Thread: Why it’s time for a Trump revolution

Why it’s time for a Trump revolution

By Michael Goodwin
March 19, 2016 | 10:30pm

My friends are worried about me. They insist something is not right and suggest prayer, counseling, even rehab. “Take a break,” they urge. “Get away for a few days and clear your head.”

They are wise and kind, and it would be foolish to dismiss their concerns. Truth be told, there are moments when I doubt myself. Am I making a huge mistake? Am I losing my mind?

Perhaps I am. My friends say that’s the only possible explanation for the fact that I might support Donald Trump for president.

The insanity defense is all that’s left now that the smart set has declared that it’s immoral and indecent to even think about voting for Trump. OK, call me immoral and indecent as well as crazy, because I’m thinking about it.

It’s been a long road to get here. When Trump’s name first popped up, I joked about moving to Canada. When he launched his campaign, I cursed him, certain he was going to create a circus just when Republicans finally had a strong field of candidates.

I was intrigued by many of them, starting with Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Scott Walker and Jeb Bush. Others I admired while believing they wouldn’t get far — Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Ben Carson, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki and Carly Fiorina.

I like those Republicans even though I’m a registered Democrat, just not that kind of Democrat. I voted for President Obama in 2008, believing he meant it when he said no red states, no blue states, only the United States. The barrier he broke added to his appeal.

Six months later, I was off the bus. It was already clear Obama had no intention of building a consensus on anything, although few realized he would be such a radical and partisan polarizer. He may love America, but doesn’t seem to like actual Americans. Other than himself, of course.

With the world on fire thanks to his abdication of global leadership, and with the home front nervous and angry, the 2016 race couldn’t come soon enough. I hoped a Democrat would emerge who realized that Obama had set us on a course that was dangerous and unsustainable, with our *national debt exceeding $18 trillion.

Clearly, neither Bernie Sanders nor Hillary Clinton is that Dem, though I’ll vote for Sanders in the New York primary just to send her a message.

Following Obama, Clinton’s election would be a calamity. She would be beholden to him, and unable to shift much from his disastrous policies. And who knows what she really believes?

Besides, if the Clintons are rewarded with the White House again, it would be impossible to demand honesty from any public official in America. She’s thoroughly corrupt and, in the memorable words of the late William Safire, a “congenital liar.” Voting for her is a give up on the future.

So I’m stuck with Republicans, but my favorites were rejected, with only Kasich surviving by a thread. Frankly, I don’t blame voters. They’ve had it with vanilla men who play nice and quietly lose elections. If the nominee is another Mitt Romney, Clinton would win in a landslide.

As noted, I do admire Cruz, but he strikes me as more Barry Goldwater than Ronald Reagan. He’s whip smart, but too rigid ideologically and personally joyless. If I were president, I would nominate him for the Supreme Court in hopes he could fill Antonin Scalia’s shoes as the leading constitutionalist.

Which leaves only Donald J. Trump. He’s weird, erratic and I have no idea what he will say or do next. His nasty put-downs of rivals and journalists, especially Megyn Kelly, diminish him. His policies are as detailed as bumper stickers and his lack of knowledge about complex issues scares me.

If he weren’t the GOP front-runner, the gaps in his game would make it easy to dismiss him. But dismissing him requires dismissing the concerns of the 7.5 million people who have voted for him. That I can’t do.

My gut tells me much of the contempt for Trump reflects contempt for his working-class white support. It is one prejudice gentry liberals and gentry conservatives share.

It is perhaps the last acceptable bigotry, and you can see it expressed on any primetime TV program. The insults don’t all seem good-natured to me. I grew up in central Pennsylvania, surrounded by the kind of people supporting Trump, and I sympathize with their worsening plight.

For generations, they went all in for the American dream. Their families fought the wars, worked in the factories, taught school, coached Little League and built a middle-class culture. Now they are abandoned and know it.

Nobody speaks for them. The left speaks for the unions, the poor and the nonwhite, even shedding tears for illegal immigrants and rioters and looters. The GOP speaks for the Chamber of Commerce, big business and Wall Street.

Trump alone is bringing many of these forgotten Americans into the political system, much as Obama did with millennials and black voters. Trump has done it with full-frontal attacks on lopsided trade deals and a broken immigration system. His message is a potent brew of populism and nationalism that reaches across the partisan divide, and the public response is stirring the country.

In fact, many who despise Trump concede he is right that globalization and the open-border flood of cheap labor, while benefitting many Americans, has hurt many others. But instead of working to fix a broken status quo, many on the left and right echo each other’s venomous attacks against him. One day he is Mussolini, the next he’s Hitler, and he’s routinely accused of hate speech and racism.

What is his great sin? Breaking the taboo about what ails the middle class? Daring to challenge a power system that only pretends to have the consent of the governed?

The shame is that others didn’t beat him to it.

For his chutzpah, tens of millions of dollars are being poured into attack ads against Trump, and the urgent blue-nosed concerns about dark pools of money in politics have vanished. As long as he’s the target, all is fair.

Often, the avalanche of sludge against Trump looks and sounds like a reactionary confederacy fighting to keep its power and privileges. Naturally, the mainstream *media is slashing away.

A Washington Post editorial claims that stopping Trump is the only way to “defend our democracy.” In other words, those troublesome voters are the problem.

A New York Times columnist raised the prospect of assassination. Sure, it was a joke. Make that joke about Obama or Clinton and see who laughs.

I would be delighted to support a more conventional candidate who has Trump’s courage and appeal, but we don’t always get to pick our revolutionaries. And make no mistake, Donald Trump is leading a political revolution that is long overdue.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/19/why-its...mp-revolution/

Best article on what's happening I've read so far. Thank you, Michael Goodwin, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Trump is far from perfect, but he's saying all the right things for me. You get a pool of candidates to choose from and he's the best one in the pool as far as I'm concerned. YMMV.

He bascially has a 5 point agenda:

1. stop illegal immigration and excess legal immigration
2. protect our trade
3. fix the fiscal problem (tax and budget)
4. rebuild our country (economy, military and infrastructure)
5. establish peace in the world through a more non-interventionist foreign policy

These are huge undertakings and he may organize them and state them in a different way than I have, but to me that's the sum of his end game. To achieve this, he needs popular support far more than he needs political support. With the popular support, the political support will fall into place on its own.

Originally Posted by Judy

He bascially has a 5 point agenda:

1. stop illegal immigration and excess legal immigration
2. protect our trade
3. fix the fiscal problem (tax and budget)
4. rebuild our country (economy, military and infrastructure)
5. establish peace in the world through a more non-interventionist foreign policy

These are huge undertakings and he may organize them and state them in a different way than I have, but to me that's the sum of his end game. To achieve this, he needs popular support far more than he needs political support. With the popular support, the political support will fall into place on its own.

This is what exactly the so call "élites" in Europe don't do at all that's why their so afraid to loss on US puppets

1 wild mass immigration (so call "crisis")
2 investors buy bankrupt companies no government help in any way while they've paid their high tax for years and years
3 UE is sucking tax money payers they don't want to come out because like that they make think to naives they're doing great jobs
4 rebuilding country it's all up to tax payers
5 (the worse) army fight for foreigns interest against our own interests and without knowing who at the end win they want Islam in no Islam land and don't want Islam any more in Islam land

I'm sure the European establishment doesn't like him saying we will make them pay for their own defense instead of us footing the bill like we have been for the last fifty years so they can have their free healthcare socialist Utopias.

That would be their "leaders". However, the people of Europe know what the value and importance of a strong, self-reliant, independent, capable United States means to the well-being of the people of Europe. The "leaders" may not concede this, but the people of Europe will always remember .... they will never forget ..... and despite the "rhetoric" and nonsense of their politicians, the people of Europe will always be with the people of the United States.

When Trump is President, the first thing he should do is call a meeting of the Pernanent Security Council of the United Nations and have a strong and fact-based discussion with their leaders, reminding them of why there is a Permanent Security Council, why there must always be only 5 Members of the PSC, hit the refresh button to raise up this bond that we have from Great Britain to France to Russia to China and vow to be the blood brothers and sisters we actually are and will always be. These four plus the United States can solve any problem, address any issue and protect ourselves and the world from whatever we choose. The key is never to battle between US, never to take advantage of any member for the gain of another. Team Work, plain and simple, and we can have virtual peace on earth and restore common sense and harmony in this world.

Trump understands this. He's the only person in decades running for the White House who understands this. And he will do it. All of these countries owe their existence to the United States, and yes, we owe ours to them. It's a bond that supersedes all else.