Donald Trump is a business magnate and a millionaire. Yet, according to many people who support him he is "a man of the people". His speeches are full of racist expressions, he is anti-immigration (and anti-immigrant), he has people who do not support him thrown out of his rallies (even going so far as to suggest that the people expelling the protestors "confiscate their coats", thus leaving them to freeze in sub-zero weather). He is not a gifted orator, and his speeches fall harsh and aggressive on many ears. Yet this is a man who has gained great support from Republican voters. In a recent Google map the support for this Republican candidate spreads throughout the country; indeed an overwhelming portion of the map is Trump red. Although many pundits claim that he will never win the nomination, the numbers and polls seem to suggest otherwise. And then add to the mix the vice-presidential candidate from 2008 - the astounding Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin took our breaths away with her impromptu speeches in which we were left reeling as we tried to understand what she was saying. There was little doubt that although a competent governor of Alaska, she had scant knowledge about foreign policy, or even the rest of the United States.Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, left, endorses Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a rally at Iowa State University.Now Sarah Palin has stepped up to endorse Donald Trump. Listening to her endorsement speech, we are left stunned by the aggressive stance. "... they're fighting each other and yelling 'Allah Akbar', calling jihad on each other's heads....let them duke it out and let Allah sort it out." This shows such a lack of understanding of DAESH, Islam and the Middle East that I am left breathless. She goes on: "Are you ready for a commander-in-chief...who will let our warriors do their job and go kick ISIS ass..." Sorry...warriors? Since when did American GIs become warriors? And then: "Looking around at all of you, you hard-working Iowa families. You farm families, and teachers, and teamsters, and cops, and cooks. You rocking rollers. And holy rollers ...!" Holy rollers? Rocking rollers?Palin then tells us why Trump is different, why he is the man to support: "He is from the private sector, not a politician - can I get a 'Hallelujah'". Have we really come to a time when the American government should be run like a business, not a government? Has the neoliberalism of Reagan gone so rampant that government is now big business...? And then Palin lays into U.S. President Obama... "He packs up the teleprompters and the selfie-sticks, and the Greek columns, and all that hopey, changey stuff and he heads on back to Chicago, where I'm sure he can find some community there to organize again. There, he can finally look up, Obama will be able to look up, and there, over his head, he'll be able to see that shining, towering, Trump tower. Yes, Barack, he built that, and that says a lot." Ok, there is a lot to take issue with here. First of all, teleprompters. What a strange mentality that sees a teleprompter as a weakness... at least they help coherent speeches to emerge. Secondly, despite Obama being successful enough to be elected leader of the United States for two terms, he has committed the great sin of wanting "hopey changey stuff." In this world, where we face countries being torn apart, millions of people fleeing oppression, extremists killing innocent people, I, for one, am all for hopey changey stuff. We need hope and we need change.And then Obama has had the affront to "organize communities." Again, I cannot see anything wrong with this. Communities need to be organized, they need to communicate and help one another. Hopey changey communities actually bode great things for the future. Can the same be said about the man who "built" Trump Towers? Trump, who has based much of his campaign on haranguing immigration and immigrants, did not seem too concerned with the 200 or so illegal Polish immigrants who helped build his Tower. It has been claimed that these laborers worked around-the-clock shifts and were paid between $4 and $5 per hour. Moreover, this crew, for some reason, wear deprived of hard hats. Trump is the man who will "make America great again." Why? Because he paid a great deal of money to have a tower built in New York, the building of which he rarely supervised? This is his claim to fame. So why is Trump so popular? What reasons do people give for supporting him? The Atlantic asked its readers to tell them why they wanted to vote for Trump. Below are some of the more striking quotes: "I will vote for Donald Trump... because he represents hope... And how much damage can he really do?" "I'm a young guy who is immature, a bit antisocial, and with no plans for kids or a wife ever. At some level, I don't really care how things go with America as long as it's fun to watch." "... it's not about trusting Trump; it's a collective middle finger to the establishment ... Trump isn't stupid, he gets it. He knows the more outrageous, the better.""Black lives matter more and illegal immigrants who break the law get a free pass." "Wall Street, the banks, and even illegal immigrants seem to be prospering more than the average American citizen. We are desperate.""Desperate people do desperate things.""I'd vote for the candidate purely for the comedic value.""I know [Trump] would do a pretty terrible job at this point, but I really am at the point of letting the whole thing burn down and explode. Trump would help us get there faster and more efficiently. Like the joker from The Dark Knight, I just want to see the world burn. I guess I am an anarchist in that respect ..." I grew up in the America of Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. I remember how scary Reagan was. When I moved to the Britain of Thatcher, I realized that this pair, Reagan and Thatcher, were out to change "hopey changey stuff." However, they didn't have enough time to destroy it all. Bush Senior continued to fight "hopey changey stuff". But Clinton gave it another breath of life. Bush junior again stood against "hopey changey stuff," trying to make America "great."Now we are faced with a candidate who makes Bush the Third look palatable. In comparison, Jem Bush seems positively "hopey changey." The question that arises here is what is it that Palin and Trump think makes America great? America is the land of the free, home of the brave ... America is great because it is a land of immigrants; America is great because Ellis Island welcomed the downtrodden and oppressed. America is great because Poles, Irish, Germans, Russians, Latinos, African Americans, etc., learned to live side by side, to accept their differences and find things in common. But now we have a candidate who wants to register all Muslims (immigrant or otherwise), who wants to stop immigration (except maybe Polish laborers) and to run America like a business, perhaps saying "You're Fired" as he does on the Apprentice to anyone he does not like. Running the government of any country is not a business. It is not a reality show. It is not a game which we can sit back and watch with calm detachment. The low turnout of American voters (just over 50 percent in the last election) shows that there is a serious lack of participation or concern. Is America really ready to let their government become a new reality show for Trump and Palin? Is there so little concern for the state of the nation or for the state of the world that America is ready to turn its control over to such a pair? The Trump and Palin on the SNL sketch are actually preferable to the real ones. We know that they are actors, being comedic. We know that Tina Fey will take off the glasses and the shiny jacket and be Tina Fey again. But Trump can only continue to be Trump; he will be strict on immigration, immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Mexican immigrants and anyone who does not suit his purpose. It is likely that Palin will be offered a place in his government. And Palin will continue to be Palin. America was always the place of hopey changey stuff. The hippy movement started and thrived there. New Agers started and thrived there. Alternative life styles are part of America's heritage. But if America becomes a place that is the enemy of hopey and of changey, then this bodes evil for the rest of the world. Let's hope that Trump and Palin do not change this into a world where business and reality shows reign supreme. With the flow of immigrants coming from war-torn Syria, with the ever-growing threat of DAESH, with the myriad of problems in the Middle East, we can all do with a bit of hopey changey stuff.