I smile at the picture of the Donald telling an interviewer what a landslide he had over Hillary Clinton. His feeling is that he has the mandate to do whatever he and his fellow Republicans want. The fact that he won Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio by under a reportedly 77, 000 votes or so doesn’t dampened his rhetoric.
The popular vote lead by Hillary Clinton is surpassing 2.9 million over Trump. The obvious question, how someone who loses the popular vote by such a wide margin claim to have a mandate can? And the biggie, why did that over 77 thousand voters vote for the Donald?
Look at it this way; our systems say that any state that has a majority of votes for a presidential candidate. That candidate is awarding all of the state’s Electoral Votes. So those 77,000 or so votes spread over the states above is a very small margin of victory. It’s not a mandate or approval of the president-elect policy. It should also be noted that most of the country’s population centered on the west and east coasts.
I watched a broadcast of MNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on the evening of December 13th. Chis and his special guest, Senator Bernie Sanders was in Kenosha Wisconsin. Kenosha’s located between Chicago and Milwaukee, just to give you a geographical marker. Trump won (by about 215 votes) Kenosha County which had not voted Republican since 1972. Chris was there to get a sense of an audience of voters on why they voted Republican.
The bottom line, he picked a panel of two women and two men who voted for Trump. They voiced their opinions to a specific question regarding minimum wages, immigration, and Wall Street Responsibility. The panelist stated they opposed the Muslim people ban, deporting people back to their country, etc. In other words, they felt that none of those ideas would become policy. Those same people voted for Trump. Senator Bernie Sanders, who’d won the Wisconsin Primary over Mrs. Clinton, wanted clarification of a point. He didn’t understand why Trump backers voted for a liar whose policy they thought would never be enforced. At the end of the day, they couldn’t explain it.
The Donald is going to count on his voters numbering in the 44 to 46% range to have his back. Those people don’t care about his tax returns, conflict of interest while president, or not qualified personnel he has nominated to his cabinet. So don’t look for them to oppose anything Trump proposes because they believe in Trump, Trump, and more Trump.
He will package his programs as though each action benefits them. They will continue to take him at his word until something directly affects their lives. That something will have to be clear, concise, and in black and white. In other words, something they simply cannot deny or accuse the Democrats or press of misinterpreting as they tend to do for anything Trump. At least that will be the Donald’s version.
For his critics his game is simple. Create a distraction, for instance, the day he announced the controversial Rex Tillerson as his Secretary of State nominee. He tweeted that Lockheed’s F-35 Jet cost was out of control, saying billions of dollars will be saved once he takes office. Needless to say, Lockheed stock took a nosedive after hearing that news. The tweet does a couple of things besides acting as a distraction. He warns his enemies and all that he can and will hurt you or your pocketbook with a simple tweet. It also makes others wonder who he will come after next. And it pleases the people that elected him. They say, as one of the Kenosha panelists said, he is already shaking things up.
Let’s not forget the revenge factor. Remember the picture of Mitt Romney after teasing him about the Secretary of State Job. The man looked like a whipped dog stepping up to the microphone and reversing himself on all he said before Trump won the presidency. But the Donald is going to learn, people who use power like that don’t usually keep that kind of power for long. He’s voted out of office, or it goes to his head, and he commits an impeachable offense. My bet is on the latter.
Kellyanne Conway has been named counselor to Trump. She, the smiling blond, blue-eyed and professional spokesperson and ‘calm the waters in chief’ sorely needed during the campaign. You get the picture of her being a smart individual in choosing how she will associate with his administration. She wants no responsibility when things go wrong, yet have the autonomy to be able to try and advise the Donald on how to conduct himself as the President. Good luck with that Kelly.
Now their latest mantra is Democrats you lost; accept it and move on. They want us to sit in a corner and let the Donald do his thing. Don’t worry your little simple minded heads about the things going on with Trumps business connections, tweets, or how he plans on gutting the American way of life for what’s left of the middle class. You lost, they scream, go back to your homes, and stay off the streets. Don’t get involved in things where you know nothing or it is not your business. The Donald will take care of things. Sure…and the tooth fairy won’t leave any more coins to children. Why, because he will not have any spare change. The administration being assembled is like the Class War Clean-up Crew. You think you didn’t have much disposable income after eight years of George W. Bush? Just wait until the Donald’s crew, along with this Republican Congress get through with all Americans. And for those almost 77,000 Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio people who elected Trump. Boy…are they in for a rude awakening.
But then never mind the Donald. The question is where we go from here. We can look to the North Carolina race for Governor. Look at what happen even after the guy finally conceded. In short, keep congressional representatives feet to the fire. They should start with the nominees the Donald selected to run these various governments agencies. Vigorously oppose those actions we disagree with on the local and national stages. It’s up to the Democrats to keep their eye on the 2018 mid-term elections. Pick strong candidates and start doing the groundwork today. We cannot afford to wait and wind down for the past national election. We don’t have the time.
Peace, yet stay vigilant for our American rights. Make it a day in which Jesus Christ would be proud of you,
Codis Hampton II
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