Since the release of the ‘Access America’ tapes it seems that hardly a day goes by without further accusations and revelations. There are the alleged ‘Apprentice’ tapes, an open letter to the Washington Post, signed by three thousand sexual assault survivors calling for Republican leaders to stop ‘enabling’ Donald Trump and a succession of women, who are starting to come forward with individual accounts of sexual assault.
“We call on ALL Republican leaders, candidates, and elected officials to take a stand against sexual assault and abuse – and take a stand against your own nominee for President. You must not only denounce Trump’s words, but clearly and unequivocally denounce his candidacy and do all in your power to make sure that this sexual predator never sets foot in the White House.” (Source: UltraViolet)
It’s hard to imagine that a public figure so tarnished could ever be elected President of the United States of America. So will Donald Trump be consigned to a footnote of history? Will the media turn its attention to impending war with North Korea or the environmental catastrophe toward which our planet is racing? No chance. This time next year you will still be reading about Donald Trump. This man only exists because he has been conjured by you and I and he’s not going anywhere.
As the infographic below, produced by bwin, makes clear, failed presidential candidates have a long afterlife. Let us just consider for a moment the fate of some of Mr Trump’s predecessors and how that might play out as a future career path for this presidential hopeful.
The scariest template is surely that of the career of one Richard Nixon. Washed up in 1960 after losing to John F Kennedy and failing to wrest the governorship of California from the Democratic incumbent Pat Brown, Nixon won the White House in 68 and 72 before some unpleasantness required his resignation two years later, yet Mr. Trump is a little too old for that to be a plausible scenario.
Perhaps he’s more of a Barry Goldwater. Resoundingly beaten by Lyndon Johnson, his ideas refused to go away and some argue that they paved the way for Ronald Reagan in the eighties. Could it be that the Trump wall will be built by another’s hands, in years to come?
George McGovern was annihilated by Nixon in the 1972 election: is that the fate that awaits Mr Trump? Mr McGovern didn’t go away though. His enduring legacy was the McGovern report which urged Americans to eat less fat and sugar. He was subsequently appointed UN Global Ambassador on World Hunger under the Clinton administration. It’s somehow hard to imagine that Mr Trump will have a Global Ambassador role under a new Clinton administration, but you never know.
Clearly the most likely role model for a post presidential candidate Trump is that of Bob Dole. Mr Dole’s appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and Suddenly Susan would surely afford Mr Trump ample opportunity to indulge in the on camera ‘locker room talk’ of which he is so fond. And if Pepsi and Viagra are looking for someone to replace Mr Dole in their advertising campaigns then surely these are the roles Mr Trump was born to play.
Sources: http://fortune.com/2016/10/12/donald-apprentice-gloria-allred, https://mic.com/articles/156517/3-000-sexual-assault-survivors-tell-the-gop-to-stop-enabling-donald-trump-in-full-page-ad#.4DmhncqvS, https://weareultraviolet.org/pressrel/full-page-ad-todays-washington-post-3000-sexual-assault-survivors-gop-stop-enabling-supporting-donald-trump, https://sports.bwin.com/en/news/politics/trump-v-clinton-what-happens-to-loser-us-presidential-election,114787.html
