Size matters to Donald Trump.
His wall along the Mexico border will be the biggest, a foot taller than the Great Wall of China, he told Quad-Citians last week.
His wealth dwarfs his opponents’ and their funders'.
His crowds set records, an achievement he claimed at Saturday’s (12/5) rally at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds Fair Center building, though the livestock, gun shows and other events likely have drawn as many as the 1,700 that fairgrounds manager Bob Fox estimated at Trump’s rally.
Trump’s is a politics of comparison, promising he won’t only restore American greatness, he’ll surpass it. He won’t just avenge terror strikes, he’ll seize critical Middle Eastern oil reserves and use proceeds to compensate U.S. veterans.
He not only will build a wall, he pledged to Quad-Citians that Mexico will somehow pay for it.
Iowa has always been a testing ground for campaigns and Trump is passing with flying colors. He cited months of poll-leading success, while trashing the pollsters and their news media employers. He bragged about double-digit leads in polls, drawing cheers. He slammed polls as useless and skewed. More cheers.
Instead of engaging the small group of Iowa caucus voters with face-to-face meetings and details about policy and position, Trump fills halls with the broadest platitudes that make crowds laugh and cheer, but not really take verbatim.
At the Davenport rally, he pledged revenge on ISIS: "We're going to be tough, vigilant, nasty. That s*** is not going to happen."
But not there, nor anywhere as he offered any indication on how U.S. troops would vanquish secret, shady terrorists who know no borders.
In Davenport, he mocked coalition forces, referring to them as “allies” with finger quotes, accusing them of cowardice and abandoning American fortified Humvees -- like those produced at the Arsenal -- when under attack.
The tough talk drew loud cheers. “We’ll steamroll anyone in our way,” he said of American political opponents.
The rhetoric also steamrolls the customary American political processes of compromise and consensus, wheeny words in Trump’s vocabulary, but the only process allowed in the Constitution.
President Trump would aim at Obama’s executive orders, revoking them with no more Congressional concern than this president acknowledged. “Who needs the courts?” Trump said about challenging Obama’s immigration order. “It will be terminated immediately.”
Trump simply dismisses those who disagree, using the same label to condemn Democrats, environmentalists and even some Republicans. “The best word is 'stupid.' I used to say incompetent, but that's not strong enough."
Caucus and primary invective isn’t new. These base appeals have proven effective on the path to the nomination. After that, the nominee will need more than the base for victory. He’ll need those who supported and elected Trump’s “stupid” detractors.
Mostly, he’ll need the throng at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds to participate in the system Trump dismisses, show up Feb. 1 in a room surrounded by Iowans still supporting those “stupid” opponents, and actually engage in the American political process.
Mark Ridolfi is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of political insight into Iowa, Illinois and Quad-Cities politics. He has covered Iowa caucus campaigns since 1996.
