Sure Trump is a panderer. Sure Trump appeals to racists. Sure Trump feeds off people's meanest instincts....blame the son of a bitch who looks different from me for my misfortune. But there aren't enough blatant racists in America to elect Trump. He won because a lot of people got tired of being screwed by the government and wanted someone to pay attention to them.
While there appears to be no buyers remorse among Trump's core supporters, the swing voters on the other hand, the voters who decide elections, are hopefully regretting their frustration in the voter's booth in November, 2016.
Trump is a terrible leader. He does not think deeply. He is not terribly curious about anything that does not profit his business. If you think his business has become America, you're dreaming. He does not care deeply about anyone except himself, his family, and his businesses. I'm sure he's paying attention to the profits at his golf courses. And of course he is paying close attention to his image. His image is his core business.
Speaking of image, the democratic party at one time was widely promoted as the party of the people, the party of the working man (not so much woman, but that's another discussion). And then the democratic party screwed the middle class tradesman, the middle class factory worker. The democratic party sided with big business when it came time to look at overseas markets. The party claimed it would still fight for workers in America, but that was an empty promise. Of course business can make things cheaper in Taiwan, and India, and China, and South Korea, and Mexico. And of course business can then sell those products more cheaply at home. But what happens to the thousands of workers with no jobs. What happens to the thousands who do find jobs, but with much lower wages. The cheaper products don't mean much to these thousands of workers. Cars may cost $5,000 less, but their wages were cut by tens of thousands of dollars.
We will never get those factory jobs back. Those of us in the service economy, those of us in the white collar world, those of us with savings in the stock market, we're doing fine.But we have a bucket load of neighbors who will never recover from the democratic party's NAFTA screw up.
If the party had been honest, it might have fared better. If the party had said, we know jobs will disappear, but we will create programs that help you find new jobs, maybe then the party would not have been spurned. When the party saw that new jobs were not being created, that the federal government was not pushing infrastructure in any meaningful way, then the party should have screamed, we made a mistake, we screwed up and the poorest of us are paying for it dearly. Factories and unions helped the middle class in a huge way, and factories and unions have largely disappeared. The democrats were complicit, they assisted the forces that destroyed our factories and unions. The democrats won't admit that, but it's oh so true. It took a socialist, Bernie Sanders, to own up to the democrat's failure. No wonder the party elite hated him. The emperor does not like to be labelled shoddy, even if his clothes are in tatters.
True conservatives want the government to stay the hell out of their lives. I don't agree with them, but I definitely respect them. They are tough, and they aren't asking for any handouts.
Most of us, however, do value government services: fire, police, education, (subsidized) health care, libraries, streets, bridges, parks, a robust legal system, etc. And many of us get by quite well with those services coupled with our own employment. Sadly, however, many, many of us don't have decent enough employment to couple with the existing government services.
The democrats should stop talking about trade and the world economy and simply talk about decent paying jobs.
Our capitalist system is great at creating superior products, but it's not so great at creating meaningful full employment. Don't get me wrong. We're not bad at creating jobs. We're simply not great at it. And the sad thing is that with a little imagination, with a little daring, we could fix that capitalistic short coming.
What's the real problem? What makes us cringe when we read the paper or listen to the news? It's pretty simple. America has millions of people who cannot make enough money to pay for food, housing, education, and health care. They are coming up short. Every week. Every month. Every year. Their kids are hungry, they live in beat up housing or no housing, they get a lousy education, and they become lousy citizens. It's a pretty vicious cycle.
We can solve this problem. There are various possibilities.
One example is being implemented in Germany today. The Germans are spending five billion dollars on trades schools that train their young people for gainful employment.
Another example might be a federal works program, structured along the lines of the armed services. You are owned by Uncle Sam, but you are also cared for .... food, housing, medical, school for the kids ... and your uncle can send you anywhere he wants. There is great pride among servicemen and women, which we ought to be able to translate to a federal works program. It could be the polar opposite of the post office or motor vehicle department.
I'm sure there are other possibilities. The point is that we must be having the conversation. We must be actively researching and solving why every family in America does not have a decent life.
How do we pay for it? The same way we paid for the Iraq war. Print money. Focus on the program and let's give the economy a chance to sort this out.
Speaking of money, it blows me away when people get away with saying that Medicare For All will cost the government too much money. We're already paying for our health care, way too much in fact. It's just coming out of our paychecks and our employers' budgets instead of our tax dollars. Take it out of our tax dollars and we'll end up paying LESS. How you ask? It's not difficult to figure out. Instead of dealing with forms from dozens of insurance companies, we'll deal with forms from one company, the government. Instead of factoring in insurance company profit to the bill, we will cut that piece out of the program completely. So less bureaucracy and less profit. Cheaper health costs.
Cheaper for most of us....not for the extremely wealthy, because their taxes are going to go up. I'm not really sad. If a man is making twenty million dollars and you reduce is income to ten million dollars with taxes, is he really suffering? He made ten million in one year, more than most of us make in a life time. I think he's doing OK.
Speaking of money, it blows me away when people get away with saying that Medicare For All will cost the government too much money. We're already paying for our health care, way too much in fact. It's just coming out of our paychecks and our employers' budgets instead of our tax dollars. Take it out of our tax dollars and we'll end up paying LESS. How you ask? It's not difficult to figure out. Instead of dealing with forms from dozens of insurance companies, we'll deal with forms from one company, the government. Instead of factoring in insurance company profit to the bill, we will cut that piece out of the program completely. So less bureaucracy and less profit. Cheaper health costs.
Cheaper for most of us....not for the extremely wealthy, because their taxes are going to go up. I'm not really sad. If a man is making twenty million dollars and you reduce is income to ten million dollars with taxes, is he really suffering? He made ten million in one year, more than most of us make in a life time. I think he's doing OK.
We are the strongest economy in the world. Some will say we got there by being tough. The weak struggled and the strong survived. That's a myth. Until we had a strong middle class, brought about largely through FDR's programs during and after World War II, our nation endured multiple boom and bust cycles, huge recessions that crippled all but the very wealthy. As a nation, we weren't very strong during those troughs. (If true strength is evidenced by how we treat the least among us, we were ashamedly weak.) But following World War II, our leaders and legislators created some amazing programs for the middle class. Education increased. Jobs appeared. Salaries grew. Home ownership increased.
Not for everyone. People of color kept getting the shaft, just as they did in The Constitution, and women had to fight pretty fiercely just to get into a law school, much less get hired by a law firm. Minorities and women are still marginalized, but the good news is that it's not much of secret anymore. Their inequality is in our face every day, and that's a very good thing.
Good for them and bad for us (white men), you say? Actually no. It's a good thing for all of us. The amazing thing about equality is that when it's spread around, we help each other, we teach each other, we find that we all have different talents and together we are stronger than we were alone. So my last big issue is education. Make it good. Fund it federally and implement it locally. Send the federal tax dollars to the cities and towns and let their school committees battle with the curriculum. Will some towns do a lousy job? Sure. And people will move away to towns that do a better job. But we have to fund education for all, from day-care through college. Why? Because we will be a much richer society in the long run, if we are an educated citizenry.
Democrats, push the issues, not the labels. While it's true that I don't think I could ever marry a Republican, I don't think that's a good campaign slogan and it's not very compassionate either. What is compassionate, if a little corny is
"You want a job? Uncle Sam wants you!"
"You want an education? Uncle Sam wants your brain!"
"You need a doctor? Uncle Sam needs a healthy citizen, so come tell him where it hurts!"
Democrats, run on the issues and these elections won't be close any more. The titans of power can gerrymander to hell and they will still lose.
I started this essay two years ago and just found my way back to it. I'm so elated to see literally ten's of thoughtful, serious candidates running for the President of the United States. And so many are not white men. Who would have thunk?!
Not for everyone. People of color kept getting the shaft, just as they did in The Constitution, and women had to fight pretty fiercely just to get into a law school, much less get hired by a law firm. Minorities and women are still marginalized, but the good news is that it's not much of secret anymore. Their inequality is in our face every day, and that's a very good thing.
Good for them and bad for us (white men), you say? Actually no. It's a good thing for all of us. The amazing thing about equality is that when it's spread around, we help each other, we teach each other, we find that we all have different talents and together we are stronger than we were alone. So my last big issue is education. Make it good. Fund it federally and implement it locally. Send the federal tax dollars to the cities and towns and let their school committees battle with the curriculum. Will some towns do a lousy job? Sure. And people will move away to towns that do a better job. But we have to fund education for all, from day-care through college. Why? Because we will be a much richer society in the long run, if we are an educated citizenry.
Democrats, push the issues, not the labels. While it's true that I don't think I could ever marry a Republican, I don't think that's a good campaign slogan and it's not very compassionate either. What is compassionate, if a little corny is
"You want a job? Uncle Sam wants you!"
"You want an education? Uncle Sam wants your brain!"
"You need a doctor? Uncle Sam needs a healthy citizen, so come tell him where it hurts!"
Democrats, run on the issues and these elections won't be close any more. The titans of power can gerrymander to hell and they will still lose.
I started this essay two years ago and just found my way back to it. I'm so elated to see literally ten's of thoughtful, serious candidates running for the President of the United States. And so many are not white men. Who would have thunk?!
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