Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Many American's No Longer Care If Trump "Dunn It?"

  We Have Two Starkly Different Paths Forward
Many Americans no longer care what Trump has done or not done. When it comes to choosing between him and Joe Biden as our President, far greater issues loom before us than Trump's past. As for the thought of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election or whether Trump colluded with the Russians, by now most people seem to have made up their mind. People are either outraged, simply concerned, or taken the attitude this is all a big nothing burger and lies promoted by is enemies. 
 
Today few Americans are concerned as to whether President Trump had a closer relationship with Russia at any point before his election than he leads on. This runs directly up against the question of how much it matters, does it impact national security, as the deep state claims, and does the average American even care? Things are much different than in mid-December of 2018 when there was a huge dust-up as new statements and "allegations" surfaced having to do with Trump's sexual adventures. These "misdoings of a personal nature" took front and center. Of course, at the time those attempting to impeach and ouster the Donald latched on to these claims thinking they would be the final nail in his coffin.

Back then the story surrounded Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen and the parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc. (AMI), admitting responsibility for its role in a $150,000 "catch-and-kill" hush money payment to a former Playboy Playmate. The Playmate, Karen McDougal, alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006. Under a non-prosecution agreement, AMI admitted that it refused to publish Karen McDougal's claim to prevent it from influencing the election by damaging Trump.

Do Voters Care If Trump Was A Womanizer?
The "womanizer" episode of the "dump Trump" saga lasted a short time with the never-ending Washington sideshow ramping up as the mainstream media kept us a "breast" of every salacious detail. They even provided us with eye-candy suggestive photos of all lewd, crude, and improper conduct our current Pervert and Chief may have touched on. With everyone all a tither with speculation, this gave lobbyists even more time to go about their task of writing legislation giving those they represent an edge. For taxpayers who send representatives to Washington at great expense, this only added to America's dysfunctional political culture. 

When Trump's past sexual exploits failed to gain traction we saw those pushing for impeachment shift to a strategy centering around a whistle-blower complaint. It claimed President Donald Trump broke the law during a phone call with the Ukrainian president when he threatened to withhold military aid in exchange for a political favor. That complaint was riddled with repeated references to what anonymous officials allegedly told the complainant. These include things such as: “I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials,” “officials have informed me,” “officials with direct knowledge of the call informed me,” “I was told by White House officials,” “the officials I spoke with,” “I was told that a State Department official,” and more.
 
These did not prove to be crimes significant enough to merit Trump's ouster unless expanded into the world of technicalities and lies. This is a place where speculation, who knew what, when, or who said what often rule the day. Again, this brings us back to the question of whether Trump is guilty and does America really care? We can only pray this game of, "if his enemies can't get Trump on this, they will go after him on that" may have finally run its course.  Unfortunately, this has also raised substantial questions about the intelligence community’s behavior and its growing role in politics.
 
Is This About His Policies Or Trump As A Man?
Politics should not be the driver as to what is "impeachable behavior." The standard for removal from office on impeachment should remain the conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Circling back around as to how we got here, A big part of the problem is that Hilary Clinton the Democratic presidential candidate that ran against Trump in 2016 was such a tarnished figure many Americans were left feeling they were forced to chose between the least of two evils. 
 
When it comes to lies, and lying to the people, both political parties should hang their heads in shame. America is not alone when it comes to the rich history of politicians bending the truth, breaking pledges, or committing outright deceit. It is almost as if honesty is in the eye of the beholder and this is where terms like alternative facts come to mind. This is evident when we view the nightly news presented by the main-stream media or look into how big tech companies are manipulation information. Currently, a full-scale propaganda war rages with many Americans hellbent on convincing the rest of us what is really going on.  
 
Adding to the confusion is that respect for the media, politicians, institutions like the FBI and CIA has fallen to where we are left wondering who to trust. Many Americans are oblivious to the fact the militarization of police forces and government surveillance grew in leaps and bounds during the Obama years. Many of the issues stemming from these trends were not created by Trump but problems he inherited when he took office. The same could be said about trade and China, for decades the trade deficit has increased and many people have been warning of the consequences if it was not addressed. 
 
More overshadowing than any other factor affecting this election is that we are seeing two starkly different paths forward. If Trump is re-elected, the focus will continue to lean toward job creation, increasing our wealth, and letting the private sector, the supply side of the economy, expand as rapidly as possible. Biden’s agenda, in contrast, is more centered on addressing America’s problems with growing economic inequality. This is likely to be accomplished by redistributing more economic opportunities, including some wealth, to the lower and middle classes via government programs.
 
Joe Biden as a Presidential candidate is not formidable and his past dealings as a politician do not leave him squeaky clean. Looking back at the early primaries leaves many voters wondering what twist of fate reversed the waning fortunes of a campaign that had been considered dead. Another factor we must consider is that both Trump and Biden are not spring chickens and getting a bit long in the tooth. Whether you like him or not, it is difficult to deny that Vice President Pence is far more experienced than first-term Senator Kamala Harris if called upon to step into the role of President.
 
Whether it was the deep South or the deep State that brought Joe back from the brink we may never know. What we do know is that the economic path Biden wants to take us down will have huge negative social and cultural ramifications. Once America starts down this path the majority of people that always want more will have their way and the checks and balances that have served this country will slip away. That is why in my opinion many American's will feel they can no longer afford the luxury of caring if Trump did this or that.

11 comments:

  1. Once Trump used military force to disperse protesters just so he could have a phony bible photo op, it was all over for him.
    You can't do that.

    His incompetence with Covid showed he isn't up to the job anyway. If the US had an EMP or nuclear incident, he has shown that his response would be bungled. Find a new candidate next time.

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  2. Bruce, I generally agree with your opinion or stance on most issues but on this I respectfully but wholeheartedly disagree. It is both a philosophical and practical disagreement. Philosophical due to a difference of opinion on the nature and the role of government in the modern world. Practical because of unique nature of the current president, his administration and the leadership of the so-called "conservative" Senate (and, in fact, the whole modern of idea of conservatism.) While you are correct that there is much to fear with a Democrat takeover, the danger of allowing the current president to remain in office far outweighs it. He is so uniquely unqualified to be in politics, let alone president, that it should be a no brainer. He is and always has been a very disturbed individual, which is obvious to anyone who has followed him for any number of years as I have, and his entire criminal family and administration holding the reigns of power is too frightening to conceive of. Is it any wonder that the "deep state" - which, in fact, is generally just the usual bureaucracy that keeps any large organization going especially with incompetent boobs in charge - is resisting this crook?

    It is long - and sad - tradition of American politics to vote not for something or someone but AGAINST them. Unfortunately our horrific two party system has left us with terrible choices this cycle but to me it is very simple - Trump must go. The country cannot take 4 more years of this buffoon and his frightening ways. (And if his performance on the Whitehouse steps the other day didn't convince you then, well, I guess nothing will.)

    Thanks for your blog, always thought provoking - even if sometimes bad thoughts!

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    1. Your arguments would have more merit IF the opposing democratic Pres and VP candidate(s) were a good alternative.

      Let's consider, of ALL the possible Democratic pres candidates that they had, Biden was the BEST they could come up with? An old, creepy, and seemingly early dementia stage politician who does the very best to not give any definitive answers, and seems to be for and against things at the same time. Add to that the evidence building up that Biden committed illegals acts in Ukraine, and now you can add the criminal corruption to his resume.

      And for VP, they pick pretty much the most unpopular Dem pres candidate, and only because she's a woman of color. They could've picked Tulsi Gubbard, who destroyed Kamala in the Dem pres debates. A far better candidate, and one I may have supported for President even.

      Trump may be not act as presidential as other Presidents have. He may often put his foot into his mouth, with too many tweets. No one denies that. And yet, with all his flaws, I don't fear him being President. Certainly all the Russia scandals and the impeachment hearings have really turned up nothing. Nothing that warranted being removed from office. Don't you think that if the Dems had evidence of Trump illegal crime family activity happening in the White House, that they wouldn't pounce on that? The best they could do is hearsay evidence about a Ukraine call.

      He seems to at the very least have a respect for unborn life, for marriage between a man and woman, seems to say the right things when it comes to Christianity, far more than many other Presidents. He withdrew us from a crippling Paris climate agreement, and seems to be more interested in our country, than in trying to appease China and other countries like Obama did.

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  3. Doug, thanks for the comment. I defend your right to disagree. Earlier today I was thinking it would be a better world if people could agree to disagree. Expect a post on that subject in the near future.
    As for your statement "Unfortunately our horrific two-party system has left us with terrible choices," sadly this is where we are in complete agreement.

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  4. Trump is a choir boy compared to Biden if we are qualifying based on criminal past.

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  5. Having more than 2 political parties gets messy very quickly and is not an ideal system. I've seen firsthand in European countries how confusing and chaotic politics is due to the myriad of parties. Parties are frequently forced to form coalitions which often don't last long, then new ones must be cobbled together in order to have a valid majority in Congress. Not a good system.

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    1. We should randomly select half the US congress critters from citizens of that state that have voted before. Half elected, have voted in. The term of the congress critters that are randomly selected should be 6 years, to allow them to actually get a foothold and do something. Once over, they can run to be elected as a normal congress critter, but someone will be appointed to their old position as they were 6 years ago.

      This would have the benefit of actually allowing normal, everyday citizens having an actual say in their government. For the random selection, Lawyers should be disqualified, as should anyone who has already held that position before.

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  6. President Trump did not use the military for riot control, that is pure propaganda. He used Federal Marshals to protect a federal courthouse that was under siege in Portland I believe. He has repeatedly said that if, and only if, the cities and/or States ask for assistance he would send in the national guard, which by the way the governors could and should have already done. More dishonesty about one of the greatest Presidents in American history,

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  7. George had some interesting ideas in his comment. I would like to add the crazy idea that they should limit the size of all bills to maybe six pages. Doing so would make it more difficult to hide things from the public. These thousand plus page bills disconnect the average citizen from the government.
    As for the "benefit of actually allowing normal, everyday citizens having an actual say in their government" the problem I see is that many people are simply not that smart and would have great difficulty dealing with a million dollars yet alone billions and hundreds of billions. our multi-trillion-dollar budget is mind-boggling. That may be one of the reasons Washington is such a mess.

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    1. I like the the idea of smaller sized bills. Thousand plus page bills are much too long, and there are way too many things in there not connected to the actual legislation.

      I don't know, you have absolute morons like AOC and Maxine Waters in there....there probably has to be a minimum IQ. Perhaps you in order to be considered, you have to have a minimum IQ and/or a minimum eduction, etc. As for the actual reps and the budget numbers, isn't that what staff is for?

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  8. For more thoughts on how our system might be improved below is an article I wrote on the subject a few years ago.
    https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2015/09/political-debates-highlight-flawed.html

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