I came out ahead
on a gentleman’s wager this week. I made it more than a year ago, right after
the first Republican debate. Mr. Trump won and so did I. I was nervous near the
end, but…
Not that I take
a great deal of credit for the insight; rather, my insight came from two
different lines of thought.
The first was
via a retired Navy friend - Rob. Several years ago, years before Mr. Trump’s
candidacy, Rob made an observation about Jesse Ventura’s election as governor
of Minnesota.
His observation
was that there’s an incredible amount of anger and frustration among the people
of the US, that’s been growing slowly for decades, that they’re willing to
elect a whole host of people to office if they show just a smidgeon of honesty,
integrity and loyalty to the citizens as a whole, not to some ‘political
machine.’ He further offered that voter turnout was routinely low because the
people “out there” – the 100 million who don’t vote – feel they are going to
get “taken to the cleaners” no matter who’s elected.
My own
observations over the last 6 years confirm this; since 2010 I’ve made it a rule
to drive everywhere (partly because of the chore air travel has become; partly
because I love to drive around and meet people.) What I’ve observed is this: the
citizenry’s discontent with the “establishment” – and their truly abysmal
performance over the last 25 years (or more) – is approaching critical mass.
Something had to give.
Last Tuesday it
did.
The Washington
crowd doesn’t understand this. That’s why we hear them mutter: “Mr. Trump’s
Bench is Weak,” inferring of course, that he needs to pick “smart, in-the-know
Washington insiders” (i.e. them) as the key people in his administration.
But that’s
precisely the point: it’s these same “brilliant people” who have created the
$20 trillion debt, and dysfunctional departments that make nothing better,
while spending inordinate amounts of money and creating thousands of
regulations that make everyday living a chore: Agriculture, Education, Energy,
EPA, the Fed, Interior, etc. Name one that is representative of the creativity,
industriousness, efficiency and effectiveness of the American people?
There are
numbers that tell the same story.
Pat Caddell, a
Democrat pollster, who correctly called the election, has likened what is
happening to the Jacksonian revolution of the 1820s (Jackson: our 7th
President, 1829 – 1837). Caddell’s been tracking this ‘revolution’ for several
years, and has copious numbers to support his conclusions:
Americans who are ‘in
revolt’ (peacefully, but in revolt) against the system? 80%
Americans who feel we’re
in decline; that our children will be worse off than we are? Almost 70%
Americans who believe
there are different rules for those on top? 84%
An exit poll by
Reuters/Ipsos this last week (taken from 10,000 voters) showed:
75%
agree: “America needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich
and powerful.”
72%
agree: “the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful.”
68%
agree: “traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me.”
76%
believe: “mainstream media is more interested in making money than telling the
truth.”
The power of the supremely
arrogant in-crowd in Washington and in academia, who regard Mr. Trump as a rube
and a poltroon, a deplorable ninny elected by deplorable ninnies, is based on a
simple lie, the lie of their expertise. The truth is the vast majority of these
incredibly credentialed folks in Washington aren’t really experts in a darned
thing. The citizenry now know this.
So, here’s what happened
last week: the citizenry sent a message they want their country back.
For the average
American, there’s hope that Mr. Trump will do exactly what he said he would,
and that we’ll get our country back. If he doesn’t, if he is seduced by the
power and the horrible corruption of the halls of government, then someday our
nation may come apart at the seams. Let’s pray that doesn’t happen, pray Mr.
Trump remembers who he works for, pray he remembers why he was sent to
Washington.
For now, the 80%
have won; the country has a president who isn’t part of the mess and
incompetence that is Washington. He has a few years to start to make some
changes. But he needs to remember two things: 1) he needs to stick to his
promises; and 2) the ‘brilliant people’ with all the ‘experience’ are the
people who got us into this mess; they are NOT part of the solution.
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