Trump and anti-Trump passed through metro Atlanta's orbit this week, within 72 hours of each other.
Fortunately, they did not meet. The laws of physics say that a collision of the two GOP presidential candidates would have resulted in a sizeable explosion and a burst of gamma rays.
Billionaire showman Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich now represent the polar extremes of the GOP presidential field — Mr. Nice America No More versus the Huggable Governor. Andrew Dice Clay versus Stuart Smalley.
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz will come through town this weekend. They’ll be working what’s now considered the middle ground in the GOP.
But it is the rhetoric tossed around by Trump and Kasich, the former on Sunday and the latter on Tuesday, that defines the dilemma that Republicans have created for themselves, less than a week before the all-important SEC primary.
Trump has become the Republican primary id, tapping the instincts and passions of GOP voters at the expense of rational thought. With Jeb Bush gone, Kasich is the Republican party’s super-ego – the voice of morality and logic that usually comes to the forefront in general elections.
The latest poll, commissioned by Channel 2 Action News, has instinct and passion far outpacing morality and logic in Georgia.
Trump's Sunday visit to the Georgia World Congress Center was something Georgians may not have seen since the days of Gene Talmadge in the '30s and '40s – a cult of personality in which facts take a back seat to the affirmation of an audience's greatest fears.
“Don’t be a chump, vote for Trump,” was the refrain of the campaign song from the stage. And that was the central message to the 8,000 or so people gathered there: You’ve been took. You’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Led astray.
“We have the greatest negotiators in the world in our country. We have the best. We have guys and women that are so good. We don’t use them. We use political hacks,” Trump said. Hacks who have sold you out.
“We have illegal immigrants, and they’re treated much better, in some cases, than our vets,” Trump said in speech that was an hour-long maze of twists and turns. The statement got the audience’s attention. There were many vets in the audience, and even if it wasn’t true, it felt true to them.
They didn’t care that Trump’s wall, to be paid for by Mexico, can’t be built. Won’t be built. The idea of such a wall is enough.
Trump also promised to reverse President Barack Obama’s decision to block the Keystone pipeline that would ship Canadian oil to Gulf of Mexico ports in the United States for export.
“We should have it, but we should get a piece of the action for the United States. See, only a businessman would say that,” Trump said. “We’ll improve it, we’ll get the jobs, but we should get, like, 25 percent of the profits or 25 percent of the ownership for the United States.”
My colleague Kyle Wingfield was the first to point out that the crowd, whose members would uniformly describe themselves as conservative, gave a lusty cheer for the nationalization of a private venture.
Two days later, John Kasich arrived at Kennesaw State University, after speaking to the state House and Senate in Atlanta – but missing a chance to speak with Gov. Nathan Deal, a former colleague in Congress.
Kasich was the Republican voice of reason. His clock showing a $19 trillion national debt ran in the background, but the Ohio governor advised against panic. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” he said.
Yes, the federal government needs to shrink drastically, but modern efficiencies can take away the sting. Kasich spoke of “Uberizing” government.
He didn’t use the words “Medicaid expansion,” but said the disabled and drug-addicted need to be cared for. Minorities need to be able to believe they’re getting a fair shake. Kasich told college students in the audience that the debt they amass from years of tuition needs to be addressed, but he wasn’t yet sure how that might be done.
The governor won some attention in South Carolina when he gave an emotional hug to a beleaguered University of Georgia student. At KSU, Kasich again attempted to act as counselor, to push his audience into a better emotional space.
“I believe that every single person that is made on this earth is made special. There is no one, no one that has ever been created or whoever will be created that will be like you. You are unique, and you are special, and you have a purpose,” Kasich said.
A questioner challenged him to take the fight to Donald Trump. Kasich demurred. Perhaps in the future, perhaps in Thursday’s CNN debate in Texas, he might be pushed down that “rabbit hole,” as he called it. But not now.
“Strength in life is admitting weakness. Strength isn’t how tough I am. Strength is being honest with oneself about your strength and your weakness,” he said. Thus endeth the sermon.
Often, the most difficult aspect of writing a newspaper column is the summing up. But every now and then, someone steps in and does it for you – and in far superior fashion.
Janet McCoy of Kennesaw lives around the corner from the university. She’s a retired health teacher who worked at a Cobb County middle school. I’ve merely transcribed what McCoy said to Kasich when she was handed the microphone near the close of his appearance:
"I think what bothers me is – maybe we have a thousand people here. Sunday, Trump was in Atlanta and there were 10,000. For some reason, he has captured the imagination of people, and it bothers me. I'm torn, because he has no history. We have no guarantee – we really don't know what he's going to do. But he's captured our imagination because he knows our emotions.
"Your campaign hasn't captured the imagination of the American people. That's why you're where you're at."
In a nutshell, friends, that is the Republican box.
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