Peace of My Mind

This is a political essay.  You have been warned.

We are into Trump's third year of ruling the United States.  As I understand it, his popularity in the polls has never exceeded 50%.  Never happened before.  A lot of this administration is stuff that has never happened before.  Most Americans do not like the man, his polices or his people.  Most do not like the nepotism of his daughter and son-in-law in key government positions.  Have I mentioned before I held my nose and voted for Hillary?  It was the vote I am most proud of.  

So if he is almost universally despised, why will he win in 2020?  here are the reasons why:

1.  The antiquated and unnecessary Electoral College is still in place. 

The Founding Fathers decided people shouldn't vote directly for President.  They decided people would vote for a wise man who would vote for them.  It was OK in the 18th century, I suppose, since the literacy rate was so low.  Many people could read or write so a representative made sense.  But today there is almost universal literacy in the U.S. 

There have been 5 times in our history a President was elected without majority vote:  1824 (John Quincy Adams), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hays), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison), 2000 (George W. Bush) and 2016 (Donald Trump).

We do not have a democracy, we have a representative democracy.  Trump lost the majority vote by 3 million last election.  It could happen again in 2020.

2.  "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and I wouldn't lose a vote"  uttered Trump a couple years ago, and it was true.  There is a certain percentage of Voters who would vote for their party even if they put glasses on a goat.  I know someone who has voted straight ticket for 50 years simply without any more thought than that their Daddy told them to.  

3.  The Trump base.  It is a fact that his base contains elements of white supremacists.  Don't believe me? Ask David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK and general gadfly for all things bad.

 “We are determined to take our country back,” Duke said from the rally, calling it a “turning point.” “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back.”  

That was right after Charlottesville.  Trump and the KKK, apparently, have the same vision for America.  The base also hold the less educated, voters angry about anything, societal misogynists, bigots and the disenfranchised.  They won't ever leave their guy. 


4.  Fox News.  Not since William Randolph Hearst and his newspapers have we seen "yellow journalism" like Fox News.  It is widely known that Trump and Hannity talk up to several hours a day.  Trump also goes to bat for far-right radicals on Fox such as Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro.  It is still unknown entirely if Trump is running the country or Fox News.

5.  The Enemy of the People.  For two years Trump has been beating the drum of the American free press as the enemy.  When you say something long enough, people will start assuming it to be true.  Imagine a US without a free press.  For Every Fox News there is a Washington Post or New York Times.  Newspapers whose reporters and dug up all the dirt on Trump and his cronies.  There is no real fake news.  It either supports Trump or exposes him. 
Fake news is usually the stories that expose Trump and his cronies or tell the truth about his policies.

6.  "Lies, damn lies and statistics."  Mark Twain never met Trump when he said those words sometime in 1906.  Never mind that it was actually Disraeli who first said it.  I wonder what Old Mark would have said about Trump.  Maybe it was this one when he said, "A little lie can travel half way around the world while Truth is still lacing up her boots."  Nah, probably not.  Trump doesn't utter little lies.  Maybe it's this one:  "Man is the only animal that lies."  That makes Trump a Hell of an animal.  The Washington Post has tried keeping up with his lies and as of March 30th, he has told 9,451 of them.  

When Truth dies, everything you hold dear dies with it.  When people start believing the lies you will soon forget what you used to hold dear.  

7.  Congress.  The Republican party has decided to throw its lot in on Trump with the hopes it can move its agenda, increase its majority in the Supreme Court and continue the Bannon-Miller-Trump original goal of "Deconstruction of the Administrative State." 

8.  Democrats.  They seem to be a rather wide ranging collection of disparate ideas, ideologies, and personal leanings.  One is too socialist, one too mean, one too touchy-feely, one too wishy-washy, well, you get the idea.  

9.  And finally,  after two years of all this noise, investigations, denials, lies,  and political extremism, we are all shell-shocked, fatigued and heading to the exits.  

People. Don't. Care.

This is how Trump will win again.