A Reckoning
I’m not sure why Donald Trump’s supporters loathe Washington Politicians;—Peggy Noonan says what’s going on is a struggle between people with power (Washington politicians and millionaires) and people without power: That sitting in penthouses and townhomes the powerful have been doing just fine through recessions and hard times while the people without power have been sitting at their kitchen tables staring at stacks of unpaid bills, watching their paychecks shrink and knowing if, tomorrow morning , the transmission in their car breaks they face a financial meltdown.
And that’s not all: It’s been even harder on their children. A college graduate with a Harvard MBA lands on Wall Street as a posh junior tycoon but a graduate of Elon College finds herself anxiously staring at an empty job market and ends up working as a waitress.
Next Donald Trump walks onto stage and starts talking about illegal immigrants taking jobs and bad trade deals costing lost jobs and he’s crude and rude but this is a Democracy where the ballot box is the great equalizer and Trump looks like the weapon the powerless need and fifteen primaries later the Washington Politicians are battered and bloodied and befuddled.
Befuddled because just like their grandfathers decades ago couldn’t believe Franklin Roosevelt was the champion of ‘The Forgotten Man,’ they can’t believe Donald Trump is the champion of the powerless, so blind to the reason legions are packing Trump rallies they roll out one of their own to warn the multitudes what they, themselves, believe in their hearts is gospel truth – that Trump’s a con man – but the moment Mitt Romney’s lips move the powerless see both a millionaire and a politician telling them they’re suckers and fools and given the choice between a con and more of what they’ve been living through for years they’ll take the con man.
And if we’ve never seen an election like this before it’s really not that odd at all – it’s an old American antidote: It’s all happened before. It’s William Jennings Bryan and the Cross of Gold and Franklin Roosevelt and the Forgotten Man and whether this firestorm was spawned by shrinking incomes or whether there’s an even simpler explanation it’s hard to argue that loathing Washington politicians isn’t a virtue – though whether this upheaval leads to regeneration or turns out to be the Devil’s work is still a mystery.
A Reckoning
I’m not sure why Donald Trump’s supporters loathe Washington Politicians;—Peggy Noonan says what’s going on is a struggle between people with power (Washington politicians and millionaires) and people without power: That sitting in penthouses and townhomes the powerful have been doing just fine through recessions and hard times while the people without power have been sitting at their kitchen tables staring at stacks of unpaid bills, watching their paychecks shrink and knowing if, tomorrow morning , the transmission in their car breaks they face a financial meltdown.
And that’s not all: It’s been even harder on their children. A college graduate with a Harvard MBA lands on Wall Street as a posh junior tycoon but a graduate of Elon College finds herself anxiously staring at an empty job market and ends up working as a waitress.
Next Donald Trump walks onto stage and starts talking about illegal immigrants taking jobs and bad trade deals costing lost jobs and he’s crude and rude but this is a Democracy where the ballot box is the great equalizer and Trump looks like the weapon the powerless need and fifteen primaries later the Washington Politicians are battered and bloodied and befuddled.
Befuddled because just like their grandfathers decades ago couldn’t believe Franklin Roosevelt was the champion of ‘The Forgotten Man,’ they can’t believe Donald Trump is the champion of the powerless, so blind to the reason legions are packing Trump rallies they roll out one of their own to warn the multitudes what they, themselves, believe in their hearts is gospel truth – that Trump’s a con man – but the moment Mitt Romney’s lips move the powerless see both a millionaire and a politician telling them they’re suckers and fools and given the choice between a con and more of what they’ve been living through for years they’ll take the con man.
And if we’ve never seen an election like this before it’s really not that odd at all – it’s an old American antidote: It’s all happened before. It’s William Jennings Bryan and the Cross of Gold and Franklin Roosevelt and the Forgotten Man and whether this firestorm was spawned by shrinking incomes or whether there’s an even simpler explanation it’s hard to argue that loathing Washington politicians isn’t a virtue – though whether this upheaval leads to regeneration or turns out to be the Devil’s work is still a mystery.