Let’s welcome President Trump
By 2353NM
Yes, you read the title correctly. Donald J Trump will be the 45th President of the United States of America after amassing more ‘Electoral College’ votes on 8 November 2016. It doesn’t matter that Clinton won the popular vote as the ‘Electoral College’ is where you need to outperform. The reality is that close to 45% of the population used their democratic right (in the US anyway) of not voting for any Presidential candidate. It’s easy to make the assumption that a lot of people either didn’t care, didn’t like the candidates or just couldn’t be bothered. Some of those may now be regretting their choice.
The internet is awash with articles by full time and citizen journalists telling us why Clinton lost or Trump won. To be honest, there is probably a grain of truth in a lot of the discussion. This isn’t another ‘we woz robbed’ or ‘wot went wrong’ monologue, history is history and Trump may last as President from 20 January 2017 to 20 January 2021 or beyond. Despite the apparently common theme in Australia that Trump is not a good thing, are we not seeing the wood for the trees here? Michael Moore of Bowling for Columbine and other documentary movies’ fame actually tipped not only that Trump would win the election last July, but which US states Trump would pick up:
You need to stop living in denial and face the truth which you know deep down is very, very real. Trying to soothe yourself with the facts – “77% of the electorate are women, people of color, young adults under 35 and Trump can’t win a majority of any of them!” – or logic – “people aren’t going to vote for a buffoon or against their own best interests!” – is your brain’s way of trying to protect you from trauma. Like when you hear a loud noise on the street and you think, “oh, a tire just blew out,” or, “wow, who’s playing with firecrackers?” because you don’t want to think you just heard someone being shot with a gun. It’s the same reason why all the initial news and eyewitness reports on 9/11 said “a small plane accidentally flew into the World Trade Center.” We want to – we need to – hope for the best because, frankly, life is already a s**t show and it’s hard enough struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. We can’t handle much more bad news. So our mental state goes to default when something scary is actually, truly happening. The first people plowed down by the truck in Nice spent their final moments on earth waving at the driver whom they thought had simply lost control of his truck, trying to tell him that he jumped the curb: “Watch out!,” they shouted. “There are people on the sidewalk!”
Moore suggested:
I believe Trump is going to focus much of his attention on the four blue states in the rustbelt of the upper Great Lakes – Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Four traditionally Democratic states — but each of them have elected a Republican governor since 2010 (only Pennsylvania has now finally elected a Democrat). In the Michigan primary in March, more Michiganders came out to vote for the Republicans (1.32 million) that the Democrats (1.19 million). Trump is ahead of Hillary in the latest polls in Pennsylvania and tied with her in Ohio. Tied? How can the race be this close after everything Trump has said and done? Well maybe it’s because he’s said (correctly) that the Clintons’ support of NAFTA helped to destroy the industrial states of the Upper Midwest. Trump is going to hammer Clinton on this and her support of TPP and other trade policies that have royally screwed the people of these four states. When Trump stood in the shadow of a Ford Motor factory during the Michigan primary, he threatened the corporation that if they did indeed go ahead with their planned closure of that factory and move it to Mexico, he would slap a 35% tariff on any Mexican-built cars shipped back to the United States. It was sweet, sweet music to the ears of the working class of Michigan, and when he tossed in his threat to Apple that he would force them to stop making their iPhones in China and build them here in America, well, hearts swooned and Trump walked away with a big victory that should have gone to the governor next-door, John Kasich.
Moore also talks about ‘angry white men’ who can’t adjust to equality of race or gender, Clinton’s negatives, the Democrats who supported Sanders not necessarily supporting the Democrats eventual nominee with the same gusto as ‘their’ candidate and those who were always going to vote for Trump because doing so gives the royal finger to established politics.
And you know what, Moore is right. If you are a factory worker in Michigan who no longer has a job because the cars you used to make are now imported – or even a mining worker in the Hunter Valley or Central Queensland who has lost their job because of global markets either not requiring or finding a cheaper alternative to ‘their’ product – you too would think about destroying the system that on the face of it looks after itself, but not you.
Rightly or wrongly Clinton wasn’t a great candidate. Sure, she knew how the system worked and had the experience, as she has been a part of the system for a long time. Unfortunately, she also had made some decisions in the past that were marketed as demonstrating Clinton didn’t follow the rules when it didn’t suit her. The perception therefore is that she is there to look after herself, rather than the unemployed labourer or farm worker suffering because of changing economic circumstances.
So if you think that Clinton could refute Trump’s appeal, in the words of Moore:
… you obviously missed the past year of 56 primaries and caucuses where 16 Republican candidates tried that and every kitchen sink they could throw at Trump and nothing could stop his juggernaut.
Yes, from the other side of the Pacific, Trump is a xenophobe, narcissistic and seemingly will do what it takes to gather popularity. However, how about we look at this strategically?
Trump (and Hanson/Abbott in Australia, Farage in the UK and La Pen in France amongst others) is telling voters that if you vote for me, I will ‘fix’ your individual problem, be it health care, education, jobs, commodity prices or whatever else is the reason you are disaffected with the ‘political’ class. Trump has made that implied promise to something like 380 million people. Before he starts campaigning for his Presidential re-election campaign somewhere around 2019, he has to deliver on a lot of promises made to a lot of people. Given that it would be well-nigh impossible to understand the problems of a lot of the US population inside two years, there is Buckley’s chance of a solution being delivered. Let’s say that Trump ‘fixes’ imports, giving jobs back to the ‘rustbelt’ states that effectively elected him. Apart from the domestic replacements being more expensive and/or of lesser quality than the current import, imported products also have a supply line of distributors and resellers who would conceivably be worse off if the tap on imports is turned off. In a similar vein, a lot of those who rely on what are claimed to be ‘undocumented Americans’ to do the menial work around the home and so on would probably find themselves either doing the work or paying a lot more for a ‘documented American’ to perform the same tasks.
Trump has by implication promised to ‘fix’ the perceived personal problem of every person that has voted for him, as well as those who didn’t. It really doesn’t matter that there are a multitude of problems and, given all the good will in the world, some of the problems are so entrenched in the global economic system that they will never be ‘fixed’, Trump’s implicit promise is to ‘fix it’ and benefit all those US citizens who voted for him. When it comes time for other Republicans to challenge him for the 2020 nomination sometime in 2019, a lot of the disaffected that voted for Trump this time around will look at their individual circumstances and decide whether they are either worse or no better off. While Trump may not necessarily follow the usual political protocols, he can’t ‘fix’ everything he claimed to be able to manage in under 24 months. He is already ‘talking down’ his promise to cancel Obama’s Affordable Health initiative. Will these people (probably numbered in the hundreds of millions) accept Trump’s inevitable line that he is gradually turning things around? Or will they, to paraphrase a former Australian politician be waiting on the porch with a baseball bat?
We do have a precedent here. Campbell Newman came to power in Queensland promising to fix the state, and the people gave him a wallopingly large margin to do it (the Official Opposition, led by Annastacia Palaszczuk, could hold meetings in an eight-seater people mover and still have a spare seat). Newman instituted his vision of reform and not only did Palaszczuk form a minority government at the next election some two and a half years later, Newman lost his seat in the 89 seat Queensland parliament. You could also argue that the 2016 federal election result was a result of Abbott’s claims prior to 2013 that he would ‘fix it’ with a similar lack of actual ability to do so.
The beauty of Trump’s election is that from 20 January 2017, he is arguably the most important person in the world. The common belief is that if the US President says jump, the expected answer is ‘how high’. If Trump can’t make everyone happy in the next couple of years, do the Hansons and Farages of this world have any chance of doing so? In reality – probably not. Probably the easier question to ask is will every other political party in the world (apart from the ultra conservatives such as One Nation, UKIP, etc) be reticent about pointing out that Trump couldn’t fix it – so how on earth will Hanson, Farage or whoever else do better?
Trump in the view of a lot of people doesn’t deserve to be President because he worked outside the traditional rules of engagement. Rightly or wrongly, he convinced enough people in the right areas to trust him to deliver. While the jury is still out on the delivery of his promises, Trump is highly susceptible to claims that he is no better than the rest if each one of the implied promises he made to make things better for every American citizen isn’t happening by 2019. Trump will soon have in his command the established forces of the largest and most well-resourced democracy in the world to make the changes he considers necessary to the world’s political and economic systems. If Trump can’t do it (and the chances are he won’t in the minds of a lot of Americans) people like Abbott, Hanson and the other ‘like-minded’ people around the world have even less. Trump’s probable failure also should be concerning other political players who have been using similar arguments for a number of years – including Hanson’s One Nation Party.
Michael Moore managed to blitz the field with his tips for the 2016 US Elections. He still has one tip in play. As reported by Paste magazine, Moore appeared on American television on November 11, 2016:
During the sprawling 45-minute discussion, Moore said that he didn’t think Trump would last his whole term of office. Moore said:
This is why we’re not going to have to suffer through four years of Donald J. Trump, because he has no ideology except the ideology of Donald J. Trump. And when you have a narcissist like that, who’s so narcissistic where it’s all about him, he will – maybe unintentionally – break laws. He will break laws because he’s only thinking about what’s best for him.
In some ways, impeaching Trump would be a tragedy.
This article was originally published on The Political Sword
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28 comments
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Greg - on being infected with a heap of nausious de ja vous -
Jennifer Meyer-Smith -
Davidbruce -
Miriam English -
Michael Taylor -
Miriam English -
mark delmege -
Kaye Lee -
mark delmege -
mark delmege -
Jennifer Meyer-Smith -
Exoplanet -
Kaye Lee -
Phil -
Jennifer Meyer-Smith -
mark delmege -
Kaye Lee -
mark delmege -
Michael Taylor -
Harquebus -
mark delmege -
Kaye Lee -
Jennifer Meyer-Smith -
Michael Taylor -
Wayne Turner -
Kaye Lee -
wam -
king1394
Return to home pageHave run out of subject material?
Have we not covered all the bases including the suggestion that Trump may not serve his term due to the likelihood of impeachment?
…just more rehash of the same curdled B/S now well past it’s Use By date.
I hope Trump lasts long enough to galvanise Sanders’ people and Sanders’ people’s people to bring about a bloodless revolution. I trust Sanders and his ilk to know what societal reforms are needed and in what order they should happen.
Why does the BBC result show that Trump also WON the POPULAR VOTE? Did you take note of the Hexagons too?
Interesting perspective. Well, Trump’s there, regardless of the horror of the rest of the world and more than half of USA’s voters. I guess there has to be a silver lining in every dark cloud. Maybe his rule will be so intolerably bad that he will be gone in short order, leaving a hunger for socially responsible solutions… but hopefully not so bad that he permanently damages USA. I have a lot of friends over there, and despite hating a lot of things about that country they still produce a lot of good people, brilliant science, marvellous technology, and wonderful culture. It will be awful to see them crash and burn, even temporarily.
I just hope the comparison with Abbott and Hanson is not too accurate. Those two bloodsuckers are still hanging on like goddamn ticks. We just don’t seem to be able to get rid of them no matter how badly they screw up.
Greg, I’m sure there are some people here who could say the same thing about your style of comments.
Just sayin’.
Hmmm… I was just thinking… I wonder what Hitler could have done with the military resources of the USA at his disposal. I doubt the rest of the world could have held him back. Well, we won’t have to wonder for long. Next year we get to find out.
Actually ‘Obama’s Affordable Health initiative’ isn’t very affordable. Maybe it was the only way it could progress through the corrupt corridors of power but from what I read it is a gift to bigpharma.
Yes David Bruce I think you are right – sorry correct.
Have a look at this video – I would be tempted to vote for a bloke who says this. His words are fine and he delivers a story of hope and change – even better that did The Burn.
And a bright note he might appoint Michael T. Flynn to Defence and as Thierry Meyssan – (Voltairenet.org), says ” although he is a Democrat, was Trump’s main advisor on foreign policy and defence during the campaign. A Commander of Military Intelligence, from the first Geneva Conference to the conquest of Iraq by Daesh, he has never stopped opposing President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Generals David Petraeus and John Allen, and Jeffrey Feltman, concerning the use of jihadists and terrorism in order to maintain US imperialism. Whether as National Security advisor, director of the CIA, or Secretary of Defense, he will be the best ally for peace in the Levant.”
As I said to someone the other day even the right can sometime bring in useful reform – but I won’t be holding my breath.
Flynn is hardly a good choice…..he is an Islamophobe who rattles on about political correctness and registering Muslims
As an adviser, General Flynn has already proved to be a powerful influence on Mr. Trump, convincing the president-elect that the United States is in a “world war” with Islamist militants and must work with any willing allies in the fight, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
General Flynn, for instance, has said that Shariah, or Islamic law, is spreading in the United States (it is not). His dubious assertions are so common that when he ran the Defense Intelligence Agency, subordinates came up with a name for the phenomenon: They called them “Flynn facts.”
The Flynn Intel Group, a consulting firm he founded after he was fired by President Obama as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has hazy business ties to Middle Eastern countries and has appeared to lobby for the Turkish government. General Flynn also took a paid speaking engagement last year with Russia Today, a television network funded by the Kremlin, and attended the network’s lavish anniversary party in Moscow, where he sat at Mr. Putin’s elbow.
Islamist militancy poses an existential threat on a global scale, and the Muslim faith itself is the source of the problem, he said, describing it as a political ideology, not a religion. He has even at times gone so far as to call it a political ideology that has “metastasized” into a “malignant cancer.”
General Flynn and Mr. Trump also agree that the United States needs to sharply curtail immigration from predominantly Muslim countries, and possibly even force American Muslims to register with the government.
But hey, Putin thinks he’s a damn fine choice. I sometimes wonder about your uncritical acceptance of things Russia wants mark.
How do you feel about Jill Stein KL?
BTW Do you have a source for you quotes ?
And lastly is this acknowledgement that you accept that Obama and Co have used terrorism as a matter of policy or do you deny what they do in Syria?
always good when you show your colours KL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfcPeYpeMRg
USA good Russia bad – i get it.
Putin is not Russia. What do you think about Putin, mark delmege?
Have a look at this video – I would be tempted to vote for a bloke who says this. His words are fine and he delivers a story of hope and change – even better that did The Burn.
These are the words of abject insanity. When Sanders expressed such views they were imbued with authenticity. In Trump’s case you have to completely ignore who he is, who he’s been, what he’s been handed by the ‘establishment’ to continue being who he is to even begin to believe a word of it. In fact, you have to pretend the Presidential campaign is/was some sort of of Hollywood movie that requires suspension of disbelief to be remotely watchable. Jesus wept. Buckets. He wept buckets.
Stop this lunacy, Mark. It’s embarrassing, and, frankly, scary.
You can make the argument that Clinton was a bad candidate without this complete and transparent shite.
I don’t know much about Stein but she seems inadequate to me. I hasten to say that is an ill-informed superficial view.
As for “showing my colours”, thankfully I don’t wear any. And if you are asking me if I trust information that comes from the US in front of info from Russia, I treat them both with the same suspicion and look to verify elsewhere in both cases. And everything I have read about Trump, including who he is choosing as advisers, makes me very worried.
Source for Flynn quotes was the NY Times
“Trump (and Hanson/Abbott in Australia, Farage in the UK and La Pen in France amongst others) is telling voters that if you vote for me, I will ‘fix’ your individual problem…”
I think the ones named above are more likely suggesting “if you vote for me I’ll punish your enemies for you – I’ll settle the score by punishing, belittling and demeaning those you hate”
I think this is the first and foremost desire of the powerless, the downtrodden, the marginalised, the angry ………revenge.
The urge for retribution is foremost in voters minds – as for real jobs, justice, equality – well these can come much later if at all since these folk have grown accustomed to the deceits and deceptions of the moneyed class and political elites.
Retribution has primacy and Donald has promised his supporters exactly that – and he will deliver. Have no doubt about that.
Take off the blinkers America – Trump is everything he displays and so much more. He’s always exercised power – but when he finally gets absolute power he will use it absolutely because that is who he is – he has not got the strength nor breadth of character to resist the absolute pull of total power.
Warning signs have been screaming incessently and lit incandescently throughout his campaign, but also throughout his tacky and corrupt business career – he’s never hidden his true colours from those who would see.
For the terminally incoherent perhaps his latest tweet demanding an apology from the NY Theatre for its actors calling out for decency and justice from one of his recent appointees, will twig their psyche?
This dangerous moron may only be a president-elect but already he’s signalling aggression and authoritarianism – flexing his political muscles in a raw display for the abject minions who sit in agitation waiting for their retributions to begin.
Phil,
I mostly agree with your comment except not all unemployed and under-employed are out to get their real or perceived enemies.
The System is the Enemy and needs turning on its head.
The duped Trump supporters have lost sight of what’s right and wrong. Same could be said for Clinton (to a large extent) but the system didn’t give anybody much choice once the useless DNC sacked Sanders.
KL – Stein also attended the network’s lavish anniversary party in Moscow. Just say’n.
NYTimes – I see, hmmm, I’m not surprised. But you being an americophile probably don’t see the problem with that. Next you will be telling me that groups like the White Helmets in Syria are a genuine trustworthy source for news in that country – maybe. Like HRW ditto.
JMS – Putin still has great respect in his country despite his economy being hammered by sanctions. As far as I can tell this is because he brought his country back from the brink of collapse following the corrupt ‘western advisor’ Yeltsin years. I am very happy and think I understand why he has his country backing the Syrian government and has assisted them greatly in combating terrorism. Perhaps had he been President and not merely PM during the Libya UN Resolution that country would not be the mess it is today. Flynn for whatever faults he may have (and I wouldn’t trust the pro-Obama/Clinton NYT to list them) seems to understand that backing terrorists for geopolitical ends is a bad move.
Exoplanet – sorry my sarcasm font isn’t working today – though I’m getting tired of arguing against binary thinkers. Maybe you believed the Wall Street backed Hopey Dopey when 8 years ago he promised change – how did that go? Trump said much the same but more pointedly talked about the problems of corruption. Whats the problem? Did I say I believed him or that I thought he would be successful? As a matter of interest I am not a fan of open borders though as I made it clear here years ago refugees get my sympathy. Did you know Bill Clinton built a wall along the Mexican border and that Obama has deported more foreigners than any other President? Does that make him xenophobic?
People keep saying that Hilary was going to cause a nuclear war. I find little evidence for that and find it rather hard to believe. Donald, on the other hand, is more than happy to talk to reporters about his view of who should have nuclear weapons and how they should use them. He asked why make them if you aren’t prepared to use them. He prides himself on being unpredictable and warns the world to remember it. This isn’t propaganda, they are his publicly spoken words to the media.
https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-has-publicly-said-about-nuclear-weapons-99f6290bc32a#.m1bpjxwe7
Just off the top of my head – Obama has put in place a trillion dollar nuclear weapons upgrade program and has recently refused to make a no first strike policy. What other people say should not be conflated with what I say. However, Hillary did say often she thought a no fly zone over Syria would be a good idea – but a top US military man said this would mean war with Russia.
I keep hearing that too, Kaye. If you look at history you’ll see that most wars were caused by mad people. Some people say that Trump is mad. What could possibly go wrong?
Failure by current politicians, regardless of who they are, is guaranteed. They listen to economists and believe their infinite growth fairytale.
Rather than a multitude of articles detailing political failures, a single generic all purpose will suffice and then just change the names as required.
Cheers.
isn’t it past your bedtime Michael?
Hmmmm…more on Flynn
In a new book Flynn co-authored (quelle surpise), he prescribes a harder political line on Iran, including information warfare to expose shortcomings in Iran’s revolution.
Former colleagues are alarmed by his adoption of Trump’s divisive campaign rhetoric – including leading chants of “Lock Her Up!” aimed at Hillary Clinton during the Republican National Convention and saying on Twitter “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”
“I think what you have is frustration that eventually turns to anger after he leaves,” said this former U.S. official. “He was frustrated over DIA; he was frustrated over administration policy toward Syria; and he’s frustrated and angry over his removal from the Department of Defense.”
Two other former officials also said they had concerns about Flynn’s management style, a potential liability in a White House job that requires coordinating U.S. policy and resolving disagreements among senior officials at different agencies.
One of the officials said senior career DIA officials and other agency employees held Flynn responsible for an offensive “Dress for Success” presentation that was distributed to the workforce in January 2013.
It recommended gender-specific fashion guidelines, urged people to “consider your body type” and said makeup made women “more attractive.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-flynn-idUSKBN13D0AD
When it comes to a toss up between Putin and Trump, I vote for H’s comment.
Turn America on its head and exact societal change even before Trump can start to do his damage.
When Trump is shown to be vulnerable, Australia can purge ourselves of the neoliberalist fraternity of whatever political variety.
Huh? (MD).
Excluding the “scapegoating” and “minority bashing of the non-white poor”,and insulting women.Trump can name real problems,and say he can fix them.A shame he has/had no real workable solutions for any of them eg: Getting jobs back from oversea’s – How?
Anyone can and does claim to name and be able to fix problems to get votes.But it’s meaningless when you have no real workable solutions from the Hanson’s to Trump’s of the world.
Trump is a con man,that conned enough of the desperate,gullible and ignorant.Helped of course by the flawed and undemocratic electoral college system that’s always been stupid.
mark, the spending of a trillion to “modernise” the nuclear arsenal is indeed concerning. Obama has reduced the number of weapons but only minimally – there was much greater reduction under Bush.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/01/obama-claims-nuclear-weapons-reductions-start-treaty
But I am not sure about the first strike policy?
“With only six months to go in the Oval Office, President Obama is contemplating “fundamental change” to U.S. national security policy: a declaration of “no first use” regarding nuclear weapons.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/1/no-first-use-nuclear-weapons-policy-a-dangerous-ob/
trump won by being a man who could be believed in telling people he is a winner and will ‘drain’ the swamp.
He convinced the people that the woman has done nothing in 30 years. He was a rabbottian in that he could lie for the moment and not be challenged by the uninformed journalist.
He is still the best of the republican candidates and is worth suspension of speculation till his first 100 days.
The danger is pence not the oldest man elected.
ps who thought the junket of the boys to the election was in the same class as alberici???
Looking to the future, progressive people need to reach out to the people who live in those electorates which are game changers. We have just seen the Nationals lose the ‘safe’ State seat of Orange to the Shooters, fishers and farmers party. Maybe I’m reading the wrong sources but I’ve seen almost no interest in this result voiced by contributors to this page. The country people here are ripe to vote against the Lib/Nats which is why we are getting some change. If there was a stronger push by the Greens, it might have been a contest that included them in Orange. At the state level, Seats like Lismore could be won by progressive candidates, but only if they are willing to put in the time, energy and money.
Trump won the rust belt. He shouldn’t have. But he went in to those places with a message the people wanted to hear. We cannot sit back whimpering about the ignorance of the electorate who preferred him to Clinton, any more than we should be wondering why a candidate such as George Christensen gets votes. Essentially these people are not being opposed in their electorates.