One more Donald Trump column

I have resisted writing anything about presidential candidate and TV personality Donald Trump. Why? First, because I expected him to be a "flash in the pan." Second, because I read his book, "The Art Of The Deal." In the book he says, "If you want to command the stage, make the most daring demands possible and say the most outrageous things possible -- people will pay attention to you."

And he is right. People will pay attention to you if you do outrageous things. In fact, not only people will pay attention to you, so will the news media. Candidates have already spent an unbelievable amount of money on this campaign, and it isn't even to the primaries stage yet. Not Donald Trump. The news media is doing his advertising for him. Everywhere he goes, reporters follow him and report whatever he says, no matter how ridiculous.

A reporter once told me that if 350 airplanes land safely at Atlanta Hartsfield, that is not news. However, if one slides off the end of the runway, that is news. In that sense, Donald Trump is news. He has long since slid off the runway. He has insulted a long list of people, including senators, congressmen, presidents and national hero Sen. John McCain. He has attacked multiple ethnic groups, including Hispanics and Muslims. He has advocated violating our Constitution, suggesting that we use a religious test for entry into the country.

Worse, when fact-checking organizations such as Snopes, TruthFinder, FactCheck and PolitiFact evaluate Donald Trump's statements, they find him to be wrong almost as often as he is right. He is either doing it on purpose to be outrageous, or the level of ignorance he has collected exceeds all rational thinking. In short, he told us what he was going to do in his book and he is doing it.

Even worse, any policy-related utterance -- and there have been very few -- has been found to be as outrageous as his various attacks. About our Constitution and about governance in a democratic republic, he has demonstrated that he doesn't have a clue.

Here is a plan for the serious voter: Read everything you can get your hands on about the candidates, the issues and the proposed policies of the candidates. Read magazines and newspapers you don't usually read. Listen to different TV commentators and different talk shows. Get as many different perspectives as you can. Look beyond the surface to the underlying political philosophy and the motivation in the statements of the candidates. On the liberal-conservative continuum, are they where you want them to be? Do they reflect your vision of the future of our country? Then, when November rolls around, you will be ready to make your choice.