Deplorable and Stupid

October 3rd, 2016

Mrs. Clinton, in a statement she later retracted (though one suspects with some remorse), called those who support Mr. Trump: 'deplorable.' Now the mainstream press tells the world that Trump followers don’t think.

Washington’s major newspaper, in discussing how one of Mrs. Clinton’s ardent supporters in the press describes Trump supporters, tells us "the Republican nominee's appeal is fundamentally an emotional one. It's heart, not head."

You see, the “smart people,” the ones that use their heads, they’re for Clinton. If you’re for Trump, you don’t think, you’re too emotional.

So, let's take a look at what the ‘smart’ people have done, the ones that make up the leadership elite in Washington, and have to an ever greater degree during the last 100 years, the ones that have set the defacto drift of the nation since early in the last century; let's look at their record:

Defense: 

Korea: 3 years of fighting, 36,000+ US dead, reached a ceasefire, and 63 years later we’re still there, the situation unresolved, and due to glaringly bad decisions in the last three administrations, North Korea will soon deploy nuclear tipped missiles.

Vietnam: 10 years of combat, 58,000+ US dead, clear loss.

Afghanistan: 15 years of combat – and counting, 2,300 US dead, a draw at best.

Iran: a 'cold' war since 1979; now we’ve signed a 'non-treaty' releasing billions of dollars, lifting sanctions, and letting Iran establish hegemony over the Mid East.

Iraq: since 1990 we have been engaged in, over and around Iraq; we are still there, and it appears that Iran and Russia are going to be the primary beneficiaries.

Plus: a broken procurement system, and a host of other problems with force structure, recruiting and base infrastructure, and a military that is increasingly distant from the general population; Syria, Libya, the inability to name radical Islam, al Qaeda larger than it was 15 years ago, and on and on.

Education:

Since creating the Department of Education - established to control rising education costs while improving the performance of US students - our children are, if anything, less well read, less well educated and less prepared for life in the real world. But take comfort in the fact that the US now spends more in total AND more per capita on education then any other country on earth.

We may not be getting any smarter, but at least it costs a lot more…

Healthcare:

Start with the 'Affordable Care Act' (aka Obamacare). Since it came into law the cost of healthcare has increased 19% (inflation is 6% over the same period, medical insurance deductibles are up 63%). Meanwhile, nothing has been done to address the need for more doctors and nurses, and costs continue to rise, even as more doctors are leaving practice due to government interference.

Energy? Housing? You get the picture.

The economy as a whole:

 

Since the creation of the Federal Reserve we haven’t had substantially fewer recessions (still about 2 per decade), but recessions have been longer and deeper, and our currency, which gained in value regularly from our nation's birth until 1913 (except for the Civil War period) has lost 90% of its value in the last 100 years.

Debt? The nominal US debt is as large as our total Gross Domestic Product, and total unfunded government annuities now exceed $200 trillion (more than 10 times the size of our economy).

With the exception of the Great Depression – brought on predominantly by government spending – unemployment rarely exceeded 5%, even without messing with the numbers – until after World War II. Black unemployment remained within 1% of white unemployment from the 1880s until after WWII. But, since the early 70s, when all the government “help” arrived, black unemployment has remained at least 5% higher than white unemployment.

What do all these programs -- and others -- have in common? They were all created, and all have been managed by the brilliant progressives who 'use their heads, not their hearts.' These are the “smart” people who feel – 4 to1 – that policy in Washington should not consider what the citizenry want because the citizens are ill informed. 

This is their track record.

Perhaps it's time for the citizenry to tell the 'brilliant' people to sit down and give someone else a chance. It's hard to imagine anyone could do much worse.