Should I, a Muslim living in Canada be afraid since Donald Trump is winning?*

Not one bit.

Donald Trump is “winning” because that is part of the Republican Strategy. Here’s how it works:

• Find yourself a popular person with extreme tendencies. Last time we did this it was Sarah Palin.
• Put said person in the field and instruct them to say — if they are really a nutty extremist, the most inflammatory things you can think of. There is no place they can go that can be considered too extreme.
• Monitor the news and ensure they are in as many news cycles as possible as often as possible.
• If their crazed candidate is fading from the news, double down on crazy.
• So if last week he said: “We need a wall all the way across the Mexican border” and it plays upon fears of crime and fading nationalism, then when that starts to fade from the addled minds of the sheep-like public, have himdouble down on Mexico ‘rapists’ comments.
• If he generates comments, outrage and attention, think back to ‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity’ often associated with Phineas T. Barnum, the 19th century American showman and circus owner. (Though Barnum was a self-publicist of the first order and never missed an opportunity to present his wares to the public there’s no hard evidence to link the ‘bad publicity’ quotation to him.)
• Then when you look at the rest of the Republican clown car, you will notice that their also extreme perspectives will suddenly seem less extreme. They aren’t. They only appear that way in comparison to the flaming nutjob whose screams and crazed, rage-spittle pronouncements for internment camps for Muslims, as well as a ban on Muslims from entering America entirely fill the airwaves twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, causing constitutional attorneys heart attacks and whipping a fear-mongered frenzy of socialized hatred to sweep across the globe as America prepares for the Jihadi menace.

This is as it should be to the Grand Old Party of the Republicans. They need an extreme perspective to make the candidates they can’t push any other way to seem like a viable alternative because clearly they aren’t either.

The difference is, by the time the real election work begins, they will quietly “dump Trump” and field what they consider to be the real candidates whose views will seem positively mild and outright friendly compared to the previous crazed rantings of the would-be “Commanding Billionaire-in-Chief” whose fear and loathing will have swept across the country.

Why would they do this? Because it lets them gauge just how crazy they can be and just what they CAN get away with when they start their real campaign. Like any war effort, you must first gauge the enemy, see where their weaknesses lie so that you can better exploit your strengths.

Racial fears, economic fears, cultural fears, xenophobia of all types, the ability to stir people to war, are all things Trump has proven there is a market for. The defense department readies itself to support whichever candidates can ensure more money for war will flow.

Relax up there in Canada. Unless you suddenly find yourselves suffused in free flowing oil, a plethora of conflict rare-earth minerals, or some other natural resource the United States is sorely lacking in, you don’t have anything to worry about from the foaming rantings of Donald Trump. He is literally just the wind blowing before the impending storm if this nation votes Republican. You’ll be alright there.

But I wouldn’t recommend any trips to the US if a Republican wins the White House. It’s highly unlikely but just keep it in mind.

Fear is a powerful drug.

It’s a damn shame politics has become one part side-show, two parts jingoistic propaganda, one part amnesia-fest, and one part liar’s club. It’s a damn dirty business.

On the upside, we don’t all feel like he does. He doesn’t represent any American that still has a grip on their sanity.

We are as ashamed and afraid he’ll become President as you are.

And a lot closer to the danger…

This article first appeared on Quora; © Thaddeus Howze 2015, All Rights Reserved

Thaddeus Howze is a California-based speculative fiction author and technology consultant who has worked with computers since the 1980’s as a graphic designer, teaching computer science, managing developers, building sophisticated computer networks and as an IT executive. He has published two speculative fiction books, Hayward’s Reach and Broken Glass.

His non-fiction work has appeared in numerous magazines: Huffington Post, Gizmodo, Black Enterprise, the Good Men Project, Examiner.com, Panel and Frame, Science X and Astronaut.com. He maintains a diverse collection of non-fiction at his blog, A Matter of Scale. He is a contributor at The Enemy, a nonfiction literary publication out of Los Angeles.