180100 Trump Revisited (again)

I’m a political liberal, but I have to admire the way Trump has turned the tables on entrenched Washington. He acted outrageously, saying and doing whatever he wanted for a year until people like Nancy Pelosi were in full-fledged opposition. Then he pretends to play nice and calls for unity. Of course, he lies all the time, but then so does his opposition, so their outrage is more than a bit ingenuous. Nancy’s response is understandable and human, but she looks ridiculous.

He sponsors legislation which is fiscally irresponsible and not in the long-range best interests of anyone but the wealthy, but points to the short-term benefits for the poor and working class. And, because his supporters are generally not long-term thinkers, it goes over well.

His foreign policy, likewise, is popular and sounds sensible, but it is really doubling down on the policy of foreign intervention, which caused the problems of terrorism both here and overseas in the first place.

God, Americans are so gullible, they’ve believed this patriotic, religious and statistical rhetoric all along while the actual facts show something completely different. We’ve been played — and played well — by both sides — for a long time. As a player, Donald Trump may well be a master.

©David N. Dodson, January 2018