The Trouble that Trumps Trump

 

Simply put, Trump Trouble Trumps Truth. That’s more than an exercise in alliteration, that’s an assessment of all the hyperventilating from both sides. The Democrats are afraid that their hand railroaded candidate might come up short against a second populist candidate without just as much liberal vote counting and prearranged delegates reserved by any means necessary. This is not to claim that the Democrat Party is any more the cheats than the Republican Party, just this time the Republicans got the candidate the party leadership was most aggrieved over while the Democrats all but closed the selection process before the voting had opened. But, as this article is supposed to be about the Trump candidacy and the trouble so many appear to have with his running for and possibly becoming President and not about any Hillary problems in the same categories, let us address the Trump-phobic reactions from both the Republican and Democrat party elite representatives and commentators. The first thing we must add is that in any election where the media is present, in other words, and free and presumably open elections such as those in the United States, the media might not be truly detached, independent, neutral or unbiased. Yes, there are media outlets on both sides and one could probably make a reasoned argument that they are equivalent in size and numbers, but the reality is as long as PBS, television and major print newspapers are only competing with talk radio to balance them, then the media is definitely slanted in favor of echoing any and all things anti-Trump. Further, any talk radio who have sold their soul to the company store, aka the Republican Party elites, are also more than willing to repeat every doubt, criticism, accusation, reservation, dispute, misquote, allegation or other disparaging commentary coming from the less than liberal, or even from leftists should the tidbit be juicy enough, will repeat and amplify the information far and wide over the airwaves. Trump is facing pretty much what any third party candidate would all but kill to receive, negative reports from every end of the political spectrum and everyone in between (we can report from experience that third party candidates get next to no press coverage and when included it is usually in the next to the last paragraph as they know some people read the last paragraph along with the first paragraph if the title caught their eye but the first paragraph did not give the expected thrill).

 

So, we have the guns from all sides armed, primed and firing on all cylinders. It does remain to be seen if the negative reporting will continue on the right but the left we can guarantee will continue and accelerate all the way to absurd. But up to this date there have been insults, innuendo and recriminations emanating from all sides. The only things of which there is a dearth is common sense, courtesy, and the kindness of giving someone the benefit of the doubt until they have proven themselves. There have been claims, unsubstantiated claims, galore from political pundits, party elites, former failed Presidential candidates and even entertainers who once took part in a Comedy Central roast of the candidate. The consensus was that Donald Trump’s smiles that night were forced as he was really steamed inside and, as one entertainer stated, “At no point did I think he was actually enjoying himself.” They even went on to claim that Trump was thinking ahead and had a “game plan,” and “He volunteered for it and it seemed smart in a way. Like, let’s get the pros out here and really tear me a new one and then in five years when I start to run, these things will kind of punch themselves out…” Such a plan so far ahead of things that he must not be the bumbler without a plan on how to repair anything in America which so desperately needs repair that Americans cannot rely on such an amateur with no ability to work through any problems. The hypocrisy and faulty logic in many of the attacks on Mr. Trump make most of those piling on simply get much of the public to take a closer look at Trump who were not considering giving him any consideration simply because they get the feeling that there must be something about Trump that scares everybody so badly that they would go to such lengths to disqualify him as if he was ever remotely as bad as is claimed he would self-destruct on his own and nobody would need warn the public of this menace.

 

Then there is a further reason, the effort to show the presumably glaringly obvious reasons the voting public should disqualify Trump from receiving their votes is beginning to be counter-productive; the majority of the public, voting or otherwise, are merrily (or not so much) going on with their daily lives completely oblivious to the fact that there is a Presidential election this fall and would not be paying any real attention to the brouhaha surrounding all things politics. Suddenly they are hearing all this buzz and criticisms of Donald Trump and even those who would not have given his candidacy a second look are looking not just twice, but thrice and more just to see if he really is such a bumpkin so completely unprepared and unqualified to become President of the United States and they see and hear a man who gets their attention and they note he deserves a look-see and return to taking care of life and put off everything until a few, likely three, weeks before the elections. Many of these people are the middle of the road Democrats who would have voted Hillary simply because Donald Trump is the Republican and they give both candidates a fair evaluation election after election and always vote for the more qualified Democrat (my father is one of those). Now they fist hear Democrat criticisms and there is so much their radar starts listening and now they are aware that the Republican establishment also hates Trump and all of a sudden Trump appears to be an answer to many a voters’ prayers, a candidate that both parties hate as anybody raising the ire of both party big-wigs deserves a serious look and the benefit of the doubt. All this free publicity is one reason Trump has not worried about having a war chest of money to counter the millions available to Ms. Clinton, possibly billions or trillions after the super PACs and the Clinton Foundation war chest full of Saudi and other Gulf State oil money and other foreign monies yet to be disclosed, as the media is lapping up every syllable uttered to his presumed detriment blasting it over the airwaves ceaselessly. As goes the old adage by Brendan Behan “There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.” Some might point out that if anything that is being proclaimed about Donald Trump proves true that just might be his political obituary. Thus far the only result of attacking “The Donald” has been his rising poll numbers and votes in the next primary and thus far it looks like the current ranting may just have a similar result.

 

The interest in election rhetoric thus far, as our trip to the United States proved out, has been entirely looking at two points, one for Hillary Clinton and another for Donald Trump. The interest shown Ms. Clinton has been in the e-mail potential to have provided easy access to some of the United States most secret plans and information being easily hacked by America’s enemies, her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, funneling of monies and higher than normal speech payments funneling monies into the Clinton Foundation during Hillary’s time as Secretary of State and favorable decisions by the State Department and other government favors and decisions. Many are bothered by the lack of Congressional hearings or Special Investigator appointed or lastly a Grand Jury reviewing the accusations and evidence. The lack of all these has forced people to react either by believing that everything was actually politics as usual and the innuendo and accusations must be baseless or that the Obama administration is knee deep in the cover-up proven by the meeting between Bill Clinton and the current Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch less than a week before the FBI report was turned over to Congress and the media finding that Hillary Clinton’s use of a non-Government e-mail system on her own server kept at her residence outside government safety, where being dangerous, was not sufficient to prosecute and despite her e-mails provided easy access by America’s enemies was not of sufficient level to prosecute and everything about the e-mails, where highly questionable and irregular, were not prosecutable offences. These and other reported irregularities have bothered many just as much of not more that Trump’s shortcomings.

 

Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton

 

The Trump receipt of excessive media coverage often for seemingly minor gaffes or manufactured gotcha reporting such as the Khan affair has largely served to at least put his name out linked with being a Presidential candidate who is despised by both parties’ elites. This has afforded him the mighty title of outsider, the only questions being, is he a real outsider and is he the right outsider. Still, the majority of the electorate is putting off their decision until from one to three weeks before the election when they will weigh the two candidates, and some the third party candidates, on their advertisements and other campaign coverage. The final two weeks seems like the mean with three and a half weeks being the average. Were you to walk into the average shopping mall in the United States and simply ask, ‘Who will you be supporting (voting) for in the coming elections for President?’ without providing any names or parties you can bet that the winner would be Hillary Clinton hands down by anywhere from 4 to 9 points. This is unsurprising because if you were to visit that same mall and ask the people who are the two main candidates for President from the two main parties you would get a measurable percentage who would name Hillary and not name Trump against a far smaller number who would only know of Trump. Contrary to what is being sold of both candidates being from outside politics is a lie though the claim that Hillary has held high office and knows all the maneuvers and how to reach consensus and get things done while Trump will face opposition from both parties’ voters and will be unable to accomplish anything and more-so he will not be capable of even passing a budget. When people are faced with the fake outsider who is the ultimate and an outsider so real everybody in politics are aghast at his being a candidate for President; the truth is that those who know only one candidate split heavily to that candidate being Clinton and a huge number, almost all, of Trump supporters know that Hillary Clinton is his adversary.

 

This election has drawn definitive battles for more than just the several battle-ground purple states but the red and blue states as well. This election could portend a realignment of the states with some formerly purely red or blue states which are now becoming purple. Some states entering the unpredictable plane include Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Louisiana. The Presidential election threatens to blow away all preconceived understanding of the electorate. Donald Trump has risen riding on a populace phenomenon coming completely out of nowhere making them unseen. There have even been pollsters arguing one another’s integrity, formulae, accuracy and methodology. Some pollsters are even explaining that the anger of the public or the wide use of cell phones which are protected against robo-caller tracking only people with ground lines, people’s dishonesty when polled, sunspots, the orbit of Pluto and anything else to explain why it has become impossible to judge this election using any of the older techniques as the public is in a special mood this election. The keys to this election teeter precariously on whether the Clintons end up facing charges due to the e-mails, Benghazi or any of the myriad of other abnormalities surrounding the Clintons; the occurrence of a high casualty terror attack anywhere in the world, especially in Europe or North America, Trump self-detonates falling to pieces, Hillary loses her kewl and starts screaming and is caught on tape or any of for too many to list actions by the candidates, their staff, their supporters, appearance of complicity in low blows against one’s opponent or any outside events with some not directly tied to the election. Even should one pollster actually get the Presidential numbers near perfectly, such a person would likely do horrifically on the Senatorial and House elections. This election will serve to challenge how campaigns will be run in the future but otherwise it is unlikely to alter our politics itself, just the way it gets to the same points just using different paths. Some people we talked with described the election for President as being a contest between a crook and a megalomaniac. The reality is we have a contest between a system manipulator and insider especially with the banks and Wall Street and another a novice at politics who has the ability to insult everybody but like Don Rickles, he does so in a way you can laugh about along with everybody else. As far as whom we can endorse? Well, probably a write-in for Daffy Duck which is one choice which would go well with the rest of this election thus far.

 

Beyond the Cusp