The Divided Nation
On the eve of Super Second Tuesday, I have a lot of things going on in my mind, including all of the nonsense happening at many of the political rallies of late – specifically, leftist groups targeting Donald Trump and Trump supporters fighting back.
Despite what anyone may think, this presidential election is no different than any other election in my lifetime which have all pretty much been shams, filled with liars, thieves, sycophants … and that’s just the candidates, never mind all their handlers and controllers who have created a permanent, unsustainable class of bureaucrats who don’t give one fig about 95 percent of the people of the United States.
Big government, big business, big labor … it’s all entrenched malfeasance and corruption and has been for a very, very long time.
While I only spent 21 minutes with Trump last year, he actually knows a lot and spoke to me with clarity about what he wanted to do (granted, we spoke mostly economic and budget policy); some people have wondered why I’ve commended him in his race and have suggested that I’m smitten with the flattery he gave me for being the only journalist to question him and connect trade policy and income inequality. Whatever. I’ve been around the block. It takes a lot to turn me on.
What I find so fascinating is that Trump is actually a mix of policies of both major political parties. The fact that he is beholden to no one is what truly makes him dangerous to many of the people complaining about him now because, up and down the aisle, they have so much to lose. This cycle is not unlike Ron Paul in 2012, Pat Buchanan in 1996, Ralph Nader’s super rallies in 2000, and Jerry Brown and Ross Perot in 1992; interests coming out of the woodwork to complain about everything … we’ve seen it over and over and over again. The only difference is that they didn’t get this close.
I agree that he feeds off the energy of the crowds; it’s not unlike, in a way, for different reasons, the late-Boston Mayor Tom Menino, who often spoke like a bumbling idiot – Howie Carr called him “Mumbles” – in front of five or more people in public but when you spoke or met with him privately, in an intimate setting, was actually quite knowledgable and spoke thoroughly.
This year marks 40 years of being a witness, being involved in, being a writer about, national political politics. I’ve seen a lot. In at least the last 30 years, I have heard complaints from both side of the political aisle … “If we could just get more people involved in the political process, our side will win, the country will be whole,” etc. Well, more voters have participated in the Republican primaries, in nearly every state, than in the 100 years of the primary process, first started here in New Hampshire, and most of this increased participation is due to Trump (with a smaller portion being people who are coming over to the GOP primaries to try and stop Trump, too).
What the voters do is what the voters do; we all have to accept the will of the people.
After the onslaught brought onto Trump – some of it warranted; some of it complete media manipulation – if he wins the majority of states tonight, it’s on its way to being over. I don’t care who wins; it makes no difference to me, personally. As much as my son jokes that Hillary Clinton will be daddy’s worst nightmare, every time he saw one of her ads, we will probably be OK either way. But what I worry about is the rest of the nation and how tens of millions of low skill workers find jobs while they are being creamed by globalization. It’s been an active fight/policy work that I have watched since NAFTA in 1993. It is my “single” voting issue, if you will, like abortion is for others. Whatever.
Back to Trump: If, however, someone else wins a bunch of states tonight, the damage – some warranted; some fabricated – did its job.
Either way, the voters in the Republican primaries would have spoken and we all must live with what the outcome is, like I said before. We have lived with the decision of millions of clueless Obama Zombies – voters who, in 2008, installed an eloquent speaker with limited to no real world experience, who was put on a pedestal and worshipped his entire life, who took political solace and wisdom from terrorists and anarchists (and not the “good” limited/no government anarchists but the state worshiping anarchists), and the nation has limped along. As the website says, We survived Bush, we’ll survive Obama, and yes, we will be able to survive a Trump or Clinton presidency.
Lastly, and most importantly, what we’re seeing in this cycle is EXACTLY two things the Founders warned us about and put in protections for: The Electoral College, in order to ensure that there would multiple political battles to win the presidency, delivered by electors, and not the rabble suffocating the rights of the minority to the will of the majority, and what Thomas Jefferson wrote, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, and we must fortify public liberty by putting out of power the few or riot on the labors of the many.
The graphics are screenshots of charts on WSJ.com.