Politics of Change

Donald Trump has been trying to portray himself as the candidate of change, but not all change as good change. Simply saying he will smash or change what we now have is not good enough for anyone who is bright enough to pay attention. Does Trump know what is needed? Does he have what it takes to do what needs to be done? He is trying to convince us that his experience as a businessman answers both of those questions in the affirmative. The remarkable thing is that he does this while defending his checkered past by extolling as sound business practices his shameless exploitation of workers, contractors, and others, as well as extolling his use of our bankruptcy laws to stiff his creditors. He does this without apology or conscience. It is almost enough to make Ayn Rand blush, and she is dead.

Saying Donald Trump's campaign is unconventional is being far too polite. His campaign is a Saint Vitus dance best performed in a dim light that softens the appearance of his herky jerky motions. When the light is turned up, as it was in the last debate, everyone can see that in spite of Trump's grotesque contortions he is in serious danger of sliding away on the offensive and boorish words and deeds that litter his playground like banana peels in a monkey cage. At long last even the broadcast news media has finally decided to turn on some light and do some fact checking! This is not good news for Trump, who lies at least 80% of the time.

There is little doubt in my mind that Kellyanne Conwoman, Chris (just ignore the “facts”; the fact checkers have an agenda) Christie, and other Trump apologists had to gird their loins with leak proof underwear before dutifully trying to spin Trump's unspinnable debate performance to news people who were much amused by Trump's alternate reality whirlers trying to convince us that what we saw and heard is not what we saw and heard. The only solace for Trump's spokespeople, if there is any solace for them, stems from the fact that Hillary haters will excuse anything in order to justify voting against her and that the hard core Trump chumps have there heads in such a dark, fact proof place that they actually believe “Trump done good!” So here we have Paul Ryan, forever the Ayan Rand pseudo intellectual, saying he thought Trump “passed a number of thresholds” and showed “he could go toe-to-toe with Hillary Clinton."

But what gives comfort to the gullible does not win over anyone who thinks that facts matter. Other Republican pundits are at least realistic enough to recognize a pratfall when they see one, and they are lamenting the fact that Trump was tripped up by his own racial comments, his absurd birther allegations, and his bogus business dealings. He needs to stay on message, they say. He needs to keep hitting on bad trade deals and tout his ability to be the vessel of change! Everyone wants change!  They may not know what it is, but they want it.

If I were advising Hillary Clinton and Trump continues to portray himself as the vessel of change, I would follow Harry Truman's example. Who is it that has been preventing meaningful change? It is not Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who have spent all their time trying to deny millions of people health coverage by trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act over fifty times. It is not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton who have twice shut down the government and twice threatened the full and credit of the United States. It is not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama who refuse to fund infrastructure projects, or who refuse to raise the minimum wage, or who refuse to pass any meaningful legislation at all. It is a Do Nothing More Constructive Than Going On Vacation Republican Congress that has slowed down the recovery and made the status quo quick sand. And, like it or not, that is Trump's party. That is the party he must please.  He can do nothing without them and what they do best is nothing!

One of the reason the Republicans give for not voting for Hillary Clinton is the Supreme Court, which still has a vacancy because of the Republican Party's intransigent hyper-partisanship. It is difficult to imagine that Hillary Clinton could possibly give us a Supreme Court that is worse than the one the Republicans inflicted on us. It was this horrible Republican Supreme Court that gave us Citizens United, gutted the voting rights act, placed a woman's right to choose in peril, and rendered so many despicable decisions giving corporations an unfair advantage over individual citizens. And if you think the Republicans will make the Supreme Court better you better think again; the unconscionable Republican Party is defying all tradition by not even considering a nominee to replace injustice Scalia. The Greedy Old Plutocrats actually want another justice like Scalia because injustice Scalia voted with the right wing majority on most of the Court's worst and most controversial decisions. Furthermore, Donald Trump has said his favorite Justice is Clarence Thomas who is widely regarded to be the most unethical Supreme Court Justice in modern times.

One can only hope that Trump continues to demonstrate how unfit he is to be President!