The Trouble with Trump

Yes, Mother does know best!

Can you name this person?

Father was involved in shady real estate deals which even got the attention of the Federal Government for discriminating against people of colour who were renting from him. 

He attended military school where his academic grades were ranked near the bottom.

As a young playboy, he did not want to serve in Vietnam, so he had his pet doctor declare that he had severe bone spurs and had difficulty walking normally, which was news to his dance partners at the time. The doctor in 2014 confessed that there was nothing wrong with his patient after all.

His father gave him 1 million dollars, to get him started in the real estate business. As he has claimed, he did not build himself up from nothing.

He broke so many contracts, that he was widely considered unreliable in business and had many deals turned down over his lack of veracity.

He went bankrupt 4 times but touted himself as an expert deal maker.

The author who was contracted to write a book about him titled "The Art of the Deal" later repudiated every single thing he wrote about him and called him a bald faced liar.

He was widely known as a womanizer, even during his three marriages and once stated on tape that he was so famous that he could walk up to any woman and grab her crotch.

He has refused to reveal his tax returns and the Supreme Court is now hearing the case to determine if he has to, like every other President.

He was elected President of the USA.

Why?

A bit of bona fides first. I have been involved in politics since the age of 17 when I worked for Senator Vance Hartke (Democrat, Indiana) as his advance man and press aide in the State of New Hampshire during the run up to the 1972 Presidential Primary there. I had quit school to do this and managed to meet some of the heavy hitters that worked for and with the other candidates. Sen. Gary Hart, Sen. Edmund Muskie, Sen. Eugene McCarthy and a few others were all in the running. I loved it. I was elected as a delegate for Sen. Hartke, but since he didn't carry the state, I never got to go to the National Convention.

Years later, during my business career, I became Judge of Elections in Easttown Township, Pennsylvania. I did that for 18 years. I was a registered Democrat in a heavily Republican township, but I was respected for my fairness during elections and not favouring either side, despite my own convictions. Fair to say that I kept up my interest in politics, albeit on a more local level.

The Electorate

Generally, only about 40% or less of eligible voters actually vote during local and Primary elections. During a hard fought Presidential campaign, that goes up to the mid-fifties, but never higher.

In recent years, voters in the US felt increasingly disenchanted from their elected representatives, whether a Congressman from the House of Representatives (similar to the Lok Sabha) or a Senator from the Senate (similar to the Raj Sabha). The voters felt out of touch, thought that their voices were not being heard and resented President Obama's initiatives towards the end of his second 4 year term. A series of mis-fires when trying to implement financial institutional reforms after the rape of Wall Street, a failed National Health Care system (ObamaCare), a stagnant economy with no real stimulus in sight, higher taxes and fewer public services, etc.. all led to a simmering frustration with the way things were. 

Never mind that all of these changes were literally in their hands to change through their votes but activism was never very high on the American voters horizon so stagnation prevailed. 

Along came a woman candidate, who had her own baggage to drag with her into the ring. A husband who had been publicly unfaithful to her, once with a staffer in Arkansas and again with a very young intern while inhabiting the White House. He had been impeached but it didn't stick. Also, since she had served as Secretary of State under a semi-popular President, and during her tenure, the quagmire of Iraq, Afganisthan and other mini wars sprang up, she did not have the affection of the voting public, and probably not their respect.

So, the voters turned to a blow hard who made extravagant promises, puffed himself up as an expert leader and businessman and was not afraid to get down and dirty, and most importantly, was not in the least afraid to lie about anything and anyone constantly.

My opinion is that the average voter simply wanted to send a message to the politicians that there needed to be change, and soon. I don't believe that they actually believed that Trump would really get elected. And, he lost the popular vote by 3 million votes. In America, you don't vote for the candidate, you vote for a delegate that represents that candidate and whoever crosses a particular count of delegates, WINS.

So there we are. A liar, buffoon, misogynist, cheater duly elected is the President and, like a zoo animal, he puts  himself on display every day during the Covid-19 crisis and we can all marvel at our perceptions, or lack of them and shake our heads in wonder as to how we came to this state of affairs.

You get what you vote for.