Someday, we will look back knowing that Donald Trump gave birth to the 21st century. In a time where life is cheap and peace a punchline from the footnotes of John Lennon’s obituary, populism reigns supreme. Whether that’s due to the abstract nature of the “ism” or in spite of it is really beside the point.
When paired with our podcast host and ModState associate editor Nate Wellein on the air, I’ve occasionally remarked “there are no experts.” No, really, it’s true. Several hundred trial lawyers haven’t prevented the long and torturous decline of American government. In fact, they have had an indelible impact on the rate with which the faith of the people in the Federal system has collectively descended into the nether realms of polling possibility.
Equally true is the inability of the greater portion of economists in America to predict the multi-market financial woes that came to a head in 2008. This is perhaps more egregious due to many educated in the field having woefully neglected their obligation to give independent assessments of data and use analytics to help craft effective policy measures. Instead, they’ve often been wooed by copious offerings of the Almighty Dollar into manipulating data and analytical trends to reflect pre-determined talking points. And we wonder why the field is viewed with similar colloquial skepticism as meteorology and clairvoyance.
My use of the term “we” is indicative of the fact I remain enrolled at Penn State seeking to complete my undergraduate studies in economics. A half-decade enlisted term in the Navy and what they call “life” happened and, well, in any case I make no excuses. My explanation(s) are far too lengthy to list here and inconsequential as, again, there exist no experts in any real sense. Those from the academic camp of the swamp will say one cannot claim to be an economist without a doctorate, while those outside of said bog consider a four-year degree sufficient.
The reality is that Jack Parsons never finished his college career and went on to such tremendous exploits in rocketry that a Federal agency called “NASA” came forth from his work. Sigmund Freud could hardly be considered educated in psychoanalysis (at least in modern circles of snobbery) as he invented the field. In his case, perhaps studying sociology and zoology were enough. Bill Gates didn’t need to finish even a bachelor’s at Harvard to co-found Microsoft Corporation just as Barack Obama’s tenure as a constitutional legal scholar at the same Ivy League school didn’t prevent his attempt to use Executive Power to enforce only portions of certain laws. And, last time I checked, Bill Clinton had no prior history of adult entertainment feats and yet forever changed the way cigars are viewed from the gutter of our, uh, “culture.”
The bottom line being that while I have some lengths to go before I finish my bachelor’s in economics (which I intend to be the end of my formal studies), I hardly need to do so to gain the approval of our cultural overlords in higher education and the Mainstream Media.
And qualifications? Oh, right. Those. My qualifications are that outside of Michael Moore I can’t recall (without cheating and using a search engine) another more vocal prognosticator that Donald J. Trump would not only win the Presidency but sweep The Rust Belt. In the same election cycle I called the GOP retaining both houses of Congress and, as an aside, called Ben Carson winning the Iowa Straw Poll.
So what? I also called the return to vogue of white jeans in the early 2000’s, but who gives a damn?
Exactly.
Rosa Parks was no doctor of political science, yet she helped bring about massive societal change in standing up for social justice…by staying seated. Top that, NFL Player’s Association. Oh, and let’s not forget Ray Charles hardly needed to be a doctor of music in order to be banned from live performance in The State of Georgia.
“Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong” sang Buffalo Springfield in their immortal make-lunch-not-war anthem “For What It’s Worth.” True, very true. My feeling is that no one who always believes those they dislike are wrong regardless of evidence to the contrary are also, in fact, wrong. Case in point? The constant insults and smears hurled at those who didn’t vote for Hillary. For example, the reduction of Trump’s victory to “White Supremacy” when renowned racist David Duke only got 3% of the 2016 US Senate vote in his Louisiana election effort. Then there’s the ironic wrong committed by Eric Holder in snidely talking about the “orange President.” Ohhh…oh, I see! Making condescending remarks about someone’s skin color only matters when it affects your preferred group. And that’s all after President Obama spent considerable effort weighing down a soapbox ripped straight from the George Soros playbook about “The Bubble” that we find ourselves in where we listen only to those (long story short) we agree/identify with.
Huh. I guess he wasn’t talking to anyone to the right of Berkeley or Gertrude Stein.
Trump is no villain. You know why? Because he is the reflection in America’s mirror. He did not confess to wrongdoing on the ignominious “Access Hollywood” recording, but rather stated the same inconvenient pop wisdom to be found in lyrics and music videos from The Rolling Stones’ “Starfucker” to Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.” He merely brought to a head a litany of woes lying in wait to burst through to a putrescent cultural landscape. It’s not illegal to lie to the media and it’s not illegal to talk to Russians. If it were, whoever attempted to denigrate Bernie Sanders’ being Jewish and whoever picked up the tab for the “Trump Dossier” (both in Hillary’s 2016 campaign camp, by the way) would be in trouble.
No, no, the GOP nominated a firebrand from the outermost limits of what can be loosely canonized within decorum, such was their desperation to win the 2016 POTUS election. In so doing, they failed to remain cognizant of the fact that those who live by the sword die by the sword. This blade swings both ways and it’s quite clear by now there’s no telling whom shall be cut down next.
In light of the comedy of mistakes compiled by The Democrats and GOP, it ought to be apparent that the greatest victim of this ongoing American tragedy is The Republic and Her citizens (if that means anything to anyone anymore). What world will the young find themselves confined to?
Aside from one with trillions of dollars in Federal debt, it will be one filled with alleged heroes (some sincere, many not) on the ascendancy amidst a rising tide of rage made to order for a truly hapless citizenry.
To those in that time feeling the woeful aftermath of the wrongs wrought now, I would humbly suggest they hearken back to a sage of yesteryear, one Friedrich Nietzsche, from whom I offer the following diatribe:
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Take it from me, someone has long speculated that we’re content in ‘Merica to be “Keeping up with the Kardashians whilst Rome Burns” and, of late, that “The Filthy have inherited The Earth.”
Don’t like it? Me neither. So, let’s change it. But before starting out, let’s get one thing straight: if you want someone to blame for the fate befallen our hallowed Federal Republic and Her people, you need only gaze into the infinite abyss of a mirror. It has but one face, and that Is ours.
Let’s not lie to ourselves and think that America is the way She is now because it has been allowed, that we’ve accidentally tolerated evil to wreak havoc. No, the truth is that the denizens occupying the tea party of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” are running riot with reality because this is the America we fashioned with our own choices. Look at what we value as a people, what we place emphasis on, what all the “Dollar voting” (what we spend our money on) supports. That’s where our heart is. That’s who we are.
Donald Trump is America.
So, y’all know I can’t just go get on a plane and have a simple trip, right? Well, this flight to Dallas was under-booked. So, basically everyone sat on the aisle or windows, and we weren’t crammed in like sardines.
Yep. That was funny too. And then….the cat takes a big ole nasty s**! So, the last thirty minutes I’m in a plane ALL over the sky and the plane reeks of cat s**t.
