Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump (Probably)

Because f*ck Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Jeb Bush, that’s why.

Oh.  You wanted the expanded version.  I guess I can do that.

So, I’ve seen a lot on these here inter-tubez talking about “Trump supporters” this and “Trumpkins” that.  Most of it is completely missing the point, so I’m going to try one more time.  This is going to be incredibly cynical and self-serving. Also: long.  I hope you’re ready.

First, a little history. 

President George Herbert Walker Bush enacted a tax increase not very long after promising “Read my lips: no new taxes.”  That betrayal of his word cost him the presidency far more than anything Ross Perot did.  Here’s a hint: if you don’t want challenges from the Right, don’t move quite so far to the left.  But remember those words and that tax law, we’ll get back to them later.

President Clinton was a slimy b-tard of a president, and actually pretty leftist.  At least one self-described feminist offered him oral sex simply for “keeping abortion legal,” which says a great deal both about “feminism” and abortion – none of it good.  Nevertheless he did sign a balanced budget and welfare reform.  Sure, it was under duress, but he did so.  Remember those bills, too, we’ll get back to them as well.

President George Walker Bush ran for the presidency in 2000 on “compassionate conservatism,” which, as far as I can tell, is Progressive Liberalism, but with more praying and less sex.  Less beer, too, probably.  He signed a number of bills with which he did not agree including at least one budget after the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.  Bills he did agree with – indeed: fought for, included a Medicaid expansion, Medicare Part D, and No Child Left Behind.  He also famously “destroyed capitalism to save it.”  Oh, and inflicted Karl Rove on the Republican Party for, apparently, the rest of eternity.

Enter Barack Obama.  Barack Obama (notorious stuttering clusterf*ck of a malignant traitor) took office in 2009 with a Democrat controlled congress including 60 Democrats in the Senate (okay, that came shortly *after* inauguration, but not long).  He rapidly passed a “stimulus” package which was nothing more than pay-day to his cronies, ignored written bankruptcy law to give GM to the UAW, and generally made a menace of himself.  The entire time this was happening, the Republican Leadership of Mitch McConnell (hereafter: Yertle) and John Boehner (hereafter: Agent Orange) in the Senate and House respectively made excuses for their failure even to slow very much of this down.  Given the headaches Democrats caused Republicans in 2001 – 2006, those excuses were a little limp, but I guess they’re all they had.

Then came Obamacare.  Now, I want to be clear here, Obamacare was passed by Republicans as much as by Democrats.  Sure, no Republican vote was needed for final passage of the Orwellian Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but Republicans had plenty of chances to stop, or at least slow, its passage.  Had they done so, then Scott Brown of Massachusetts would have been installed in his Senator’s seat in time to help a procedural filibuster kill the bill dead.  Instead, they opted for comity and show votes.  The bill was over 900 pages when it was first introduced.  A simple refusal to grant unanimous consent to waive the reading of the bill would likely have stopped the thing cold.  But Yertle and Agent Orange wanted to get home for Christmas.

Shortly after the passage of Obamacare, Republican voters swept the Republicans into office on a platform of “We’ll oppose Obama and repeal every word of Obamacare.”  The echoes of their collective recitations of their oaths of office had not faded before Agent Orange started making excuses.  The House was just “one half of one third of government.”  I guess we were supposed to ignore the part where the House controls spending.

Republican voters gave them a pass, and in 2012, despite Obama’s reelection, Yertle became Senate Majority Leader.  Surely now, we thought, with the full legislature under Republican control, we would get some things done.  Hearings were called (remember Lois Lerner?  Remember Hillary!’s “what difference, at this point, does it make?  Remember Fast and Furious?).  Much hot air was released.  And.  Nothing.  Happened.  No spending was cut.  When it looked like spending *might* be cut, Republicans panicked and passed more spending.  No, a budget “balanced” in out years does not cut, and a cut in rate of growth is not “a spending cut.”  When a few Republican malcontents (Ted Cruz among them, but there were others) succeeded in forcing a meager and very partial shutdown, Yertle and Agent Orange couldn’t throw them under the bus fast enough, and quickly moved to authorize MOAR SPENDING!!!

All along the way we’ve had excuses.  “We don’t have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.”  “Obama will just veto it.”  Remember those passed and signed bills I mentioned earlier?  Funny how not having filibuster proof majorities in the Senate or veto-proof majorities in Congress did not stop Congress from getting Presidents to sign bills in the past.  I guess there must be a new rule that says “If we’re not assured of success, we may as well not try.”  I guess I missed that memo.

That doesn’t even begin to get to amnesty and illegal immigration failures and betrayals we’ve seen since the 1980s.

All of this is to say: “Burn it down. Scatter the stones.  Salt the earth where it stood.”  We have not had a two party system since at least 2006, and possibly as far back as 2001.  There is no significant difference in outcome between having Democrats and Republicans in office.  I mean, really, what’s going to happen if Republicans aren’t in office?  Will Planned Parenthood be revealed as priests of Moloch selling the parts of babies butchered in (and sometimes just out-of) the womb for fun and profit and Congress won’t do anything?  Will the Supreme Court overstep its bounds (again) and declare a constitutional right for homosexual partnerships to call themselves “marriage” while forcing those opposed to participate?  Will the EPA dump great quantities of pollutants into a river in Colorado and face no consequences?  Will the President make an unconstitutional Treaty with Iran virtually guaranteeing that they will gain nuclear weapons capabilities while ALSO promising to provide them protection from Israel?

When it comes down to actual outcomes, and not rhetoric, there is no significant difference between Republicans and Democrats.  Just notice how fast Republicans pull out the race card themselves when confronted over their desire for amnesty.  But our system cannot survive under one party.  There must be an opposition – a real opposition acting against the majority.  It is the only way to curb the excesses of the majority against the minority, and the only way to ensure that the Federal Government only uses its powers in ways guided by the Constitution for the purpose of protecting Liberty.

Therefore it is time for a third party.  However, the game is rigged.  Democrats and Republicans get on ballots automatically.  Simply have the nomination of your party, and you show up on the ballot.  How nice.  Third parties have to have petition drives and hope they get enough signatures.  Democrats and Republicans have advertising advantages and a national structure enshrined in law (or nearly so).  Third parties must scrimp and scrape for every scrap of exposure they can get.  A third party, in short, is denied access with the two establishment parties.

So we’re faced with a conundrum.  Republican recalcitrance to be an opposition party means we need a new party.  The party establishments have basically enshrined the two party system, so a third party is not a viable solution.  What to do?

Destroy the party.  Destroy its leadership.  Destroy its ability to operate.  And then conservatives might, possibly, maybe have a shot (but it would be a long one) at seizing control of the new power structures and returning the Republican Party – no longer controlled by the establishment and their Donor Class allies/masters.

But who can do such a thing?  Not the seizing control part – conservatives will have to do that after the destruction part, and there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to do so.  The best we can hope for is a chance.  No, who can do the destruction part?

Answer – only someone not beholden to that current power structure.  But how can we avoid that?  How can one not be beholden to the current power structure.  Well, first, he’d need to be self-funding, because he’s not going to get the big power donors like the Chambers of Commerce.  And he’d need to have a lot of name recognition, because that power structure isn’t going to want his message to get out – so he’d need a way to get it out anyway.  And he’d need to have some shred of credential to say “see, I’m a success” so that people can be convinced that he’d be a successful president.

Sound like anyone you know?

Now, if it looks like this defense of Trump has been short on what Trump will do or why I support him, it’s because it’s not a defense of Trump.  I’m virtually certain Trump will be a terrible president (assuming he’s elected).  I’m virtually certain he’s only in it for him, and is only conservative insofar as being conservative is a path to the White House.  I’m pretty sure he’s saying what sells, and not really what he believes.

So be it.  I’m not supporting Donald Trump.  If there were someone else in the field who was self funded, had huge (or is that “yuuuge!”) name recognition, and the ability to sell himself as a success at something people respect, I would vote for that person instead.  Donald Trump is a means to an end, and that end is already being achieved.

The Republican Party and its enablers in Conservative Media are busy telling everyone who is mad at the Republican Party that we’re idiots.  We’re racists.  We’re fools.  And in so doing they are ensuring that many conservatives never vote for any Republican on the national level again. 

Burn it down?  Yertle, Agent Orange, Rove, Jeb, and all are doing that.

Scatter the stones?  That will depend on the burn it down phase, but I’m pretty sure I can trust the hissy fit they’ll throw when they lose (and they will lose, one way or another).

Salt the earth where it stood?  We’ll have to work on that.

No, I don’t support Donald Trump.  But Donald Trump winning the Republican Party will suit my goals far better than if anyone else does.