I wish I could say I was disappointed in Trump. In my mind, disappointment means you expected one thing and got another. No, I knew exactly what to expect from Trump, and he has delivered. He has been childish, impetuous, spiteful, unreasonable, uniformed, unprepared, and grossly incompetent. Those who surround him are the same if not more so.
I am truly disappointed in spineless GOP senators. They were quick to jump on the Trump train when he was the inevitable nominee and just as quick to jump off after Trump stepped on himself multiple times and seemed to be the inevitable loser in the general election. He personally insulted and demeaned many of them...long-standing senators who enjoy the support of hundreds of thousands of constituents...some of them his fellow former presidential candidates. In case you forgot, here's a quick reminder:
1. Senator Cruz - Trump insulted his wife and accused his father of being involved in the Kennedy assassination.
2. Senator Rubio - "Little Marco." (They traded insults quite a bit during the campaign. But I'll lay into Rubio more a little later.)
3. Senator Graham - Trump implied that he shouldn't have bothered running and that he would "crack that 1 percent barrier one day."
4. Senator Paul - Trump said point blank that Paul shouldn't even be on the same debate stage because of his dismal poll numbers, and Trump seemed to praise himself for not attacking Paul's looks (whatever the hell THAT means).
5. Senator McCain - Trump demeaned his war record and his POW status, saying that he wasn't a war hero because he was captured.
He's also clashed with GOP senators who have spoken the truth about Trump (Senators Sasse and Flake come to mind).
I am disappointed that partisanship has superseded discipline, common sense, and the rule of law. Why are these GOP senators giving Trump everything he wants and not standing up to him? Yes, they may say publicly that the wall is stupid, that the immigration ban is heartless and unnecessary, that his conflicts of interest are still conflicts of interest, blah blah blah. But what about hitting him where it hurts...his cabinet nominations? Tillerson, DeVos, Sessions, Price, Carson, Mnuchin, Perry, Puzder, and Pruitt are all terrible nominees for a variety of reasons and yet the GOP Senate is just letting them slide through one by one.
Can they possibly believe that these people are qualified for these positions? If not, why are they confirming them if not for just pure politics? Two senators in particular have stoked my ire:
1. Senator Rubio. He said he wouldn't run again. He changed his mind and he says this is why "We’re in a different place now. Now we have a binary choice -- not a choice between 15 people or 12 people. There are two people in the world that are going to be the next president, either Donald or Hillary Clinton. In our republic, while the presidency is powerful, there is a balance of power in this country, and a significant amount of it resides in the United States Senate. It’s one of the reasons why I seek to run again.”
When is he going to actually exercise that balance of power? The answer is, he won't. He has a political future to think about and constituents (read - Trump supporters) to answer to and fear. Yes, he fears them. Many elected officials do.
2. Senator McCain. Mr. Maverick. He's 80 years old and safe for another 6 years. He's not going to run for president again. He probably won't run for Senate again. He supported Trump (grudgingly) to get reelected. Well, he got there. What is he going to do now that he's there? Criticize Trump when it's convenient but not vote against his nominees when it would really send a message? That's no maverick.
Trump supporters have become the revival of the Tea Party, and the GOP is terrified of them. They know Trump is wrong on every level, but they won't stand up to him because they're afraid of some hard-right Trumpian candidate challenging them and beating them in a primary. They will capitulate until they can't legally do it any longer. At some point, Congress has to do its job and investigate wrong-doing! Trump's most ardent supporters will still stand by him no matter how many times he or his minions bend the truth, lie, bend the rules, or flat out break the law. These same supporters will vilify Members of Congress and curse them as traitors. So, yeah...they're terrified.
Spine? Nope. Integrity? Not a chance.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Monday, November 21, 2016
The Crybaby Movement
For the better part
of two weeks, all I’ve been hearing from some Trump supporters is
“The election is over, he won. It’s time to pick up the pieces,
move on, unite as a country, get to work, and make America great
again. Get over it, get on board, and give him a chance, you crybaby
whiners.” I distinctly remember the hate and vitriol toward Obama after his first election. There was no "give him a chance." There was no unity, no mandate, no coming together. People were aghast by a man who had not threatened to build a wall or ban an entire religion or grab women by their pussies. A man who had not hired a white supremacist or bilked small business owners or hid his taxes or invited the Russians to interfere in our elections. No, I remember a man who got set off by the most minor slight. A man who attacked a Gold Star family, a former Ms. Universe, a disabled man, the media, the polls, Paul Ryan, the GOP. He was a petulant child, foot-stomping his way through the nomination and the general election. And taking to Twitter to air his grievances because THAT is presidential.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has been the biggest
crybaby of all? Trump and some of his supporters.
The protesters were Trump’s first target when he called them professional protesters, bought and paid for by the media.
People are appalled, angry, and frightened and they’re protesting
to express it. The backbone of Trump’s campaign was bigotry toward
women, Hispanics, immigrants, African Americans, Muslims, and the
LGBT community. No, Trump did not personally disparage every single
one of these groups, but by bringing Steve Bannon on board, Trump
embraced the vile, hateful rhetoric spewed by Breitbart and the
alt-right. What the hell did he think would happen after being
elected under this cloud of hatred while losing the popular vote? And
despite his pledge during his acceptance speech to unite the country
and be the president of all Americans, Trump immediately cried foul
about the “unfair” protests on Twitter. He followed up the next
day praising the “small groups of protesters” and their “passion
for our great country.” I’m not sure if damage control was the
intent, but it didn’t seem to work.
Trump renewed his
crybaby Twitter attacks against the “failing” New York Times with
“Neener-neener, I won, you were wrong, you suck” and “quit
lying about the transition which is going just fine.” Yeah, nothing
to see here...backlash from Bannon’s continued presence, continued talks about the wall and the Muslim registry, “inquiring” about security clearances for his kids while they’re
managing the business (and then denying it), countless conflicts of interest, seeking to circumvent
nepotism laws to bring his son-in-law on board, and a handful of
other controversial possible cabinet picks.
Then
there was Hamilton-gate. Mike Pence was politely asked by the
multicultural gay/gay-friendly cast in a written statement to be
inclusive of all Americans. Then Pence was booed by the
multicultural gay/gay-friendly audience, which was told by the same
multicultural gay/gay-friendly cast not to boo Pence. Trump unleashed
another crying Twitter torrent saying the rude cast of the “highly
overrated” show harassed Pence and demanded that they apologize.
Yes, the same man who hurled utterly despicable garbage throughout
his campaign and never apologized wants the Hamilton cast to
apologize.
Trump
has demonstrated his lack of presidential prowess since that fateful
ride down the escalator last year. I assumed that his constant crying
about everything being unfair, rigged, wrong, lying, and biased would
end after the election. But it hasn’t, and it’s setting a
terrible example for his supporters. He continues to exhibit
thin-skinned, temperamental reactions to every perceived slight, and
his supporters appear to be acting in kind. They’re lashing out at
anything they see as an expression of distaste for Trump and calling
non-supporters crybabies who need to get over it. My question is, if
Trump supporters are so happy and proud that he won, why are they
crying about what Trump detractors are saying and jumping all over
them when they do? It’s time to toughen up and hang on for the
ride, Trump people. It’s going to be a long four years.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
How Could Trump Have Possibly Won?
Full disclosure: I supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary and in the 2016 general election.
I've been debating if it's too soon to do my postmortem on this election. People are protesting, they're questioning, they're WTFing their friends, family, and neighbors who voted for Trump, they're angry and upset. I get that. I'm angry and disappointed every time I turn on the TV and see something about Trump and his circus of a transition team trying to get him ready to be president. I've accepted that he won and Hillary lost, but I'm still upset about it. So I've been trying to make my peace with it, namely by starting this blog and doing a deep dive into issues that I feel are important and saying things that I feel need to be said.
If you're still in mourning, and you feel you're not ready, I understand. But you might not want to read any further. In trying to flesh out what I think went wrong, I'm going to point out what I deem were fatal flaws with Hillary's campaign and its strategies and with Hillary herself.
First, let me say that I think Hillary Clinton is brilliant in every sense of the word. She is without a doubt, the smartest and most capable woman politician in our era. She has been the subject of vicious personal attacks, but she has always prevailed and lived to fight another day. And make no mistake, Hillary is a fighter who never quits just because things are hard.
Unfortunately, the sins of the past (not necessarily hers) have followed her for almost 25 years. Bill's indiscretions and nearly a dozen other mostly unfounded investigations against her and Bill cast a dark cloud over both of them. Never being one to sit on the sidelines, Hillary moved to New York and won a Senate seat. She was moving on and moving up, trying to leave the ugly past behind.
In her first run for president in 2008, Hillary fought hard and had some great success in the primary, but there were still some trust and likability issues surrounding her, and the enthusiasm for Obama catapulted him to the nomination and the presidency. Hillary thrived as Secretary of State, but she left wounded and vulnerable because of the ridiculous, endless, and fruitless Benghazi hearings, and the ultimate revelation of her private server. A private email account may not have been so bad, but this was a private server. Not good. At all. A public servant who sets up a private server for official and private email leads people to believe there's something to hide. After being accusing of muddling the handling of Benghazi to point of negligence, she really didn't need another bull's-eye on her back.
With all the baggage hanging around her neck for 25 years, all the scandals and non-scandals, Benghazi, and now the private server, she still decided to run for president in 2016. Even before the general election, even before the primaries, there were times when I questioned the conventional wisdom of her decision. Hillary's likability and trustworthiness were once again becoming major issues for her. I wondered at the time if it would have been better for herself and for the party to acknowledge her vulnerabilities and pass the torch. We would have thanked her for long years of public service, sought her counsel and experience, and moved on.
Although I did admire her courage for being willing to subject herself to the abuse that she would most certainly encounter during the campaign, I feared the ugliness of it -- both professional and personal. But running for president isn't for ninnies, and Hillary is an iron lady. So I really wanted more than anything for Hillary to stick it to the haters...run for president, get the nomination, and win the presidency. Despite the scandals and the unforced errors, she worked incredibly hard for it and had damn well earned it! But the scandals and the mistakes would ultimately prove to be insurmountable.
Bernie Sanders' quick rise to national-level celebrity was fueled by a fiery populist message that really seemed to resonate with the unemployed, the working poor, the working class, college students, and just about everyone in between. He ran against Washington elites, Wall Street, money-grubbing corporations, and job-killing trade deals. He also successfully tied Hillary to all of those things -- effectively authoring what would be some of Trump's best attack lines against her in the general election. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was stepping all over himself, hurling insults and bigotry, and being completely written off by the media, the GOP, and his fellow Republican candidates.
On March 8th, Bernie stunned the Clinton campaign by winning the Michigan primary by just over 1 percent. That might not seem like much, but looking at the sheer number of counties that went for Bernie, it changes the perspective a bit. And what really shocked Team Clinton was that she was leading in the polls by double digits heading into the primary.
Hillary won Ohio on March 15th by 13 percent, so I'm sure that softened the blow from losing Michigan. However, on April 15th, Bernie obliterated Hillary in Wisconsin, winning by more than 13 percent and every single county except Milwaukee -- and Hillary only won that by 3 percent. The polls had been closer in Wisconsin, but Sanders had an average lead of four to five points.
Hillary went on to win Pennsylvania by about 12 percent and the overall primary by 13 percent. But those losses in Michigan and Wisconsin should have been a wake-up call for Team Clinton. Her strategists should have immediately been asking "What was in his message that really resonated with people?" "What was in Hillary's message that didn't?" "What voting bloc did he appeal to?" "What voting bloc did Hillary not appeal to?"
Not only did the Clinton campaign not ask those questions, but it didn't bother to spend any real time in those states talking to the voters after the primaries. I know, generally you don't spend your money or political capital in "safe" states. But who the hell assumed these were safe states to begin with? Oh, I remember...it was the polls. They're never wrong. Remember the Michigan primary? Regardless, it seems that Hillary and her people thought nothing had changed across the country in 4 years and therefore didn't bother to do anything more than copy/paste the Obama campaign operation from 2012 with no tweaking, updating, or research. A huge underestimation on the part of the Hillary campaign was that even though Obama saved the automotive industry, he couldn't save everyone in its wake of its near-collapse. People in the Rust Belt were still hurting and not thriving as they hoped they would. And through all of the achievements and successes of the Obama Presidency, some people got left behind. Bernie had spoken to those people and acknowledged their plight. He pledged to fix the system, end these crappy trade deals, bring back jobs, and make college and health care more affordable for everyone. Hillary tried to incorporate that same populist message, but it fell flat, especially when she didn't make much effort to deliver that message in person.
The more obvious it became that Trump would be the Republican nominee, the more complacent the Hillary campaign seemed to become. Trump's own primary rivals called him the chaos candidate, a con man, and a pathological liar. The more that came out about Trump (and out of his own mouth), the more emboldened the Hillary campaign became. In their eyes, he was destined to fail and die by his own hand. After the Republican Convention, Trump racked up so many self-inflicted wounds that the media couldn't keep up anymore. It became a joke and so did Trump. But there was this one little thing...
In between his tweets and public comments calling Bernie Sanders a sell-out for supporting Hillary at the Democratic Convention, Trump tweeted on 25 July, "Sad to watch Bernie Sanders abandon his revolution. We welcome all voters who want to fix our rigged system and bring back our jobs." He repeated it publicly several more times. I remember watching the talking heads write off Trump's sentiment as self-serving and ridiculous, and it was ultimately ignored and forgotten. It turned out to be a not-so-subtle shot across Team Clinton's bow, and here's why: Bernie is a progressive socialist, and Hillary is a moderate capitalist. How do you bridge the divide to unite the party? Pull Hillary to the left and risk alienating moderate voters? Keep Hillary in the center and risk alienating the enthusiastic Bernie supporters who went nuts for him but were cool to her? What to do, what to do. Hillary decided to lean more left and adopt most of Bernie's agenda. The problem was, the voters weren't buying it. They knew who and what Hillary was, and she wasn't fooling anybody. Additionally, there was a growing perception and anger that Hillary, the Washington insider, was the DNC's anointed one and that the system was rigged against Bernie Sanders.
Regardless, Team Clinton remained confident and started making headway into traditional battleground states, leaving the always-reliable Blue Wall in the rear-view mirror. But again, how safe was that wall? After losing Michigan and Wisconsin to Bernie in the primaries, Hillary went to Detroit once and made no return trips to Michigan or Wisconsin until days before the election. Donald Trump went to Michigan five times between the Republican Convention and 7 October. He also went to Wisconsin five times between the Convention and 1 November. I lost count how many times he went to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Guess who was out there talking to those voters? Not Hillary. She seemed to take those reliably Democratic voters for granted. And most unfortunately, Trump was able to fill the void that Hillary left. He filled it with a lot of crap he can't possibly deliver, but at least someone was listening to the voters and telling them exactly what they wanted and needed to hear.
Most shocking to me was when Hillary was really high in the national and statewide polls, the Clinton campaign started eye-balling Arizona, Texas, and Georgia as potential battlegrounds. Can you imagine how much that must have pissed off Rust Belt democratic and independent voters that maybe weren't that thrilled about voting for Trump but would have died of old age waiting for Hillary to come and talk to them? It's almost cringe-worthy that Team Clinton listed all the states she could lose (the ones she spent the most time in) as long as the Blue Wall held (states in which she spent almost no time until the very end). The campaign even made its peace with potentially losing Ohio, which Obama won twice. Again, the voters in those states were left out in the cold. Hillary and her campaign insisted repeatedly that there was no time for complacency and that they weren't taking anything for granted. If they had embraced and addressed the concerns of one of their core voting blocs, the Rust Belt working class, those voters wouldn't have been left vulnerable to Trump's sideshow sales pitch. And don't think that the "basket of deplorables" comment was forgiven or forgotten. That hurt her more than many are willing to acknowledge, in much the same way Mitt Romney's 47 percent comment hurt him.
Most of us thought there was no way the qualified, experienced, tested, eloquent Hillary Clinton could possibly lose to a vile, temperamental, misogynistic, race-baiting bigot who wouldn't release his tax returns, engaged in questionable business practices that screwed small-business owners and bankrupted his own companies, had inexplicable adoration for Vladimir Putin, and demonstrated ignorance of all things presidential at every turn. To add more insult to his self-inflicted injuries, Hillary crushed him in three debates, making him appear even less prepared for the presidency.
The voters either overlooked or forgave Trump for his crudeness and extremism because other things he said and believed were more important to them -- dysfunctional Washington, Obamacare, trade deals that cost Americans their jobs, terrorism on American soil, and out-of-control illegal immigration. And they seemed to love not only that he addressed these things but that he was not a Washington insider owned by constituents and lobbyists. The voters were sick of Washington and everything it meant to be an insider and a Beltway veteran. Yes, they sent almost all the same House and Senate candidates back to their jobs, but a majority of these voters blamed Obama for their problems and not Congress. Counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin that voted twice for Obama flipped for Trump. It happened in counties in Florida and Virginia too.
Hillary could not shake her status as a Washington insider, her coziness with Wall Street, her repeated attempts to double-talk her use of a private server, the suspicion of a pay-for-play operation while she was Secretary of State, the lingering Benghazi stench, the cursed WikiLeaks revelations, and on and on. Four more years of an Obama-like administration and the threat of countless more investigations and impeachment hearings and fights over Supreme Court nominees grid locking all other business in Washington didn't help her either. Some of these characterizations were from self-inflicted wounds, and some were due to circumstances beyond her control and thereby wholly unfair. But her biggest mistake was riding a wave of confidence while leaving a core voting bloc wide open for a Trump infiltration. And yes, she's still ahead in the popular vote, but she blew an early and solid advantage in the Electoral College by not shoring up what had been a solid Democratic base.
To all the talking heads and Clinton campaign strategists who kept asking "What the hell is Trump doing in the Rust Belt?" I hope you get it now. And shame on all of you for writing off Michael Moore's insightful article explaining how, where, and why Trump would win big and win the presidency. Perhaps the lean-red momentum in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania was too great to stop and reverse. But leaving those states in the lurch was a bad move.
I'm not sure which Democratic candidate, if any, could have beaten Donald Trump. Obama's approval numbers were over 50 percent, but that depended on who you asked and where. Bernie might have had a shot, but who knows. I feel bad for Hillary and I wish her well. We are in no way, shape, or form better off with Donald Trump, but I can't help but feel that a less-wounded candidate may have prevented Trump's ascent.
I've been debating if it's too soon to do my postmortem on this election. People are protesting, they're questioning, they're WTFing their friends, family, and neighbors who voted for Trump, they're angry and upset. I get that. I'm angry and disappointed every time I turn on the TV and see something about Trump and his circus of a transition team trying to get him ready to be president. I've accepted that he won and Hillary lost, but I'm still upset about it. So I've been trying to make my peace with it, namely by starting this blog and doing a deep dive into issues that I feel are important and saying things that I feel need to be said.
If you're still in mourning, and you feel you're not ready, I understand. But you might not want to read any further. In trying to flesh out what I think went wrong, I'm going to point out what I deem were fatal flaws with Hillary's campaign and its strategies and with Hillary herself.
First, let me say that I think Hillary Clinton is brilliant in every sense of the word. She is without a doubt, the smartest and most capable woman politician in our era. She has been the subject of vicious personal attacks, but she has always prevailed and lived to fight another day. And make no mistake, Hillary is a fighter who never quits just because things are hard.
Unfortunately, the sins of the past (not necessarily hers) have followed her for almost 25 years. Bill's indiscretions and nearly a dozen other mostly unfounded investigations against her and Bill cast a dark cloud over both of them. Never being one to sit on the sidelines, Hillary moved to New York and won a Senate seat. She was moving on and moving up, trying to leave the ugly past behind.
In her first run for president in 2008, Hillary fought hard and had some great success in the primary, but there were still some trust and likability issues surrounding her, and the enthusiasm for Obama catapulted him to the nomination and the presidency. Hillary thrived as Secretary of State, but she left wounded and vulnerable because of the ridiculous, endless, and fruitless Benghazi hearings, and the ultimate revelation of her private server. A private email account may not have been so bad, but this was a private server. Not good. At all. A public servant who sets up a private server for official and private email leads people to believe there's something to hide. After being accusing of muddling the handling of Benghazi to point of negligence, she really didn't need another bull's-eye on her back.
With all the baggage hanging around her neck for 25 years, all the scandals and non-scandals, Benghazi, and now the private server, she still decided to run for president in 2016. Even before the general election, even before the primaries, there were times when I questioned the conventional wisdom of her decision. Hillary's likability and trustworthiness were once again becoming major issues for her. I wondered at the time if it would have been better for herself and for the party to acknowledge her vulnerabilities and pass the torch. We would have thanked her for long years of public service, sought her counsel and experience, and moved on.
Although I did admire her courage for being willing to subject herself to the abuse that she would most certainly encounter during the campaign, I feared the ugliness of it -- both professional and personal. But running for president isn't for ninnies, and Hillary is an iron lady. So I really wanted more than anything for Hillary to stick it to the haters...run for president, get the nomination, and win the presidency. Despite the scandals and the unforced errors, she worked incredibly hard for it and had damn well earned it! But the scandals and the mistakes would ultimately prove to be insurmountable.
Bernie Sanders' quick rise to national-level celebrity was fueled by a fiery populist message that really seemed to resonate with the unemployed, the working poor, the working class, college students, and just about everyone in between. He ran against Washington elites, Wall Street, money-grubbing corporations, and job-killing trade deals. He also successfully tied Hillary to all of those things -- effectively authoring what would be some of Trump's best attack lines against her in the general election. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was stepping all over himself, hurling insults and bigotry, and being completely written off by the media, the GOP, and his fellow Republican candidates.
On March 8th, Bernie stunned the Clinton campaign by winning the Michigan primary by just over 1 percent. That might not seem like much, but looking at the sheer number of counties that went for Bernie, it changes the perspective a bit. And what really shocked Team Clinton was that she was leading in the polls by double digits heading into the primary.
Hillary won Ohio on March 15th by 13 percent, so I'm sure that softened the blow from losing Michigan. However, on April 15th, Bernie obliterated Hillary in Wisconsin, winning by more than 13 percent and every single county except Milwaukee -- and Hillary only won that by 3 percent. The polls had been closer in Wisconsin, but Sanders had an average lead of four to five points.
Hillary went on to win Pennsylvania by about 12 percent and the overall primary by 13 percent. But those losses in Michigan and Wisconsin should have been a wake-up call for Team Clinton. Her strategists should have immediately been asking "What was in his message that really resonated with people?" "What was in Hillary's message that didn't?" "What voting bloc did he appeal to?" "What voting bloc did Hillary not appeal to?"
Not only did the Clinton campaign not ask those questions, but it didn't bother to spend any real time in those states talking to the voters after the primaries. I know, generally you don't spend your money or political capital in "safe" states. But who the hell assumed these were safe states to begin with? Oh, I remember...it was the polls. They're never wrong. Remember the Michigan primary? Regardless, it seems that Hillary and her people thought nothing had changed across the country in 4 years and therefore didn't bother to do anything more than copy/paste the Obama campaign operation from 2012 with no tweaking, updating, or research. A huge underestimation on the part of the Hillary campaign was that even though Obama saved the automotive industry, he couldn't save everyone in its wake of its near-collapse. People in the Rust Belt were still hurting and not thriving as they hoped they would. And through all of the achievements and successes of the Obama Presidency, some people got left behind. Bernie had spoken to those people and acknowledged their plight. He pledged to fix the system, end these crappy trade deals, bring back jobs, and make college and health care more affordable for everyone. Hillary tried to incorporate that same populist message, but it fell flat, especially when she didn't make much effort to deliver that message in person.
The more obvious it became that Trump would be the Republican nominee, the more complacent the Hillary campaign seemed to become. Trump's own primary rivals called him the chaos candidate, a con man, and a pathological liar. The more that came out about Trump (and out of his own mouth), the more emboldened the Hillary campaign became. In their eyes, he was destined to fail and die by his own hand. After the Republican Convention, Trump racked up so many self-inflicted wounds that the media couldn't keep up anymore. It became a joke and so did Trump. But there was this one little thing...
In between his tweets and public comments calling Bernie Sanders a sell-out for supporting Hillary at the Democratic Convention, Trump tweeted on 25 July, "Sad to watch Bernie Sanders abandon his revolution. We welcome all voters who want to fix our rigged system and bring back our jobs." He repeated it publicly several more times. I remember watching the talking heads write off Trump's sentiment as self-serving and ridiculous, and it was ultimately ignored and forgotten. It turned out to be a not-so-subtle shot across Team Clinton's bow, and here's why: Bernie is a progressive socialist, and Hillary is a moderate capitalist. How do you bridge the divide to unite the party? Pull Hillary to the left and risk alienating moderate voters? Keep Hillary in the center and risk alienating the enthusiastic Bernie supporters who went nuts for him but were cool to her? What to do, what to do. Hillary decided to lean more left and adopt most of Bernie's agenda. The problem was, the voters weren't buying it. They knew who and what Hillary was, and she wasn't fooling anybody. Additionally, there was a growing perception and anger that Hillary, the Washington insider, was the DNC's anointed one and that the system was rigged against Bernie Sanders.
Regardless, Team Clinton remained confident and started making headway into traditional battleground states, leaving the always-reliable Blue Wall in the rear-view mirror. But again, how safe was that wall? After losing Michigan and Wisconsin to Bernie in the primaries, Hillary went to Detroit once and made no return trips to Michigan or Wisconsin until days before the election. Donald Trump went to Michigan five times between the Republican Convention and 7 October. He also went to Wisconsin five times between the Convention and 1 November. I lost count how many times he went to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Guess who was out there talking to those voters? Not Hillary. She seemed to take those reliably Democratic voters for granted. And most unfortunately, Trump was able to fill the void that Hillary left. He filled it with a lot of crap he can't possibly deliver, but at least someone was listening to the voters and telling them exactly what they wanted and needed to hear.
Most shocking to me was when Hillary was really high in the national and statewide polls, the Clinton campaign started eye-balling Arizona, Texas, and Georgia as potential battlegrounds. Can you imagine how much that must have pissed off Rust Belt democratic and independent voters that maybe weren't that thrilled about voting for Trump but would have died of old age waiting for Hillary to come and talk to them? It's almost cringe-worthy that Team Clinton listed all the states she could lose (the ones she spent the most time in) as long as the Blue Wall held (states in which she spent almost no time until the very end). The campaign even made its peace with potentially losing Ohio, which Obama won twice. Again, the voters in those states were left out in the cold. Hillary and her campaign insisted repeatedly that there was no time for complacency and that they weren't taking anything for granted. If they had embraced and addressed the concerns of one of their core voting blocs, the Rust Belt working class, those voters wouldn't have been left vulnerable to Trump's sideshow sales pitch. And don't think that the "basket of deplorables" comment was forgiven or forgotten. That hurt her more than many are willing to acknowledge, in much the same way Mitt Romney's 47 percent comment hurt him.
Most of us thought there was no way the qualified, experienced, tested, eloquent Hillary Clinton could possibly lose to a vile, temperamental, misogynistic, race-baiting bigot who wouldn't release his tax returns, engaged in questionable business practices that screwed small-business owners and bankrupted his own companies, had inexplicable adoration for Vladimir Putin, and demonstrated ignorance of all things presidential at every turn. To add more insult to his self-inflicted injuries, Hillary crushed him in three debates, making him appear even less prepared for the presidency.
The voters either overlooked or forgave Trump for his crudeness and extremism because other things he said and believed were more important to them -- dysfunctional Washington, Obamacare, trade deals that cost Americans their jobs, terrorism on American soil, and out-of-control illegal immigration. And they seemed to love not only that he addressed these things but that he was not a Washington insider owned by constituents and lobbyists. The voters were sick of Washington and everything it meant to be an insider and a Beltway veteran. Yes, they sent almost all the same House and Senate candidates back to their jobs, but a majority of these voters blamed Obama for their problems and not Congress. Counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin that voted twice for Obama flipped for Trump. It happened in counties in Florida and Virginia too.
Hillary could not shake her status as a Washington insider, her coziness with Wall Street, her repeated attempts to double-talk her use of a private server, the suspicion of a pay-for-play operation while she was Secretary of State, the lingering Benghazi stench, the cursed WikiLeaks revelations, and on and on. Four more years of an Obama-like administration and the threat of countless more investigations and impeachment hearings and fights over Supreme Court nominees grid locking all other business in Washington didn't help her either. Some of these characterizations were from self-inflicted wounds, and some were due to circumstances beyond her control and thereby wholly unfair. But her biggest mistake was riding a wave of confidence while leaving a core voting bloc wide open for a Trump infiltration. And yes, she's still ahead in the popular vote, but she blew an early and solid advantage in the Electoral College by not shoring up what had been a solid Democratic base.
To all the talking heads and Clinton campaign strategists who kept asking "What the hell is Trump doing in the Rust Belt?" I hope you get it now. And shame on all of you for writing off Michael Moore's insightful article explaining how, where, and why Trump would win big and win the presidency. Perhaps the lean-red momentum in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania was too great to stop and reverse. But leaving those states in the lurch was a bad move.
I'm not sure which Democratic candidate, if any, could have beaten Donald Trump. Obama's approval numbers were over 50 percent, but that depended on who you asked and where. Bernie might have had a shot, but who knows. I feel bad for Hillary and I wish her well. We are in no way, shape, or form better off with Donald Trump, but I can't help but feel that a less-wounded candidate may have prevented Trump's ascent.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
The Trump Swamp
As a former intelligence professional, I have to admit that I'm troubled by the link between President-Elect Trump and the Trump Organization's murky relations with foreign countries, leaders, and businesses. All of the reporting in just the last few months on both the Trump Organization and Foundation should have triggered more concern and scrutiny, but it never seemed to stick because it was just business. He was a businessman, not a politician, and it was just business. Here's why I'm troubled...
Thousands of people who work in certain government jobs need to qualify for a security clearance. Employees must provide personal and financial information, such as foreign travel, foreign contacts, income, financial holdings, real estate, etc. Foreign investments would definitely come up!
The point of providing all this information for a clearance is to determine not only trustworthiness to maintain the clearance and protect vital national security information, but also to flag any potential conflicts of interest (financial or otherwise) and/or vulnerability to bribery or blackmail. And of course, any criminal activity would certainly be brought to light.
Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the Trump Foundation encapsulate exactly the kind of conflicts of interests that would impact security clearances and cast a dark cloud on trustworthiness.
Most unsettling to me is the nefarious Russia connection: Trump's adoration of Vladimir Putin; Russia's hacking of the DNC and John Podesta's emails to benefit the Trump campaign; Paul Manafort's ties to the Ukraine; Carter Page's ties to Gazprom; and Moscow's contact with the Trump campaign...just to name a few. And yet the FBI contends there's no there there. The greater intelligence community would beg to differ just on the optics alone.
Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald reported extensively on the Trump Organization's foreign investments and business ventures in at least a half dozen countries, most of which were rife with corruption, fraud, and scandal in the host countries leading to convictions of some of the foreign players involved. And those are just the ones Eichenwald was able to dig up. The Trump Organization's failed and/or dubious business ventures could jeopardize relationships with important allies like South Korea, India, Turkey, and the UAE if the temperamental Trump decided to retaliate against them for canning his business investments. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, we don't really know how much or to whom Trump is beholding because despite all his empty promises, he still hasn't released his tax returns.
David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post has detailed Donald Trump's apparent misuse of the Trump Foundation to pay legal fees, make campaign contributions, and buy personal items that have no charitable purpose. The misuse was egregious enough to prompt the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to open an investigation into the foundation, which discovered that it did not even have the required certification to solicit donations. The foundation was promptly ordered to stop fundraising in New York State. According to the same reporting, there is no record of Donald Trump donating to his own charity since 2008. And again, since he won't release his tax returns, we don't know how much he's given to charity, if at all.
More potential conflicts could come to light during discovery for a lawsuit against Trump University that begins on 28 November in San Diego. There is another lawsuit gearing up in New York. A third investigation in Florida may have had the most traction, but will probably never see the light of day since the state's Attorney General Pam Bondi declined to proceed or cooperate in any investigation after receiving a $25,000 campaign contribution from the Trump Foundation. The donation has since been legally rectified personally by Trump, but the optics of the timing of the donation and the decision not to move forward in a Trump University investigation are highly suspect.
Donald Trump said that he didn't care about his company anymore because he was more focused on being president. His attempt to mitigate any potential conflict of interest by putting his company in a blind trust, which would be in the control of his three oldest children, is laughable. To add insult to injury, Team Trump is inquiring about security clearances for his kids since they'll be part of the transition team -- advising him on national security matters and personnel choices -- while running the family business and its undisclosed foreign assets and business ventures. Although the president is not obligated to put assets into a blind trust, it has been customary for wealthy presidents to do so. My point is, either do it or don't do it, but don't try to bullshit the American voters with some half-hearted, non-nonsensical gesture of good faith.
Donald Trump promised to end government corruption and "drain the swamp" if he got elected. He spent the better part of a year and half railing against Washington insiders, lobbyists, pay-for-play, and crony capitalism -- not to mention constantly excoriating Hillary Clinton for being the poster-child of all that's wrong with Washington and bestowing the "Crooked Hillary" moniker upon her. What we've learned about Donald Trump and his dealings to this point may not have been illegal, but they are shady as hell and sparking investigations all over his periphery. Since the election, Trump has surrounded himself with lobbyists and insiders and set his company up for a grand-scale pay-for-play operation run right out of the White House through Manhattan. He seems to be draining the Washington Swamp and building the new Trump Hotel Swamp and Casino.
There is a line between illegal and unethical. I certainly hope that the media, Congress, and most of all the voters are keeping tabs. This is not the change he promised he supporters.
Thousands of people who work in certain government jobs need to qualify for a security clearance. Employees must provide personal and financial information, such as foreign travel, foreign contacts, income, financial holdings, real estate, etc. Foreign investments would definitely come up!
The point of providing all this information for a clearance is to determine not only trustworthiness to maintain the clearance and protect vital national security information, but also to flag any potential conflicts of interest (financial or otherwise) and/or vulnerability to bribery or blackmail. And of course, any criminal activity would certainly be brought to light.
Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the Trump Foundation encapsulate exactly the kind of conflicts of interests that would impact security clearances and cast a dark cloud on trustworthiness.
Most unsettling to me is the nefarious Russia connection: Trump's adoration of Vladimir Putin; Russia's hacking of the DNC and John Podesta's emails to benefit the Trump campaign; Paul Manafort's ties to the Ukraine; Carter Page's ties to Gazprom; and Moscow's contact with the Trump campaign...just to name a few. And yet the FBI contends there's no there there. The greater intelligence community would beg to differ just on the optics alone.
Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald reported extensively on the Trump Organization's foreign investments and business ventures in at least a half dozen countries, most of which were rife with corruption, fraud, and scandal in the host countries leading to convictions of some of the foreign players involved. And those are just the ones Eichenwald was able to dig up. The Trump Organization's failed and/or dubious business ventures could jeopardize relationships with important allies like South Korea, India, Turkey, and the UAE if the temperamental Trump decided to retaliate against them for canning his business investments. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, we don't really know how much or to whom Trump is beholding because despite all his empty promises, he still hasn't released his tax returns.
David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post has detailed Donald Trump's apparent misuse of the Trump Foundation to pay legal fees, make campaign contributions, and buy personal items that have no charitable purpose. The misuse was egregious enough to prompt the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to open an investigation into the foundation, which discovered that it did not even have the required certification to solicit donations. The foundation was promptly ordered to stop fundraising in New York State. According to the same reporting, there is no record of Donald Trump donating to his own charity since 2008. And again, since he won't release his tax returns, we don't know how much he's given to charity, if at all.
More potential conflicts could come to light during discovery for a lawsuit against Trump University that begins on 28 November in San Diego. There is another lawsuit gearing up in New York. A third investigation in Florida may have had the most traction, but will probably never see the light of day since the state's Attorney General Pam Bondi declined to proceed or cooperate in any investigation after receiving a $25,000 campaign contribution from the Trump Foundation. The donation has since been legally rectified personally by Trump, but the optics of the timing of the donation and the decision not to move forward in a Trump University investigation are highly suspect.
Donald Trump said that he didn't care about his company anymore because he was more focused on being president. His attempt to mitigate any potential conflict of interest by putting his company in a blind trust, which would be in the control of his three oldest children, is laughable. To add insult to injury, Team Trump is inquiring about security clearances for his kids since they'll be part of the transition team -- advising him on national security matters and personnel choices -- while running the family business and its undisclosed foreign assets and business ventures. Although the president is not obligated to put assets into a blind trust, it has been customary for wealthy presidents to do so. My point is, either do it or don't do it, but don't try to bullshit the American voters with some half-hearted, non-nonsensical gesture of good faith.
Donald Trump promised to end government corruption and "drain the swamp" if he got elected. He spent the better part of a year and half railing against Washington insiders, lobbyists, pay-for-play, and crony capitalism -- not to mention constantly excoriating Hillary Clinton for being the poster-child of all that's wrong with Washington and bestowing the "Crooked Hillary" moniker upon her. What we've learned about Donald Trump and his dealings to this point may not have been illegal, but they are shady as hell and sparking investigations all over his periphery. Since the election, Trump has surrounded himself with lobbyists and insiders and set his company up for a grand-scale pay-for-play operation run right out of the White House through Manhattan. He seems to be draining the Washington Swamp and building the new Trump Hotel Swamp and Casino.
There is a line between illegal and unethical. I certainly hope that the media, Congress, and most of all the voters are keeping tabs. This is not the change he promised he supporters.
Welcome to my blog
Dear readers,
I've decided to take the conversation off road...meaning off of Facebook. I feel a blog is a better forum for the airing of grievances and sparking intelligent discussion.
This blog is my perspective of what I believe is happening and my opinion of those happenings. However, I promise to back up my opinions with facts, not conjecture. I will do my research using credible news sources, not fake or conspiracy "news" outlets. I will not engage in voter-bashing, name-calling, insults, or hate-filled rhetoric so please don't leave that kind of commentary or feedback on my blog. This is a thinking-person's blog, not a school-yard bully blog. I welcome thoughtful discussion and/or disagreement, but please keep it respectful.
Enjoy!
I've decided to take the conversation off road...meaning off of Facebook. I feel a blog is a better forum for the airing of grievances and sparking intelligent discussion.
This blog is my perspective of what I believe is happening and my opinion of those happenings. However, I promise to back up my opinions with facts, not conjecture. I will do my research using credible news sources, not fake or conspiracy "news" outlets. I will not engage in voter-bashing, name-calling, insults, or hate-filled rhetoric so please don't leave that kind of commentary or feedback on my blog. This is a thinking-person's blog, not a school-yard bully blog. I welcome thoughtful discussion and/or disagreement, but please keep it respectful.
Enjoy!
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