November 8th, 2016 represented a cornucopia of shattered illusions about the United States of America. A thirty year meme had been assumed, that our country had entered into a new social consensus, having risen above individual concepts of rights and moralities, to a progressive consciousness. The establishment convinced itself it understood the modern concept of the village, tied together by willingness to sublimate individual success to the general ‘well being’, led by a wise council of elites, that would forge a more tolerant, environmentally sensitive, and egalitarian world. Concepts of borders and unique characteristics of nationhood were seen as quant relics of a past battered by conflict, and were subsumed by the desire to create a shared world order and purpose. The queen bee of the new consensus was to be Hillary Clinton, the elites’ most elite. The first woman president, the most prepared President ever, the new consensus of generations was expected to obliterate a candidate with more character flaws than a back country bandelero.
But like a coastal tsunami, Florida, then Ohio, then Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan fell to the renegade from Queens and the wholly unexpected became reality; the reality television star had achieved the ultimate in surprise endings. Donald Trump crushed the Inevitable One and , in the end, it wasn’t even close.
The nation awoke the following morning to one of the great proverbial hangovers, wondering what in the world it had just done. Approxiamently half of the country breathed a sigh of relief that the wicked witch of the East had not won, and the other half dribbled and waled in a flush of anxiety sure that the great experiment in social progress had just been turned over to the cretins of Duck Dynasty and mental giants of Jersey Shore. The whole country was in agreement, however, that the new occupant of the Whites House was of a wholly new, never before seen iteration. How would Trump actually face up to the enormous responsibilities and pressures as one of the most ill prepared and experienced political neophytes in history? Doom was the common conclusion.
One year later, we still are perplexed as to what we have in Donald Trump, and the division as to those who put Trump into power, and those who seek to find any means necessary to get him gone, is starker then ever.
For the anti-Trumpers like myself who in the end could not ignore the profundity of the binomial choice of the election in regard to the futures they projected, the comfort with the outcome took some time to clarify.
One year later, we are faced with the Great and Terrible Wizard of Trump.
Trump turns out at the one year turn to be both great and terrible, but whichever view you hold, the performance is most unexpected. The one shock that resonates with both the zealots and the haters is, who knew he was going to prove to be so….competent? National Review’s Deroy Murdock lays out the optimal governmental approach that for conservatives would have been seen as a generational win, only to be dumbfounded that the politician who appears to be pulling it off is the ultimate anti-politician. Remove Trump’s name from the achievements, and the roll of victories for rolling back government, restoring the economy, and re-ordering foreign affairs is gobsmacking.
The extent of the pull back from the very cliff of socialist permanency achieved in one year would have been considered impossible by any rational conservative strategist, and certainly none of the preferred candidates likely would have driven the agenda with the singled mindedness of Trump, a man assumed by all to be without any defining philosophies other than the vagaries of “greatness”. Increasing the astonishment level of the consistent results has been the recognition that the haters have hated Trump with a unique vitriol. Trumps’s destruction has been a planned event from the first day after the election. The Deep State and Democrats could not even wait to the inauguration to initiate a full scale demolition derby meant to emasculate Trump, and position him for removal as soon as the their position in power had been restored. An independent council was immediately named within days of Trump taking power to investigate a Democrat fantasy that the election was stolen by some nefarious Russian influence. The pounding has been daily and relentless, with the hypocrisy of those most compromised by Deep State bias being the grand inquisitors. Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most ethically challenged of modern candidates for president, has become the incredible shrinking foil, as with each attempted smear of Trump, more and more of the dirt ends up on her own legacy. There can be no stopping this attack as the statist hegemony can not risk the bountiful grip over the people that had been so remorselessly achieved.
And then there is Terrible Trump, who shows incredible indiscipline and self absorption with spasms of ludicrous tweets, that distract and dwell on people and events of immeasurably vapid value. Is Clown Trump or Revolutionary Trump the real Trump? Are these distractions from his agenda tenth dimensional chess designed to distract the haters as he continues behind the curtain to quietly run the levers of a profound revolution to halt the country’s slouch toward a socialist Gomorrah? Or are they just Clown Trump, unable to contain his narcissism, every bit the unhinged pretender his haters assume him to be?
It may difficult to watch, but watch we must, as real history is being made, after decades of national hesitancy and bloating of the progressivist state. You don’t have to like the man in order to realize he isn’t going to just sit back and let two hundred and thirty years of a great experiment be allowed to implode on itself. The Great and Terrible Wizard may simply be the strange little man that will find a way to get us back home…
It isn’t always pretty but it is amazing how far we’ve come in less than a year and look at how much of the swamp has been exposed. He is doing what he said he was going to do. How refreshing of someone in a political office.
Dilly Dilly!
Wow, ‘achievements?’ I hardly know where to start. Besides being singularly repugnant as a human being – vulgar, rude, sexist, openly mocking people with disabilities, his atrocious comments about women…he has not even a scintilla of competence to occupy the highest executive office in this country. He seems to have zero grasp of what should pass as rule of law in our supposed democracy. Calling out private citizens for something that has offended him and suggesting that they be fired, or jailed….just wow. There is just so much to say, as every day brings some new gaffe or spectacular example of his ignorance, but here are a few thoughts, just off the cuff.
* Tax cuts – great, as usual, for corporations and the ultra wealthy – the rest of the normal people, not so much.
* Repealing ObamaCare? Huh, that didn’t work out so well, and despite multiple efforts, the Republicans couldn’t figure out any kind of plausible replacement. Yes, and Trump admitted that health care challenges were more ‘complicated’ than he though. Understatement of the year, as usual.
* Exploding deficit – check out tax cuts.
* Appointing zealous opportunists and wholly inexperienced people to critical cabinet posts, most of whom are trying to dismantle the various agencies they are supposed to run.
* Utterly revolving door of staff, advisors and senior officials. Dizzying.
* Doing his best to wholesale roll back environmental regulations. Who needs clean air and water after all? Let’s just let all the corporate polluters dump their crap in streams and rivers again, no problem. Oh, and let’s make sure oil and gas folks get their mitts on protected, public lands. But…except, they don’t really want them that much anyway, but hey, the optics are good.
* Openly antagonizing leaders in other countries, exchanging crazy insults with NK, and shifting his ‘positions,’ so often that we practically have whiplash. (He has NO ‘policy,’ or ‘strategies’ on any real issue, and people should stop wasting effort on trying to discern what is there – it’s literally nothing.)
* Blathering on about his wall, which is a futile and puerile approach to actually making a dent in illegal immigration…most of these offenders arrive by plane and over stay student visas. Instead, he makes headlines by ripping families apart, mischaracterizing the Dreamers, fabricating lies about what they get in ‘benefits’ from the US, and generally fostering xenophobic and misplaced hysteria about ‘them.’ The idea of ‘sending them back,’ is not only logistically absurd, but the astronomical cost to ship people to a country they left as very young children, is utterly prohibitive. Oh, yes, and they are actually a net positive contributor to the US economy.
* The more recent volatility of the stock market is probably a combination of an overdue correction, and the reaction to his ridiculous and dangerous spouting about tariffs. Prior to that, the climb in the market is not at all his to claim. He is riding on the coat tails of Obama, and oh how that would rankle, if he were actually smart enough to understand that.
* He makes empty promises and claims that he will bring back jobs in coal and manufacturing. Not happening. Those markets have moved on, and his fabrications do a huge disservice to the people gullible enough to believe him.
* Whatever happened to his big promises on infrastructure? Nothing, like everything else. A few speeches, assurances his big plan would be forthcoming, and then nothing.
* ‘Rolling back government?’ Yeah, that’s great, let’s leave dozens of important staff positions open at State, undermine even more the utter flailing of our current diplomatic corps.
* Trump went through so many bankruptcies – of course, lying and stiffing people along the way – that he has had to seek funding outside of US banks. There is money laundering and dirty business aplenty there, and given the array of charges from Mueller’s team, it is only a matter of time until the fabric of Trump’s sordid mess springs forth. Let’s see what Michael Cohen has to say.
* Oh, yeah, and he’s such a successful president that he threw in some nepotism for good measure. So glad the socialite and fashion designer Ivanka has been shown to be so adept at navigating the complexities of international relations – same for her shady husband, who was appointed to solve the problems of the Middle East. Sheesh.
The Trump presidency is so utterly wretched that one can only think of it so long. But, happy silver lining!!! The youth are energized, the country has woken from it’s torpor and lack of civic engagement. So, despite having to endure this megalomaniac cretin, I am starting to think our country may survive. Bring on the midterms 🙂
As rants go, Carol, this one is truly Olympian! Welcome to the Ramparts community!