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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Column One: Trump's true opponent |
| 2016-11-04 |
| [Jpost] ...After eight years of Barack Obama’s White House, America is a different place than it was in 2008, when Obama ran on a platform of hope and change. Americans today are angry, scared, divided and cynical. The outcome of this presidential election will determine whether Obama’s fundamental transformation of America will become a done deal. If Clinton prevails, the Obama revolution will be irreversible. IMO, if Clinton prevails, we'll be posting "miss me yet" with Obama's kisser ...But for his supporters, who Trump is, is less important than what he represents. And what he represents is the voters’ rebellion against the American establishment ‐ not just the political establishment, but the full spectrum of the American elite. From Washington to Wall Street, from college campuses to the media, tens of millions of Americans believe that their establishment is rotten to the core. And they support Trump because he is running against the establishment. Popular resentment and animosity towards the powers that be was enough to win Trump the Republican nomination. And as he closes the gap with Clinton in the lead up to Tuesday, chances are rising that it will be enough to get him into the White House as well. ...Since Obama entered office he has used the powers of his office to seize powers no president had ever dared to claim. And Republicans ‐ who bore the brunt of the damage his policies caused ‐ expected their presidential nominees and congressional representatives to protect them. They expected them to curb Obama’s perceived abuses at the IRS, the EPA, at the border with Mexico, the Justice Department, in the healthcare industry, the military, the State Department and beyond. In both the 2008 and 2012 elections, millions of Republican voters were appalled by their successive nominees’ refusal to go on the offensive against Obama. In 2008, Sen. John McCain refused to mention Obama’s deep and longstanding ties with radical political and social forces, including his decades’ long relationship with his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who regularly preached hatred for America from his pulpit. In 2012, Mitt Romney simply choked. He couldn’t make a competent case against Obama or withstand media criticism, that as the Republican nominee he should have expected. Indeed, in both cases, Republican voters walked away from their party’s defeat with the sense that their candidates care more about what media said about them than they cared about winning. Republican voters took an even dimmer view of their congressional leadership. In both the 2010 and 2014 congressional elections, Republicans won majorities in both houses of Congress. The voters’ clear wish was for the Republican lawmakers to check Obama. But instead, the Republican leadership lashed out at their own voters while failing time after time to check Obama’s perceived abuse of power. ...Trump was elected to be the Republican presidential nominee because Trump is the opposite of McCain, Romney and their counterparts in the GOP’s congressional leadership ranks. Trump isn’t merely running against Democrats and the liberal establishment. He is running against the Republican establishment as well. And his supporters love him for it. ...According to one analysis. 91 percent of the media coverage of Trump’s campaign has been negative. But the negative press has only strengthened his supporters’ conviction that he is the man of the hour. A poll taken by USA Today earlier this week makes the point clear. The poll asked likely voters, "What do you think is the primary threat that might try to change the election results?" For months, the Clinton campaign has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is interfering in the election on Trump’s behalf. Yet a mere 10 percent of voters polled said that "foreign interests such as Russian hackers," would try to steal the elections. On the other hand, 46 percent said the news media would. Another 21 percent said "the national political establishment" was intervening in the elections to shift the vote in the direction they wish. In other words, 67 percent of voters believe that the establishment Trump is running against is trying to steal the elections. ...The renewed investigations against Clinton are not driving her voters away from her. As Clinton herself argued hours after Comey’s decision became public, her supporters have already factored in her legal difficulties. Trump is rising because with every new report of Clinton’s alleged corruption, Republican and Independent voters are reminded of how corrupt the establishment has become. Their view of the lesser of two evils is shifting. By Wednesday we will know whether the Republicans and Independents who are now accepting Trump will be enough to put him over the top. But what is clear enough today is that the voters who reject the establishment and view it as incurably corrupt will give Clinton no quarter if she manages to eke out a victory. At the same time, the establishment’s hatred of Trump will foment Washington battles the likes of which we have never seen, if he wins on Tuesday. There is a lot hanging in the balance in this election. But only one question will determine the outcome. If Trump wins on Tuesday, it will be the establishment he defeats. Me, I remember Pym Fortyne |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #7 Let the Democrats go against a black woman and see what happens to their coalition. It'll be 50x worse than what the MSM did to Sarah Palin. |
| Posted by: Raj 2016-11-04 12:18 |
| #6 Let the Democrats go against a black woman and see what happens to their coalition. They'll announce she's not really black or properly female, and that will be the end of it. Look what they did to Clarence Thomas, among many, many others. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-11-04 11:28 |
| #5 Mia Love needs to become a Governor and get some Executive experience so she'll be positioned for 2024. Let the Democrats go against a black woman and see what happens to their coalition. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-11-04 10:08 |
| #4 The attituded, the tats and body piercings are so alien, so beyond my comprehension. Perhaps it is good I am in the twilight period of life. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-11-04 09:14 |
| #3 They just aren't really much of a challenge to anyone but themselves. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-11-04 09:11 |
| #2 Generation farcebook really doesn't believe in anything. If they ever stopped to wonder why suckerpurge has all that money and they don't, they might actually focus. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-11-04 09:11 |
| #1 Americans today are angry, scared, divided and cynical. Scared? No, I am seldom scared of what I see coming and have time to prepare for. Challenged yes, scared? Not so much. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-11-04 07:43 |