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POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Bathroom Fight Draws GOP Away From the Real Issues

A Commentary By Charles Hurt

Note to professional politicians: Voters really don’t care what bathroom Bruce Jenner uses. That is between him, her and their psychiatrist.

Voters don’t care if he stands, squats or wets his pants. It’s all just a Tempest in a Toilet.

And who swirled up all this nonsense? The same silly politicians who are always stirring up such nonsense in a desperate bid to be talked about and feel relevant.

This whole fake controversy began when goofballs on the City Council of Charlotte, North Carolina, changed town ordinances basically prohibiting businesses and other buildings open to the public from excluding men from the ladies’ room or women from the men’s room.

In a little city with nothing going on, now anything goes — at least in public bathrooms. Some people will do absolutely anything for a little action.

Cue laughter at the silly City Council from the entire world of serious people.

The zany pols can ruminate in their own self-satisfying smugness until, that is, some poor child gets raped by a sick predator in the women’s bathroom stalking for the most unsuspecting prey.

This will not happen, of course, to the child of attentive parents who keep their children out of Charlotte’s public bathrooms. It will instead happen to a child of less fortunate circumstances, and Democrats will have once again “stood up” for the poor.

Not content letting Democrats embarrass themselves, Republican politicians in North Carolina shimmied under the stall door to get in on the action. The North Carolina Legislature called a special session to pass yet more new rules stipulating precisely who can and cannot use which bathroom in the state of North Carolina.

Truly a set of solutions in search of a problem. This is where professional politicians shine most.

Enter real estate mogul Donald J. Trump, and, once again, he operates miles above any of the professional politicians he is so soundly beating at their own game.

Voters don’t care. He doesn’t care.

Mr. Trump is running for president on clear promises about what to do to end illegal immigration, fight terrorism and fix the economy. Every second that Republicans spend talking about this bathroom nonsense is time they spend losing.

Mr. Trump is, among other things, a master marketer. He understands the importance of protecting the brand of your product and never stepping off message.

Professional Republican politicians have spent years destroying their brand of limited government and serious leadership. Mr. Trump intends to drag them out of the toilet.

No, Mr. Trump is not running for president to legislate the bathroom policies of North Carolina. Which, of course, is why he is winning. And everyone else is losing.

Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com. Follow him on Twitter via @charleshurt.

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