Month: January 2019

We’ve had 250 years of national political leaders.  We’ve never had one like Donald Trump.  Odds are, we’ll never see one like him again.  He’s one of a kind.  There’s no one on the horizon who resembles him.

For those of us hoping for a national healing  —  a truce, a modus vivendi, or some kind of satisfactory accommodation between left and right —  it will have to wait until Trump leaves office.  The personal Trump hatred on the left, and elsewhere, is so intense it cannot be overcome.  As long as he remains in office, we are a bitterly divided country.

They hate every last thing about Trump, from his comb over to his tippy toes.  They always will, it will never change.  He made fools of them.

I know, because I was one of them.  I could list a score of things I hated about Trump.  What’s more, I didn’t trust him farther than I could throw him.  Except on the Supreme Court vacancy.  On that, he’d boxed himself in.  For that, I hoped he’d win.

Since I’ve been studying and closely following politics since 1960, and was more or less a professional politician for twenty years, I think I know the subject, and confidently told my wife, family and readers of this blog that Trump had absolutely no chance of winning first the nomination, and then the general election.

Trump made a fool out of not just me, but one hell of a lot of people like me.  I’ve gotten over it.  A lot of people, like NeverTrumpers, never will.  He publicly embarrassed them, and they hate him for it.

The next Republican presidential nominee, regardless of who it may be, will not be hated like Donald Trump.  Then the healing can begin.  In the meantime, it’s war.

Since we’re speculating on the end of the Trump era, there’s an important part of the Constitution that should be considered, and it is the presidential self pardon.  Nixon got one, and, if necessary, Trump will get one too.  If he suspects that he’ll be harassed by an incoming administration, a President can always resign, and be pardoned by his Vice President.

For Democrats hoping to prosecute Trump once he leaves office  —   sorry!

 

In an act of political genius, President Trump has made his reelection a referendum on the wall, on  border security, on law and order.  2016 was about many things, but 2020 will be all about the wall.  The Democrats are being extremists, and they’re going to pay the price.

Less than a year ago, 44 of 47 Senate Democrats voted to give Trump the money for the wall, in exchange for a form of amnesty for the Dreamers.  Kamala Harris was not one of those 44, and she isn’t going to let anyone forget it.  It’s her ticket to the nomination.  Those 44 Democrats were being reasonable, and that’s not allowed.  The hatred of Trump is so intense that any compromise with him is out of bounds.

My God, think of it.  Democratic nominee Kamala Harris trying to appeal to middle America by telling it it can’t control its border.  It will be painful.

If Trump declares an emergency tomorrow, and finds funding for the wall, he will set off a court fight that will last up to a year.  That whole time the issue of the wall will  be a hot topic.  I suspect he’d prevail in the Supreme Court, but even if he loses he’s still got the issue to campaign on.

I suspect he’ll also be issuing pink slips to unnecessary federal employees.  Starting Monday, the 30 day mark of the shutdown, he’ll have the authority to issue orders for Reductions in Force.  Maybe this will bring Pelosi to the table  —  watching all those worthless bureaucrats taken off the federal tit.

Trump could have provoked a shutdown over the wall a year ago.  He waited, and sure enough hare-brained Nancy is the Speaker, and he has the ideal foil.  His timing was perfect.

 

The Chinese stock market has been in a straight decline for a year, losing almost 30% of its value.   Our market is down 7% for the year, and is showing signs of a rebound.  Even in the face of annual trillion dollar deficits, our economy remains sound.  Strong growth, low inflation and  rising wages strengthen Trump’s hand against the Chinese.  He holds the high cards.  They’ve got to fold.

The silence of the Democrats on this issue is deafening.  Because Trump has gotten under their skin, they can’t even agree with him on China.  And when he does the deal, and this country reaps the benefits, he’ll get all the credit.

Just one more reason he’ll be reelected.

Trump’s aces are peace, prosperity, border security and his Democratic opponent.  He doesn’t have a lock on reelection because a straight flush beats four of a kind.  But in 2016 he was drawing to an inside straight, and still won.

Back then his opponent’s best argument was that she wasn’t Donald Trump.  In 2020 the Democrat will have the issues of white male privilege, soft socialism, and I’m-not-Trump.   Not good enough.

It looks like Sen. Kamala Harris has the best chance for the nomination.  Nate Silver seems to believe so.  Blacks vote for their own, and she’s just as smart and smooth as Obama.  But she’s no straight flush, and Trump’s aces should beat her.

*Hat tip:  Mark Twain

The Trump rebellion is, in large part, the revolt of the country against the city.  The men and women of rural America, who produce its material wealth, are rising up against the urban ruling elite.  There are many similarities with Wat Tyler’s Rebellion of 1381 (aka the Peasant’s Revolt, and the Great Rising).  It was a tax rebellion.  The country was being bled dry by the city of London, in order to finance its pointless wars in France.

Wat Tyler was, as far as we know, a common workman, and he paid with his life for his rebellion.  But things have changed, and we’re in a different time and place.  Still, it  really is, the country rebelling against the city.  But now we have the internet.

And, with all his warts, we’ve got Donald Trump.