An Unexpected President

An Unexpected Presidency

We live in very interesting times. Almost 2 years ago, we elected a man to be president of the United States, who, by almost any measure, was most unlikely to win and, in the minds of many, a crude, rude, bombastic, egotistical, thin skinned, vulgar, reality show personality with precious few redeeming qualities and lots of money; who, they viewed as utterly, laughably unqualified to run for the presidency let alone be the president! Yet, win, he did, and handily! What in the world happened?

Here’s what I think. Donald J Trump stepped onto the political stage at a point in America’s history at which the trust and confidence the nation had for politicians, of all stripes, was at a dismal low. He roared onto the scene with no regard for the usual promises and pandering that passes for campaigning. Instead he audaciously tossed his hat into the ring with the intention to win. A business like approach; define the objective then explore, dissect, select and execute a flexible but methodical plan to achieve it. Politicians do not seem to have the discipline or integrity to operate in this manner; they are too busy with a damp finger in the wind, capriciously shifting position and conveniently reversing themselves based on polling and advice of hirelings. They create problems and then propose themselves as the keepers of the ways and means to “solve” them. People were feeling hoodwinked by their own elected representatives! Trump’s plan was actually pretty simple. Counter attack every slight, accusation or dismissal and continue until the “offenders” were destroyed or rendered irrelevant. In the primary, it worked with devastating effectiveness against a field of gifted republican politicians. They were out of their league and unprepared for the street fighting style Trump had brought to the contest; he had not come to debate and score style or substance points, he came to be the last man standing. And, he was.

Particularly irksome, to many, is the reality that Donald J Trump is brilliant, a very quick study and consistent. Equally disturbing to the same crowd is his utter lack of concern for his critics, anyone and any institution he perceives as “unfairly” or “inaccurately” commenting on his performance or intent. He is ruthless to defend himself, his administration and his supporters. Unfortunately for the haters (and there are many) it is that attitude that wins him almost unshakable loyalty. Here, is another unfortunate perception of the typical politician, loyalty is situationally evaluated and sacrificial disassociation common. Those of us who support Trump have never wanted to rule the world but we are fed up with the deception and derision we’ve gotten at the hand of the professional political class and Trump picked up a huge bull horn and stepped onto a platform large enough, that they can hear us now. Most in the professional political class has lost any real or reliable connection to the rest of us and whether deliberately or not, they leave us feeling like we should be grateful that they are so willing to help us know what to think, how to think and whether to think, at all. Imperial arrogance has met an unapologetic and relentless populist and pragmatist who never gets tired of poking them in the eye.

Those who dislike Trump don’t simply hold a different viewpoint, with regard to policy or direction, they exhibit a primitive, sort of visceral (almost instinctive) hatred which seeks his utter destruction! Unfortunately, for them, Donald J Trump sees their unveiled hatred as the barn door sized target he can hit at will, to keep them frothing and foaming at irritating irrelevancies and denying them the ability to focus on anything but their anger and frustration at him and his supporters. Many see the strategy as that of a thin skinned, petulant, boor striking out because he can’t help himself. That’s not how I see it. Trump is brilliant. He knows that keeping his detractors fully occupied with regular whacks at the hornets nest of their astonishment that he is the president and their collective irrationality over manufactured faults and failures (of his and those who support him), enables him to maintain resolute focus on the agenda he has in mind. They run around with their hair on fire and he fires out a tweet, like a puff of breeze on an ember, and another 3 or 4 days of hand wringing, wailing and distraction is unleashed. He has effectively exposed his opposition as petty, mean spirited and angry. Has he galvanized his opponents to action? Absolutely! The action they have chosen tho is, day by day, revealing that they have no legislative agenda, they actively do and advocate for the very behaviors they accuse Trump, and his supporters, of encouraging, they are desperate to gain control of the narrative, and they do not believe the American people are smart enough to see their hypocrisy and duplicity. Does Donald J Trump turn people off with his style and rancorous, bombastic personality? You betcha! I’m one of them but I do like the direction he’s going, I get a kick out of the consternation he causes the media and his most ardent detractors and I very much appreciate his unshakable America first attitude.

There is an election coming, in November. It is, traditionally an opportunity for the out of power party to rebalance the legislative scale. Because Trump has been so successful at discombobulating both the Democrats and many “establishment” Republicans I predict that there will not be any appreciable shift of power in either the House or the Senate; Republicans might even experience gains in both. Before these midterm elections:

I believe the weird money pit, called the Mueller probe, investigating allegations of collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia will blow up and, eventually, be forced into a decidedly different direction. By election day, the rabid hysteria over allegations of: misogyny, racism, untold ‘obias, and general unfitness for the human race of Trump and his supporters will be exposed as misdirected projection by self-righteous control freaks, fearful of discovery! China will come to the negotiating table, as will our other trading partners, and trade tariffs will come off as free trade becomes more normalized. Wages in the US will continue to rise and unemployment to drop. A form of DACA will find bipartisan support and the president will sign it into law. A showdown of such great intensity will form, around border security, that legislation will be taken up, to improve and modernize our horrible immigration laws, that will also find bipartisan support (the screeching naysayers will be exposed and marginalized). Both Iran and N Korea will be brought to the negotiating table to forge pathways for them to be less aggressive participants in the global community. California, New York and possibly Illinois will consider legislation to secede from the United States; Washington, Oregon and Massachusetts will, unsuccessfully, beg to be included. Trump haters heads will explode!

Will all of this happen? How should I know? I sure hope so (not the secession part) but, my opinion is probably no better than yours.