It seems unbelievable that Donald Trump was considered to have done okay in the latest series of debates. I don’t know what the pundits were watching. The debates I saw exposed Trump as a loud-mouthed bully who had no facts on which to base anything he said. Even when Bush accused him of pushing an old lady off her property to create a parking lot for his casino, all the orange man could do was tell Jeb to be quiet and put his finger to his lips. That was the time for Jeb to push that finger up Trumps nose but Jeb just doesn’t have the stones.
Trump’s crass behavior really appealed to ABC’s John Carl who thought Trump was laudable. Obviously Carl is trolling for a tough guy to take him into an alley.
When Trump was confronted by George Stephanopoulos on the eminent domain matter he was tripped up, by of all things, the facts. He did bully an old woman. He loves eminent domain because it helps greedy slime like him to cheat people out of the land they paid for, live on and want to continue owning. This process is sometimes acceptable for infrastructure, but unfortunately, it is more often than not, used by developers who are too lazy, to cheap or not smart enough to find a better way to create their projects then stealing land from people who legitimately own it. The process was not established for greedy rich punks to take away peoples homes so they can make easy money, but to enable legitimate projects, which are aimed at public good, to preceed without acquiring unreasonable costs.
Trump uses the Keystone Pipeline as an example of why eminent domain is important. This shows what a greedy pig he really is. The Pipeline isn’t a public good. It is the epitome of a public bad; a project by Canadian oilmen who want to run a pipeline across America, endangering the Mid-West’s major watershed, while sending the most poisonous substance ever dragged out of the ground to the already endangered Gulf Coast where it would be shipped to China. No part of this process would add significant jobs. No other part would enrich an American company or benefit American citizens. It’s normally the kind of project Trump rants against in public, but it’s also the kind of project he would spearhead. How much further are the losers of this country going to go to promote the political career of this sub-human disgrace?
It’s interesting that Marc Rubio chose the particular speech he disastrously repeated four times on the recent debates, as his statement of policy, since it is basically a lie. That’s not surprising. Most of what comes out of the little warmonger’s mouth is a lie.
It’s interesting that radio show host Hugh Hewitt claims that Democrats are anxious to bury Rubio because they fear him. That, like much of what Hewitt says, is bunk. What many Democrats want is the best Republican candidate to win, just in case the Republicans can actually pull it off in November.
Real Americans don’t always think in party concepts, real Americans think in country concepts. This column wants the best Republican candidate to win the primary and go against the best Democratic primary winner so that no matter who wins, the county wins. To think of dogs like Carson, Trump, Cruz, Bush or Rubio winning the primary and possibly winning the Presidency is anathema to any intelligent, caring person. That obviously excludes Mr. Hewitt.
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Fiscally conservative but socially liberal; that phrase is the description of what every thinking voter in these United States wants as a president. Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, that phrase describes your ideal candidate. It doesn’t matter whether you are a New York liberal or a Georgia cracker, down deep, that is what you want. Every poll asking questions in that area comes up with the exact same results, no matter what party, what ethnic derivation, no matter what; it makes sense. Of course the problem is in blending the two in a way that makes it possible to be both. Right now it looks impossible, but that’s because right now, our country is run by the big money interests and not by the people.
That’s the problem. The people want the country to run for everyone. The big money interests want the country to run for them and the hell with the people. Right now Bernie Sanders has the absolute right idea. The problem is; can he make it work? The people understand this, that’s why so many of them are supporting Donald Trump. Trump in the White House would be a national embarrassment but there are people out there who have been so screwed over by the promises of the Republican establishment, that they are willing to put up with a clown like Trump just on the hope that he can actually get something done. Mind you, this is a guy who, by his own admission, has achieved his success by bribing everyone who comes within a country mile of him, who cheats his creditors by filing for bankruptcy, leaving them holding his worthless paper. But still, these desperate voters are willing to take a chance on him because everyone else on the GOP side is so obviously a liar, or hopelessly incompetent.
Sanders, who appeals to many of the same people and many more on the Democratic side is, more experienced, much more stable, has some concept of acceptable manners, and works from reason rather than anger. He understands the futility and stupidity of many of Trump’s goals, on immigration, foreign policy and religious bigotry but also understands the gut wrenching anger of the same people that Trump appeals to.
Of course the problem for both is, can they actually get anything done, given the mind set or lack of it that infects our congress? Sanders may be overreaching what is possible, hoping for a revolution by the people. that really doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. The people of this country like to elect politicians and then sit back and expect them to do whatever needs to be done. That’s how we got in this shape in the first place. The reality is that most people don’t even vote.
Trump is in the same bag. He promises a lot; much of which appears, even to the slow of thought to be impossible to achieve. More importantly, although pushed by many, he has not yet given one single example of how he will manage to achieve anything he has promised. Good management, which he loves to brag about, is a tool, not a plan, but Trump seems to have no understanding of that fact. He also seems to have no understanding of the fact that his billion-dollar business is small change when it comes to running a nation of this size and complexity. Everything he says and has done in the field of negotiation, indicates that he will immediately start rattling nuclear weapons at everyone who refuses to go along with his idiotic schemes.
Of course, the problem is, both have to win their primary fights. Bernie is in a tight match with Hillary Clinton and that one may go down to the wire. Trump seems to be running away with the GOP primary but it’s still a long way from the finish line. If they both win, the big question will be, can Bernie with his sensible approach and more acceptable demeanor wrest enough little Trumpies away from the orange man, not only to win the presidency but to also lead a march to change the makeup of congress?
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Hillary and Bernie have been having their battles, starting with healthcare. The problem is that they are both saying the same thing in different ways. What has to be explained is how, specifically, we are going to get there. How are we going to eliminate the insurance companies, harness the drug companies and keep the medical equipment companies in line? Those three areas are key to a 100% effective system that can afford to exist. This blog thinks that such a goal is achievable but it will take, not only a Democratic president, but also a Democratic Senate and a significant number of new Democratic members in the House.
As to the argument, it appears that both the contenders are head and shoulders above any of their GOP rivals in concept and ability to execute. This column thinks either will, with the proper support, be able to achieve this goal.
If there is a problem with the Democratic debates it is that both candidates really believe the same thing and want to accomplish the same goals. Sure, they sometimes want to achieve these goals by different means or to a different degree, but basically they are on the same page. This is as opposed to the GOP candidates, who seem to hate each other, who want very different things and want nothing to do with the things that Hillary and Bernie want to achieve, even though those things would be good for this country.
Look, most of the really important problems in this country, like wage inequality, cost of education, our legal immigration system, our criminal justice system, our infrastructure, the environment, our taxation system and how our money is spent on defense, are the result of too many politicians voting their self interest instead of their conscience. These are problems that stem from decisions made by bought and paid for congressmen, who were put in office by means of the money gifted by billionaires, which has heavily influenced how our elections and our lawmaking have gone in the past couple of decades.
Both candidates spend a lot of time in these debates trying to find issues on which they can actually disagree, issues on which they have a legitimate difference of opinion. These issues are usually few and far between. In essence, they believe the same things, at least in part, on most issues. It isn’t until they get to foreign policy that they both turn their attack to the place where it belongs, the Republican candidates.
Out nation has been living for the last dozen years with the results of the Bush foreign policy; one in which we insulted our allies, attacked everyone else, made war for the sake of war and tried our best to turn the world against us. For the last seven years, Barak Obama has been trying to mend the fences and rebuild the rubble caused by George Bush, Dick Cheney and the cabal of degenerate criminals that followed and advised them. This isn’t opinion. This is inarguable fact. Those Republicans with some sense of integrity try to avoid dealing with it, those without, lie about it, but there can be no reasonable, logical, thought process that disagrees with the idea that the GOP is responsible for both our economic decay and the chaos in the Middle East.
So it is on foreign policy and defense that both Hillary and Bernie turn their attack on the GOP lies, obfuscations and ineptitude. The Republicans want to go to war. They don’t want to send American kids to war because if they did their constituency would rise up and murder them, but they want some indefinable war in which WE ACT. Obama has already shone this is not the way to win the world over to our side, that here is a careful, gradual, strategy that will eventually win the fighting war yet still leave us with a pathway to winning the political war, which is really what we must do in order to achieve any kind of peace. This has already been proven all over the Middle East, even if the Right Wing in this country refuses to see it. Luckily both Democratic candidates do see it and seem willing to act accordingly. Let’s hope one of them gets the chance.