Perceptions of the Trump Train

I like to think of myself as an observer. I watch, I read, I remember. I put my observations into “the big picture” and try to explain to myself what I see.

I was a very early supporter of Trump. When he came on the scene, I had already spent years studying and researching government. I saw the push toward globalism as a mistake. I saw the stagnant economy being orchestrated by special interests. And I saw the destruction of the middle class being done purposely. No politician, in my mind, could change the course we were on. Then came Trump and his blunt talk about immigration and trade. The two things that globalism has harnessed to advance its agenda. Oh sure, there are others, but these are the two biggies.

I studied every issue, researched dozens of polls, looked at all the candidates, and came to an awful conclusion, that I pound all the time, as you probably know: Corruption is at the heart of all of America’s ills. From domestic spending to foreign policy, corruption drives all of government. Call it what you will….politics, the Deep State, K-Street lobbyists, or special interests….its corrupt, its unaccountable, and it appears to be unrepairable. Then came Trump…..a brash, uncouth braggart that claimed he could Make America Great Again. When I saw the reaction to Trump from so many, I immediately knew he would win. You see, Americans come in two flavors…..those that love America and those that hate America. The former is a majority, but the latter is growing from generation to generation. Those that love America, of course, have seen what has happened to the country. But its been like the proverbial frog in the pot being brought to a slow boil….we just haven’t noticed the heat being turned up. These folks, the lovers of America, wanted change.  When George Bush senior was elected, they expected him to further Reagan’s policies. But I can tell you now, this is when it all began. The corruption, the globalism, and the shift in American status. When he didn’t live up to expectations he was thrown out. A new, fresh face, was elected to take over……as it turns out, one of the most corrupt individuals on the planet. His legacy was to institutionalize this corruption.

Let me stop here and explain something that my free trade friends never understood. Under Bill Clinton, we lived through some pretty good economic times. Clinton, to this day, gets credit for presiding over a robust economy. But did he?  Yes, he did. But what is not understood, is our move to globalism had some terrific short-term benefits. You see, it didn’t start as a mass exodus of jobs, a loss of manufacturing, and profits held offshore. It started with lower prices. Millions of products were being shipped in at half the price of American made products. If you still had your job, you got a huge dividend……happy, happy, happy.  But slowly, over time, government orchestrated the decline. I say orchestrated, because it was no accident that companies fled abroad. Unions were causing trouble, taxes were going up, regulations were out of control, and work ethic and worker demands were changing. Big business, who now looked at America as a market rather than a home, began the change. With massive government help, the multi-national was born. Companies, that their only interest is to make money and increase value, and to do it wherever and however they can, took over government. The slow boil had begun. Even when Obama came on the scene and ran for president, both flavors of Americans still wanted the change that Reagan had started. A strong, free market economy, a world super power, and a country based on its founding principles of honesty, hard work, and freedom. Obama promised “change”. The word itself was the right word. It appealed to the lovers of America, because it was what they saw as necessary. But it also appealed to the haters, as they saw it completely differently. While the former saw it as a return to ethics and accountability, the latter saw it as a social renaissance . An empowering of every minority group that expressed a grievance. For the most part,  too many lovers of America ignored the past of Obama. They saw only that he was black and wanted the same things they did, and gave him their trust. Well, it not only didn’t work out for them, Obama was just as corrupt, just as supportive of the globalist’ agenda, and the change he promised was cultural, not economic.

Americans are still looking for change….at least the group that still loves this country. They are accused of wanting to return to some by gone era that no longer can be achieved….that globalism is here to stay and the culture must change with the times.

Trump!

So here comes Trump telling us he can give us that change. Of course he would get elected! After 8 years of Obama, a cultural apocalypse, and an economic malaise so destructive, the middle class has all but collapsed. Like all Americans that love this country, Trump saw the same things we all did. Immigration out of control, companies fleeing America, trade deficits at sustained, unprecedented levels, a foreign policy in retreat, radical Islam spreading, and yes, the swamp. In general, America in decline. Trump articulated the things we had been thinking and saying for years. Things must change. The same change that Reagan started and the last 4 presidents tried to stop.

But Trump did more than articulate. He spoke bluntly and without any political consideration. He spoke like a real person, like any one of us……the lovers of America! I must say, however, there is one thing that stands far above everything else, for me, when it comes to Trump. That is that he was truly honest. He had no ax to grind….he was rich. He had no special interests to satisfy…..he used his own money. He didn’t play political games…..he wasn’t a politician. This brings me to what I have observed. Trump enjoyed a very loyal, supportive base, of 30-35% of Americans.  He also was trusted by another 20% that, like the base. wanted that change. So where are we now?

Trump’s support of 50-55% has fractured. There are still plenty of supporters, but some are beginning to show unsteadiness. That said, I suspect that many of these shaky supporters were never strong supporters in the first place. I don’t mean this in a critical way, but truly, they were looking for miracles. Before the election many of these were NeverTrumpers, Cruz supporters, or libertarians that swallowed hard when he won, and waited. I saw it, personally. Republicans reluctantly admitting that Trump was doing conservative things and pushing for conservative policies. I say reluctantly, because they took every opportunity to find fault. Nothing was ever good enough. To this brand of supporter, short of a new American Revolution…..unless a full return to the constitution was implemented immediately, nothing could be accepted, no matter who was president. Then there’s the free traders I mentioned earlier. They still believe Globalism and free trade are synonymous. They think that globalism was and is inevitable and that we need to adapt. They accuse Trump of being an isolationist because he wants better trade deals. This leads them to conclude that Trump is stupid and out of touch. Then there’s the supporter that looks at the presidency as a dictatorship. That a president should be able to get anything accomplished, after all, Obama didn’t seem to have any trouble getting his agenda implemented? Let me say this about the president. Undoubtedly, the POTUS has a lot of power. But it is far from unlimited. Unlike what the constitution outlines as presidential power, the president has the power given to him by the special interests. Does that sound like something you doubt? Of course you do. How can you make yourself believe that special interests literally control the president? Because they control the congress and the bureaucracy, thus limiting the president or empowering the president, whenever that power is needed to implement one of those special interests. Take for example Healthcare. Obama wanted to implement a national healthcare system, in 2008. Something every Republican opposed. So why do we have the ACA? Was it because a few Republicans made deals with their vote as we were told….or was it that the special interests wanted the very thing they said they opposed? Then fast forward…..why can’t it be repealed? The Republicans say they oppose it, but can’t get it done. Why? Because the special interests don’t want it repealed. So see this clearly……one president wants something nobody wants but gets it written into law, while another president wants to end it, which everybody wants, but can’t get it done. You need to see this for what it is. This is how the system works for every issue in America, of any consequence. But I digress. So many of Trump supporters can’t understand why he can’t get the ACA repealed…that he should be able to make deals like Obama did…..he should use the Bully Pulpit to convince the American people….yadda, yadda, yadda! This demonstrates the naivety of many Americans. They still haven’t grasped the premise that the government is absolutely corrupt. So they blame Trump. For Trump, its like trying to write a letter, with your hands tied behind your back. He is trying to work within the rules, while the cogs in congress are being turned by the engine of corruption.  Finally, there are people who are just impatient for change that they were promised. They sit back, do nothing, and expect Trump….all by himself….will fix everything. They criticize everything he does, they say he’s not keeping his promises, they treat him like any other politician…but Trump is not that. Trump is like any one of us, only much smarter. He knows what the lovers of America want and is doing everything in his power to get us there. We must stay with him and we must stay focused on the corruption….speaking out often to make sure congress knows we know. Read the rest of my blog if you have any doubts….my 11 part series on the Clinton Foundation…..my three part series on the Uranium One scandal…..or the two-part essay on the deep state. It’s all there…..wrap yourself in the facts and spread them. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Congressman Jim Jordan about the Clinton Foundation. He asked me to send him what I had….I did. Will it matter? Probably not. He says the right things, seems sincere…but still no action. It will take thousands of us doing this to have an impact. But even then, we are up against more money than can even be imagined, and if you have learned anything about life as you make your walk through it….MONEY DRIVES EVERYTHING! Period!

Let me address one current news item that will come to demonstrate how far the corrupt government will go to stay in power and maintain the status quo. Recently, Judge Roy Moore, won the republican primary in Alabama. He defeated Mo Brooks, a sitting congressman, and Luther Strange, the republican establishment’ selection. He won fair and square in a deep red state, with a large majority of lovers of America. I could almost hear the voters words as they made their choice…..Mo Brooks is a politician…Nope!, Luther Strange is the establishment….Nope! Roy Moore….a long serving, principled judge, who absolutely loves America. Yes! Money flowed into Luther’s coffers…but it wasn’t enough. Now what I want you to see is how to look at what happened next in the context of corruption. First, you have to understand something. The republican congress hates being in the majority. At least, today, with Trump as president. You see, it was good when Obama was president because he could block whatever they did, same with the democrats…..when they had the majority and Obama was president, they too failed to move the people’s agenda. That’s how it works. They blame the other party for their perceived failures, when really they didn’t fail, everything went according to plan. They want and have adapted to a divided government. It allows them to blather on about doing the people’s work, while they continue to serve their masters……the big money special interests. But what does this have to do with Roy Moore, you ask?  Everything. right AFTER Moore wins the primary, a poll comes out showing him with a 17 point lead over the democrat in the upcoming special election in December. All through the primary, the establishment told the voters that Moore couldn’t win against the democrat….then why is he 17 points up? Time to take him down. Out comes the accusations, from so long ago that nothing could be proven one way or the other….a classic she said he said. But what is telling is that 15 minutes after the allegations were made a bevy of sitting republican senators felt compelled to weigh in and try, convict, and sentence Roy Moore to oblivion. The calls for his stepping aside were thunderous…from the right!   But think of this: Senator Menendez is on trial for corruption and pedophilia and not a peep from anyone that he should resign. In fact, they’ve been trying to figure out how they can get his vote back in the senate. If that’s all there was you might just call it hypocrisy, but there’s more. The senate recently put forward their tax “reform” plan. I put reform in quotes because this is far, far from tax reform…but that’s another story. In this tax plan, the corporate tax rate has been lowered from 35% to 20%. Almost everyone agrees that this is needed. Great! Then why does McConnell insist pushing it back until 2019, after the midterm elections? Because he fully expects and wants to lose the majority in the senate. This will allow the democrats to block this tax reform, so everything can stay the same. Once again democrats and republicans working to maintain the status quo. But now you question me….if everybody wants this, why would he want to stop it? Just like the ACA, everybody wants it but the special interests. In this case, the giant multi-national corporations. Think of this. The multi-nationals like Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Apple, Dow, and dozens of others are making gazillions of dollars with the tax system we have. They pay almost no taxes, meet no regulations and pay no high labor rates. Meanwhile, all your American competitors are strapped with all those things. If you think about it….as I have….its beautiful. What a great strategy. Once they lose the senate, Trump will become neutralized for the most part. They then can campaign on Trump’s inability to keep any of his promises in 2020, and be rid of him in January of 2021. The establishment wins. And you can bet your ass, that they are working right now on a plan to make sure what happened in 2016, never happens again.

I hope you can see from this example, just how politics and money has destroyed our democracy. Our government no longer works to protect our rights or serve our needs. It simply is a product to be bought by those with the most money.

Rest assured I will continue to do my research and present the facts to anyone that will listen. But I am not hopeful that we can change anything. We’ve changed the people, we’ve changed the party, we’ve protested, campaigned, called, written, posted, and complained. But still, nothing changes. There was a time when right here I would right: “Not until we……”, but I just can’t do it. There is nothing we can do as a people who can change things short of revolution….but even that might not be enough. Its one thing to fight a government that’s corrupt and tyrannical….its quite another to fight 50% of the population that thinks everything is perfect and should continue….the rubes on the left that can’t find their ass in a snow storm with two hands. Our best hope is to stay on the Trump Train, pick up as many stragglers as we can and ride that train for as long as we can. Trump is doing his part….we have to do ours.