that he's honest about most of the things that he says.  Americans like him because he's a celebrity.  But still, nobody loves him.  I mean, do you love him?"

"Well, I actually like him a lot," says my stranger.

"But do you love him?  Is he your guy?  Or do you just like that he speaks his mind?"

"Well, I like what he says about immigrants.

Geez.  Well, I'm not gonna touch that one.  "Let's look at it this way," I say.  "I have no doubt that he's a leader.  I have no doubt that he's a successful leader.  However, I do feel that to be the leader of this country one has to have compassion for all Americans in a addition to being a successful person.  Do you think that Trump has compassion for all Americans?  Because you can't have empathy for people worldwide if you don't have compassion for every living American.

My stranger gives up on this one.  "Well, I think he's better than Obama.  I mean, what has Obama done anyway?

Okay.  Here we go.  Well, Obama is the one person who came to mind when I was talking about compassion for Americans. True compassion starts with being open-minded."

"Well, I agree that a president should be open-minded."

"Well that's good.  But can you honestly say that President Obama hasn't done one thing since he's been in office?"

My stranger doesn't say a word for the next 30 seconds.  I can see that it hurts him to admit that fact that President Obama has indeed done one good thing since being in office for over six and a half years.  At that moment, I receive a phone call from my mother who wants to meet me Downtown for lunch.  I excuse myself and take the call to confirm a time.

"Sorry about that," I say. I scribble a web link down on a piece of paper.  It read: pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishments/  "This is a list of many of President Obama's accomplishments since taking office.  You may enjoy it."

"O-kaaay."  He frowns his face.

"I wish you well in the upcoming election.  And remember what I said... Everybody's like Trump."