SCENE: Bill GUNKEL, former Republican and now chairman of the Inver Grove Heights chapter of “Former Republicans for Ron Paul”, is driving down a Saint Paul street when he notices Mitch BERG walking his dog. GUNKEL pulls over and rolls down his window.
GUNKEL: Hey, Berg!
BERG: (Choking back mild annoyance, ordering the dog to sit) Hey, Bill.
GUNKEL: Boy, Donald Trump sure showed those squishy RINOs in the GOP presidential field how it’s done!
BERG: Huh. How so?
GUNKEL: He told it like it was! He said the things that no Republican would dare to say! He said what needed to be said on immigration!
BERG: OK. And that means what?
GUNKEL: That means he really pissed off the Establishment!
BERG: Huh. And that, then, means what?
GUNKEL: He might be a Republican I could vote for again!
BERG: Because he “tells it like it is”, and “pisses off the Establishment”?
GUNKEL: Yep! (grins like a toddler who just made a big pants)
BERG: Yeah, let me show you something. (Clears throat, takes deep breath) “We need to complete the border fence, enforce existing laws on immigration, and crack down on hiring illegal workers. And Karl Rove is wrong, and the Tea Party is right. And I think Scarlett Johannson would dig me”.
There. I just told it like it was on immigration, and pissed off the establishment.
GUNKEL: (blinks, puzzled)
BERG: I just did everything Donald Trump did. I said a couple of things that pander to a voter bloc, but that I’ll never have to try to convince a single legislator to pass, or a single taxpayer to fund. In other words, I just said stuff.
GUNKEL: (blinks, puzzled)
BERG: Talk is cheap.
GUNKEL: (blinks, puzzled)
BERG: The only thing I lack is a media to lavishly publicize what I’m saying, by way of trying to discredit the GOP, and especially to draw the conversation away from the likes of people like Scott Walker and Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, who are actually saying things the American people need to hear.
GUNKEL: (Shakes it off) You’re a RINO.
BERG: Clearly.
(And SCENE).