Since about the age of ten, I’ve had an addiction to modern American Politics, it’s history and dynamics. Not just as a field of interest, but a passion because of my deep love for this country. I’ve seen every strategy, every tactic, and the disheartening web of corruption as our government has grown exponentially proportional to the problems it was supposed to be fixing. You want to make America plummet academically? Create the Department of Education. Increase our dependence on foreign sources of oil? Create a department purportedly to remedy the problem and foolishly expect that department to put itself out of business by solving the problem it was created for.
The complaint has always been the same. Back room deals, everyone bought and paid for by the banks corporate lobbies , sweetheart deals wit
h defense and other contractors, and the list goes on.
For the first time in my life of political observation, an outsider emerges who represents the polar opposite of all of the above. It should have been obvious to anyone that if such a person came along threatening to upset the apple cart that all of the most powerful players would stop at nothing in a concerted effort to destroy this dark horse. And what have we seen?
We have seen a brilliant tactician use sort of a Judo approach to politicking. What Trump has done to the media/Wall Street/the one party system is exactly what Muhammad Ali did to defeat George Foreman in the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle”. George Foreman had the most powerful punch in boxing history-he was a beast. Ali didn’t stand a chance (sound familiar?). Foreman with all of his might and awesome power went on a no holds barred assault against Ali. Ali rope-a-doped through the rounds-foreman was in a rage and “punched himself out” (using his energy up thereby defeating himself). Ali controlled the whole match. Trump has controlled the whole election, and like Ali. Is tactically and soundly attacking his weakened opponent who is out of steam and offering no target. The machine has punched itself out. The infighting has begun. A reporter at NBC makes a statement just noting that Hillary Clinton had fought off a coughing attack. Her traveling press secretary in response tweets “get a life.” The real Hillary is emerging, losing control and calling millions of Americans “deplorables”- going further calling them racists, and a bunch of (………) phobes-fill in the blank.. Her world is caving in, her scandals have found legs and the media can no longer carry her water (pun intended).
And Trump changes the narrative to maternity leave. Pure genius. Conservatives will anger but it’s a fair compromise that will be heavily outweighed by corporate tax incentives, fair trade, border security and national security. It may be a compromise to some, or even a sell out, but the economic payoff from the new tax structure, and the aforementioned, will afford us the capacity to be a little more generous with a mother’s time to parent her child-that is a conservative value-or should be. And despite all of the cynicism, it might just be something he believes in. When he entered the race-he had nothing to gain. If the way he has been lied about, misquoted, and taken completely out of context is any indicator, he will be the most scrutinized president in American history. But it won’t much matter then.