2020 Election

To paraphrase my man Michael Bublé, it’s a new dawn, a new day, and I’m feeling…not as great as the folks who seemed to have a collective orgasm when Joe Biden took the oath of office a couple of weeks ago. On his first day in the White House Biden killed thousands of jobs, choosing the cult of environmentalism over the employment of blue collar American workers…an inauspicious beginning to be sure.

At any rate, before standing by & helplessly watching that dumpster fire for the next few years it’s time to close the book on President Donald Trump, thus completing a trilogy that began nearly five & a half years ago when I dismissed the idea that Trump would even receive the Republican nomination and continued a year later with a mea culpa in which I explained my reason(s) for preferring him over Hillary Clinton. So let’s take a look at where we stand now in the wake of what has been a fascinating four years. You may agree or disagree with my assessment & that’s okay. I’m just trying to be forthright & straightforward as we take a look at…

from the home office in Palm Beach, FL…

The Superfluous 7 Honest Conclusions About Donald Trump

7 He is neither the best nor the worst President in American history.

To be fair I think it is far too soon to properly judge the Trump presidency, especially when passions are still inflamed on both sides. But I’d say the same thing no matter who it was. When George W. Bush left office I opined that eventually history would be much kinder to him than people had been in the moment, and I was right. The media & even some Hollywood types seem to think W. is just dandy now, when fifteen years ago they despised him. A decade from now when wounds have healed and historians look back on the past four years thru the prism of what Trump accomplished in the face of unprecedented hatred I believe many will admit what they refuse to right now: despite his many flaws & personal errors in judgment he led a robust economy and would’ve almost certainly gotten a second term if not for some extraordinary conditions. Conversely, I will not join fellow conservatives in calling Donald Trump the best President ever. Let’s step away from the carving tools and not put his head on Mount Rushmore just yet. I don’t think any one term President (even considering the unusual circumstances) deserves those kind of kudos.

6 He did not incite an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

Okay, okay, okay…I know I’m treading on dangerous ground here. First, allow me to reiterate…I’ve already stated that the DC rally/protest in the waning days of the Trump presidency that led to so much chaos & heartbreak was a terrible idea. The event never should’ve happened. It was a fruitless endeavor that wasn’t going to change the outcome of the election, and gathering 100k pissed off people in one place will rarely end well. Having said that, I’ve read President Trump’s speech from that day (I didn’t watch as it was occurring), and nothing he said can be interpreted as “Hey y’all, why don’t you go over to The Capitol & open up a can of whoopass…break stuff & scare the hell out of people.” Donald Trump had held numerous rallies when running for President & even while in office, and though one might call such events self-serving or arrogant, to my knowledge none were ever violent. Ask yourself this…if law enforcement, FBI, Secret Service, et al thought there might be cause for concern why weren’t they more prepared?? I do not believe for one second that Trump thought what happened would happen. At worst I think he saw it as one last opportunity for a huge crowd to heap adoration upon him. Misguided?? Absolutely. Out of touch?? Probably. Sedition?? I really don’t think so.

5 He probably shouldn’t have run for a second term.

Imagine this: Donald Trump decides that one term is enough. He knows the hatred for him in certain circles is so deep that his opponents will do almost anything to screw him. He’s a billionaire who doesn’t need the hassle. He steps aside and let’s Pence, Cruz, and whoever else duke it out to be his successor. The nominee can run on Trump policies & accomplishments but will almost certainly be a more palatable candidate, so leftists let their guard down just a bit. Meanwhile, much like the Clintons & Obamas, President Trump is still a power broker in his party. He’s a kingmaker with tremendous influence. In all likelihood his candidate wins, and the Trump legacy thrives. If only, right??

4 He did some great things during his one term in office.

We have to get past the cult of personality. I know so many allegedly intelligent people who absolutely detest Donald Trump simply because “Orange Man bad!!”. He’s not a smooth talker like Clinton or Obama. He isn’t soft spoken & allegedly “kind” like Biden or Jimmy Carter. He’s egotistical, not a great public speaker, sort of misogynistic, and a bit of an ass. No one is disputing any of that. It’s just a matter of how much it really matters. I get it…we’d all prefer the perfect President, but life isn’t a TV show or movie. Jed Bartlett (The West Wing), Andrew Shepherd (The American President), Thomas Whitmore (Independence Day), Tim Beck (Deep Impact)…none of those guys are walking thru the door because they are fictional. In real life our politicians are quite flawed, so perhaps we should focus on what they do versus what they say. In the case of President Trump there was 3.5% unemployment before COVID, increased peace in Middle East, two new SCOTUS judges that shifted The Court slightly to the right, increased energy independence, less cumbersome regulation on small businesses, lower taxes, and renegotiated trade agreements more favorable to us. Donald Trump is not a globalist…he always put America first, and we haven’t had a President that did that since Ronald Reagan.

3 COVID-19 & #BLM did tremendous damage to his Presidency.

What would a world that never endured the race riots of 2020 or a global pandemic look like?? Aside from the obvious I am pretty sure you’d still be calling Donald Trump “Mr. President”. It’s no surprise that people tired of the chaos that defined 2020. Everyone just wants a bit of tranquility & order back in our lives, and whether you put the blame for everything that has happened in recent years squarely on the shoulders of Trump or actually have critical thinking skills the result is still the same…a perception that something needs to change, and the ballot box affords Americans the opportunity to do that. Could Trump have managed the COVID crisis better?? Perhaps, although it’s pretty easy to play armchair quarterback. Let’s be honest…we’ve all been flying by the seat of our pants with this thing. There is no rule book for something we’ve never faced before, and criticizing after the fact is lazy, although that’s exactly what every talking head on television, radio, & The Internet gets paid to do. Is it fair that Trump took much of the blame for the race riots?? Even if you agree that he is a racist (a spurious accusation at best) I’m not sure how one can pin the death of George Floyd & others on Donald Trump, and those events are what gave rise to the #BLM movement. Either way, what matters is that both the racial unrest & the pandemic absolutely weakened an otherwise strong term in office for POTUS.

2 He was right about The Swamp all along, and that became crystal clear during his final weeks in office.

I’ve been a pro wrestling fan almost my entire life, and there are good guys (faces) & bad guys (heels). One of the most entertaining things in wrestling is a heel turn, especially when someone turns on their tag team partner. That’s exactly what happened in the final few weeks of Trump’s presidency, and I’m not sure why anyone was surprised. After four years of relentlessly going after Trump the media finally painted him into a corner and he became toxic. Politicians don’t stick around in DC or anywhere else for multiple decades by showing loyalty. They have perfected the art of self-preservation and will stab anyone in the back if it means helping themselves. That became clear when they concurrently passed spending bills that sent billions of dollars to foreign entities while barely agreeing to help American citizens with a $600 stimulus check. I’m not familiar with the ins & outs of money laundering, but it is my understanding that much of those foreign aid dollars somehow end up back in the bank accounts of our “leaders” in Washington. That’s nothing new…it’s been happening for decades. It’s a huge reason Donald Trump got elected in the first place…American citizens are fed up, and along comes this guy who isn’t part of it and doesn’t hesitate to call The Swamp out on their BS. That one thing was so huge that half the country was willing to take a deep breath, hold their nose, & vote for an otherwise objectionable candidate. Anyway, the passage of those bills made it quite evident that it doesn’t matter if they are Democrats or Republicans…they’re all crooked weasels who do NOT give a rat’s ass about you & me despite all of their flowery speeches. They are greedy & power hungry. Most of them refused to even acknowledge the possibility of election fraud, and absolutely would not take steps to insure the legitimacy of the results. Nearly all of Trump’s alleged allies turned on him, impeaching him for an unprecedented second time. The Swamp is terrified that he could run again in 2024 & win, although he’d be 78 years old by then and I don’t believe he’d do it, but they’re going to make damn sure of it. Not only that, but the few elected officials who stood with Trump until the bitter end will probably suffer consequences. That’s how The Swamp operates. They are about a half step above the freakin’ Mafia.

1 There was rampant election fraud in 2020.

The more the media tells me something is false the more I become convinced it is true (and vice versa). Whether COVID-19 was a convenient crisis Democrats took advantage of or its origins are much more sinister, the fact is it altered how, where, & when many citizens voted. There are just too many stories about people finding out their dead relative or even their dog voted. There were too many instances of states being flipped by the sudden emergence of thousands of votes in the middle of the night after the election. Too many oddities & irregularities to overlook, like alleged racist Trump actually receiving more of the black vote than he did four years ago but somehow losing. That is unheard of. Like the news media that has eliminated all pretense of fairness & impartiality the Democrat Party barely tried to cover their tracks in stealing the White House. They pretty much openly did it then mockingly said “Ha!! Prove it!!”. With the Deep State, mainstream media, power brokers in business & entertainment, and Big Tech giants who are more iniquitous than we could have ever imagined all in lockstep it became quite effortless. If it wasn’t so damn wicked I’d actually applaud the resourcefulness of it all. Unfortunately I have to live with the results and what’s going to happen the next four years. Let’s just say I’m not anticipating anything good.

A semi-regular attempt to address some of life’s minutiae that might otherwise be overlooked…..

So I ran across this lil gem…

“Cynicism can actually be damaging to one’s heart, according to the National Institute of Health. A study previously published by the agency’s National Center for Biotechnology Information concluded that cynical, hostile attitudes toward others can be connected to cardiovascular disease”.

I’m so screwed 👀.

“Speak softly & carry a big stick”. That’s a philosophy famously promoted by President Theodore Roosevelt, and I believe it’s a good rule of thumb. Unfortunately, with social media nowadays it’s really easy for people to not speak softly. In The Godfather Michael Corleone instructs his younger brother Fredo to “never let anyone outside The Family know what you are thinking”, which is another excellent maxim we should follow, but of course we don’t because there are just so many ways to let everyone know exactly what we think about any subject imaginable. I mention all of this because I see some common themes pop up amongst several of my female friends out there in cyberspace. Many of them are divorced and have been screwed over in one way or another. They talk about “reclaiming their power”, being fierce, & “straightening each others’ crowns”. They use terms like “gaslighting”, “my truth”, “mansplaining”, “self care”, “empowerment”, “patriarchy”, “narcissist”, “toxic masculinity”, & “lovebombing”. They’re really into being independent, strong, no longer staying quiet or falling in line with societal expectations, and being bold & fearless. Most are really liberal and all about being “woke”. Look, I’m not saying any of that is necessarily bad, and to be honest I prefer strong, intelligent, independent women. I am simply opining that constantly talking in those terms feels a bit disingenuous, as if a scared child is trying to psych herself into facing a difficult situation but not really believing in themselves. It also seems like such women kind of hate men, and as a man why would I possibly want to become involved on any level with someone who hates me?? I think most of us can agree that the old-fashioned notion of women staying home, being barefoot & pregnant, doing all the housework & taking care of the kids 24/7, and being submissive to their man is no longer appropriate, if it ever was in the first place. I would love to find a wife, and I would like that person to be my equal, my helpmate, my partner, strong, intelligent, and even a badass. But I’m not sure I could deal with someone who expects me to “check my privilege” (whatever the hell that means) and walk on eggshells in fear of offending her at every turn. Many of the ladies I see embracing these ideas are beautiful, successful, & strong. They are great mothers and fantastic people. They already embody the passion, courage, & tenacity they seem to desire so badly. Why would such a lovely & valuable treasure intentionally present themselves as unapproachable & morose??

Earlier this year I started binge watching The Office. I loved it. I enjoyed the Jim & Pam romance and fixated on Jim as my favorite character. Then stuff happened. You don’t need to know the details, but suffice to say I cannot bring myself to finish watching the series, and I freakin’ despise Jim Halpert. I’d run over that sonofabitch with my truck. Life is funny. Maddening, frustrating, & depressing…but funny.

So…do I believe there was all sorts of chicanery involved in the 2020 Presidential Election?? Hell yes. I’m not much on conspiracy theories, but I have zero doubt that The Left’s virulent hatred for President Trump led them to hatch a nefarious plot a few years ago, a plan they executed well enough. How did the global pandemic play into it?? I’m not sure. Was it simply a convenient disaster that they were smart enough to take advantage of…or is the truth even more sinister?? Who knows?? We’ll probably never get the real story, and I’m not the kind of person who will lose sleep or drive myself mad focusing on the whole deal. I’m certainly not the protest/riot type. I will just continue to quietly go about my business and lead my boring little life, enjoying what I can when I am able to do so. I certainly have some thoughts about America’s future under a new administration. Perhaps I’ll express those opinions…or maybe I won’t. Let’s just say that I have some level of concern about what is going to happen, but I don’t feel like it would be wise or productive to dwell in a place of negativity. My faith is bigger than my politics, and I have learned to embrace a “one day at a time” mindset.