I cast my first vote for president for Ronald Reagan, followed by George H.W. Bush and then Ross Perot ( I always did believe we needed a businessman in charge). Over the years I backed numerous candidates who lost in the primaries, but supported the eventual nominee of the Republican party. That was the case in 2008. Although I wasn’t thrilled with him, I backed John McCain and was disappointed with the lackluster campaign he ran. When Barack Obama won and started fundamentally changing America, something he campaigned on, politicians like McCain, Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell stood idly by and let it happen. People were angry and the Tea Party movement was born. They advocated strict adherence to the US Constitution, reducing government spending and taxes, and reduction of the national debt and deficit. These positions were right in line with the Republican party beliefs, or so they said.. The 2010 elections were held and it was a landslide. The Tea Party message was heard loud and clear. The Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and John Boehner would be the new speaker. Some of the terrible Obama policies would be de-funded, it was a time for optimism. Only nothing happened, in fact it was the opposite. Establishment politicians like McCain, Lindsey Graham and Boehner not only did nothing, they turned on the very people who gave them a majority. While the democrats called the tea party freshman congressmen racist, the republican establishment called them troublemakers and blamed them for the gridlock because they wouldn’t go along with business as usual. “We can’t do anything to stop Obama till we win the Senate” was what they said as they funded every liberal program that came down the pipe. They held the power of the purse and could have de-funded anything, but chose the status quo. That’s when I started to realize the fix was in and the establishment of the party wasn’t looking out for me. I changed my party affiliation to independent and even ran for local office, but that’s a story for another day. Fast forward to 2014, the republicans won the senate and surprise, nothing changed.
Which brings us to Donald Trump. His rise is born of the anger people feel toward the government in general and the republican establishment specifically. They made promises and didn’t keep them. They asked for our money and support to put them in office and showed nothing but disdain for us when they got there. Is Donald Trump the perfect candidate? No. He’s a little brash and not always presidential. I don’t care. He’s somewhat vague on his policies. I don’t care. He hasn’t always been a staunch conservative. I. Don’t. Care. Things must change. The establishment on both sides of the aisle want to keep the status quo and squash any outsiders. Bernie Sanders has won eight contests in a row and falls further behind Hillary Clinton because of super delegates, democratic party insiders who vote the way they want, the people be damned. The DC elite say they oppose Trump because he’s not a true conservative. You mean like John Boehner who rolled over and refused to fight on any issue important to the people? How about Paul Ryan who in his first act as new speaker passed an omnibus spending bill that funded everything him and other true conservative claim to oppose. With foreign policy, a Trump victory would be a repudiation of all of their misguided forays into Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen that seem to never end.
All the establishment is worried about is self preservation, not beating the democrats. Win, lose, or draw, their world is unchanged as long as the players are the same. If an outsider like Trump wins, game over for them. They want to hold on to power, money and connections. They say they’re against illegal immigration, but they are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce who loves the cheap labor. They say they oppose Obamacare but their donors in the medical and drug industries get rich off of it and in turn donate to the very people who write the laws making them rich. All of the lobbyists,” think tank” types and talking heads like Karl Rove don’t care who wins. Their position as “people in the know” stays constant. Trump would shake all of that up, their access and credibility gone along with most of their jobs. A Trump presidency wouldn’t have a former presidents wife as Secretary of State, a politically connected tax cheat as Secretary of the Treasury, and as his replacement, a bailout profiteer. You would have business people with real world experience in solving problems, not political hacks who have a favor coming their way.
Donald Trump’s lack of political experience doesn’t faze me. He’s a businessman who will surround himself with the best and the brightest in each department and get the job done. He will secure our borders, overturn bad trade deals that are killing our manufacturing base, and stop getting involved in far away places that have nothing to do with our national interests. His way of thinking, that the establishment calls extreme, is actually quite mainstream. It is what the people want, the old way of thinking is over. Could he fail? Sure. He might be a disaster, but I don’t care. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The results we are getting now are terrible. $19 Trillion in debt and counting. I will take my chances with Donald Trump, someone new with a different skill set than the same old politicians we have running things now. The establishment says “Never Trump”, I say anyone but them. It’s amazing how they can team up to stop Trump in a matter of days when their necks are on the line, but have been unable to stop any of Obama’s policies in 7 1/2 years. The establishment won’t go down without a fight, their world depends on it, but they must go down, our country depends on it.
