Blame the Democratic & Republican Establishment. For years, both have promised their respective Progressive & Conservative bases the sun, moon, stars only to deliver zip, nada, zilch, leaving them with a bunch of pissed off people who've finally tumbled to the reality that THEY are not the ones elected officials consider the constituents whose interests they represent.
That is how you get a Donald Trump for the GOP & would have gotten a Bernie Sanders for the Dems had the party elite stayed on the sidelines as they're meant to do.
And the winner will be... Donald John Trump, because this is a year stacked up against the Establishment - no one is more inner sanctum Establishment than Hillary Rodham Clinton. The energies are swirling against her, the vortex is sucking voters into the Trump black star.
Today, a perfectly sane, intelligent friend told me that she intended on voting for Trump because "Hillary deserves to be in jail, not back in the White House." When I asked what crime HRC had committed that justified indictment, she pointed to issues around her use of a personal e-mail server. When asked what about that rose above carelessness into crime, she was stumped.
It is really hard for the average voter to understand that a person can be wrong without being criminal. Bill Clinton was wrong to have sex with "that woman" & it left him open to impeachment, but he did not commit an actual crime.
My friend mentioned that Hillary had stood by while Bill was flagrantly unfaithful. Again, doesn't say much for either one of them, but not a crime. And Billary have always been a power, not romantic, couple.
My friend considers Trump the better choice because he doesn't have the baggage of Washington or Wall Street. Seriously?
Any person who has achieved Donald Trump's level of success & massive wealth knows the ins & outs of manipulating DC & Wall Street , ~OR~ hires a slew of lawyers who do on his behalf. Yet he's convinced millions of people that he wants to fix a system he's worked for decades.
Do they really think the ultimate deal maker wants to inflict harm on his business interests? He's made it clear that what he cares most about are his businesses & his family, probably in that order.
I asked my friend to do two things & I promise to no longer discuss the election with her - listen to the 60 Minute interview with Lesley Stahl & Donald Trump's acceptance speech. Listen to both carefully.
Does Trump come across in the interview as presidential, or as rambling, unfocused, often incoherent? Does he treat his vp pick as a partner or as an underling? Imagine those qualities in the Oval Office. Environment speaks volumes - he & Pence & Lesley are seated in gilt chairs worthy of the court of Marie Antoinette, not a "blue collar billionaire."
In fhe speech, notice all that Trump promises to do - and quickly - while also providing a massive across-the-board tax break. Fix our broken infrastructure, support of veterans, improve our schools, restore our manufacturing might, replenish our coffers, or that doing all that is impossible without a hefty tax increase. Fact: ya can't do that without a hefty tax increase, not the dramatic cut. That's not partisan piffling, it's economic reality.
My friend has heard the speech & apparently never questioned that what he said is what he will strain every sinew of his being to make happen. Fix everything while slashing government revenue. What happened to our intelligent electorate, the one that would have seen through such hokum.
Reality has nothing to do with her thinking, which is why we are toast & Donald Trump will be inaugurated come 2017. Once politically informed people have suspended their touch with reality, are believing what they would have scorned four years ago.
Go back one year - if you had played a tape at any one of Donald Trump's public appearances, ones where he was NOT shackled to the party-approved teleprompter & asked their opinion, most of the people who now say, "Yes, he might make some mistakes & cause problems thanks to off-the-cuff remarks, but at least he is being straight with us," would have rolled on the floor with disbelief that they'd ever support such a clearly vainglorious braggart. But here we are, with my friend considering him worthy of her vote.
My friend stands ready to cast her vote for a blatant narcissist, a man who convinces even typically savvy folks that what he says is true because he believes it himself, even if it is completely different from what he said yesterday. To people like Donald Trump, the only thing that matters is what he says NOW - the past is the past & has no value, no reality, never happened.
Am not now nor ever have been a Hillary fan. I believe the woman has no ethical core, is out for her own best interests, that she considers herself entitled to be president. Where Donald is unabashedly vulgar in his tastes demeanor speech, she knows the vagaries of government. Where he insults, she knows the language of diplomacy. Where he speaks without thought of the next moment, she is always a few moves ahead. I don't like her, never have, but at least Hillary has the right stuff to be president of these currently still United States of America. Donald would be a disaster.
If we cast our vote without careful, reasoned thought, guided by our intelligence instead of our worst fears, we are - as a nation, left & right, progressive & moderate & conservative - toast.
Any person who has achieved Donald Trump's level of success & massive wealth knows the ins & outs of manipulating DC & Wall Street , ~OR~ hires a slew of lawyers who do on his behalf. Yet he's convinced millions of people that he wants to fix a system he's worked for decades.
Do they really think the ultimate deal maker wants to inflict harm on his business interests? He's made it clear that what he cares most about are his businesses & his family, probably in that order.
Does Trump come across in the interview as presidential, or as rambling, unfocused, often incoherent? Does he treat his vp pick as a partner or as an underling? Imagine those qualities in the Oval Office. Environment speaks volumes - he & Pence & Lesley are seated in gilt chairs worthy of the court of Marie Antoinette, not a "blue collar billionaire."
My friend has heard the speech & apparently never questioned that what he said is what he will strain every sinew of his being to make happen. Fix everything while slashing government revenue. What happened to our intelligent electorate, the one that would have seen through such hokum.
Reality has nothing to do with her thinking, which is why we are toast & Donald Trump will be inaugurated come 2017. Once politically informed people have suspended their touch with reality, are believing what they would have scorned four years ago.
Go back one year - if you had played a tape at any one of Donald Trump's public appearances, ones where he was NOT shackled to the party-approved teleprompter & asked their opinion, most of the people who now say, "Yes, he might make some mistakes & cause problems thanks to off-the-cuff remarks, but at least he is being straight with us," would have rolled on the floor with disbelief that they'd ever support such a clearly vainglorious braggart. But here we are, with my friend considering him worthy of her vote.
My friend stands ready to cast her vote for a blatant narcissist, a man who convinces even typically savvy folks that what he says is true because he believes it himself, even if it is completely different from what he said yesterday. To people like Donald Trump, the only thing that matters is what he says NOW - the past is the past & has no value, no reality, never happened.
Am not now nor ever have been a Hillary fan. I believe the woman has no ethical core, is out for her own best interests, that she considers herself entitled to be president. Where Donald is unabashedly vulgar in his tastes demeanor speech, she knows the vagaries of government. Where he insults, she knows the language of diplomacy. Where he speaks without thought of the next moment, she is always a few moves ahead. I don't like her, never have, but at least Hillary has the right stuff to be president of these currently still United States of America. Donald would be a disaster.
If we cast our vote without careful, reasoned thought, guided by our intelligence instead of our worst fears, we are - as a nation, left & right, progressive & moderate & conservative - toast.
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