Would you hear me out on this?
In business they say typically, “To keep from hurting your business, do not bring up religion or politics.” In that case I am doomed. An ordained minister with a Ph.D. in history and a university professor for 4 decades, I also run a large family marketing organization. But I think the stakes in this election are the highest ever, and I know American history thoroughly. Therefore, I want to share my take. Please read it and join the conversation.
The undisputed classic American Government by Burns and Peltason routinely stressed that the number one factor in what party a person votes for is how their parents voted. Voting patterns are fairly constant with less than 20% acting independently. My folks were Truman Democrats who did like Eisenhower, but my wife’s Texas parents were close friends of Lyndon Johnson, who sent us a wedding present and invited us to the White House. We voted for Johnson, Humphrey and even McGovern as we believed in seeing the government help the disadvantaged. I remember right where I was when I had an emotional conversion to the Democrats while reading Schlesinger’s description of the callous Republicans after the Great Crash of 1929.
We were joining a solid Democratic coalition of urban, Jewish, immigrant, Black and intellectual liberals, extolling the Great Society that declared war on poverty and racism, while throwing money at education and the Arts. We were like all good “progressives” moved by compassion, but the government approach never worked as well as the free markets and charity. Ironically, all the Democratic candidates who release their tax forms never show more than 2 – 3% of giving to charity. They want the government to take from some to give to others! Unfortunately, we saw the size of the federal budget double and the bureaucracy triple, with inflation and recession being the main result. In fact, poverty, housing, education and urban are actually worse since then as a number of scholarly studies have demonstrated the failure of the Great Society reforms Meanwhile, we saw corporations doing more to educate and hire the handicapped and unemployed with tax incentives that cost us nothing and without creating more federal bureaucrats . Although having good intentions, the program of paying monthly checks to young mothers with no male in the home has had the “unintended consequence” of destroying urban Black families. Today over 70% of young Black babies are born in single family homes, up from less than 1/4th in 1970. What effect do you thing the lack of a strong father in a home would have on the rearing of young men? That more Black males are in prison today than in college shows a government program gone wrong. What has been created was not the “Model Cities” projected but urban racial ghettoes rules by gangs, drugs and violence. What political party has extended these programs in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Philadelphia, etc. for over 50 years? How has that been working?
The Housing bubble that almost wiped out the banking system in 2007 was the outcome of the government pushing mortgage banks and realtors to lower the bar and push more “sub-prime “(less credit-worthy) sales which the semi-government Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “backed” to Banks which bundled them with some more-likely-to-be-repaid mortgages as “derivative” investments. Unfortunately, the sub-prime outpaced the value and the bubble brought down Lehman Brothers, AIG, Goldman Sachs etc. The Too Big to Fail were bailed out at the taxpayers expense. Unfortunately, derivatives at the big banks for car loans, student loans etc. are a bigger bubble today with defaults starting to threaten the whole structure again.
Historically, the Democratic party built its numbers in the urban cities of the east among the immigrants who were greeted as they got off the boats. The party “ward heeler” made these bewildered new arrivals dependent upon them for housing, employment and even marital connection in exchange for eventual voter loyalty, which might last for generations. Jews, Irish Catholics, and east European descendants are reliable party faithful, as are the labor unions which they organized against the Industrial oppressors. Union bosses—and even union dues –could be counted on for Democratic loyalty.
When did the intellectuals espouse the Democratic agenda? Unfortunately, the Viet Nam war kept those liberals opposed to the war hiding in the ivory towers of higher education, and earning advanced degrees and tenured professorships. The result? A generation of educators skewed even more to the left and teaching the teachers of lower education to be “politically correct.” Education took on an agenda of indoctrination, not the healthy debate of opposing perspectives. Dissent from the conservative side was shamed and suppressed. Journalism schools were similarly slanted to the point of becoming unethically biased and manipulative of the news. Hollywood personalities played to this popular following.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a Supreme Court Justice into his 90’s, made famous the statement, “The best test of truth is its ability to get itself accepted in the marketplace of ideas.” The problem today is that the marketplace has been monopolized by a cabal of educators, journalists and entertainers who all employ the “groupspeak” warned about by George Orwell in 1984. It is shameless the way that the mainstream media(TV networks and big city dailies) choose stories, words and questions for debate that advance their anointed leaders, while demonizing their opponents no matter how worthy. How can the debate moderator bring up the “birther” issue, fat beauty queens, and unexposed tax records and not even mention the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi or “Pay for Play”? If the New York Times can find a leak of Trumps tax records, why could they never find a hint of Obama’s school records that probably showed his admission and benefits as a “foreign student”? The truth doesn’t seem to matter, and is even suppressed to protect their agenda. Some famous studies by political scientists have shown that news anchors and editors have voted over 90% for the Democratic party. Gallup examined a larger sample and found that 64% of journalists had voted Democratic in every election since 1980! The morning after the Vice-President debate, all the major news outlets except Fox News had the same by-line, “Pence will be the Front Runner in 2020,” meaning he knows they are going to lose this year. Where did they all get the same theme in lock-step within hours after the debate—maybe from a feed from the Clinton campaign? Fortunately, the public increasingly distrusts the media as polls show. But even the pollsters are accused of siding with the Mainstream Media to give them attention. Perhaps there will be a big surprise come election night.
If one wants a healthy corrective on the Hillary glorification, they might look at Dinesh D’Sousa’s documentary on “Hillary’s America,” or Peter Schweizer’s “Clinton Cash.” D’Sousa rightly shows the Democrats as working the immigrant docks(since the 1840’s) and ghettoes for votes which enriched corrupt city governments, and turned out votes—often fraudulently—for the national ticket. As FDR said about the Big City Bosses of the 1930’s and 40’s, “They may be ‘Sons of Bitches,’ but they are our ‘Sons of Bitches’.” It is also clear that the Democratic Party was the party of segregation until the Republican Congress and President initiated desegregation under Eisenhower. It was his appointees that struck down school segregation in 1956. Even then the Senate minority floor leader(Robert Byrd) was a former state leader of the KKK. Martin Luther King, Jr. voted as a Republican. Even the desegregation laws late in Johnson’s term would not have passed if the party of Lincoln had not been unanimous in their support. The so-called “switch” of the segregationists to the Republican party was attributed totally to ONE man- Strom Thurman of South Carolina –who changed party. The Democrats spread that theme to lock in the inner city vote and secured the underclass of voters with an expanding welfare state. Who do the aspiring African Americans align with? The Ben Carsons, the Thomas Sowells, the Herman Cains? We do not have a race problem we have a class problem that is being exploited for political control. Now if only the Democrats can bring the recent immigrants on board they will control the country for another generation. Why do the Democrats want more immigrants? Duh?
The biggest influence on Barak Obama were his mentors from his early years who included a few Marxist revolutionaries(Davis, Wright, etc.) and the founder of Community Action, Saul Alinsky, a man who worked with a Mafia boss in Chicago to learn how to control a society. His early activities were unethical and antisocial, but he learned his craft well and taught it in his published Rules for Radicals. He dedicated the book to the most successful revolutionary who even got his own Kingdom- Lucifer! He stressed in politics to never debate your opponent because that would show respect. Instead, personally ridicule them and demonize their image with repeated attacks and even unfounded charges, but when they would counter-attack, you should claim to being victimized (“Gold Star” mother, “Miss Piggy”, etc,) thus evoking general sympathy. But to take control of the country, he taught 8 clear steps. The first was to take over the Health Care system, the seventh of the economy. Second, increase the welfare dependence of more people. Third, increase the national debt beyond sustainable levels, forcing a collapse and eventual extreme measures. Does any of this sound familiar? Obama has accomplished all of this so far, in addition to lessening “America’s exclusiveness” for the sake of globalism and anti-imperialism. BUT do you know who did a senior college thesis on Saul Alinsky, meeting with him on three occasions, before insulting a Supreme Court justice on stage at her college commencement? Hillary Rodham! She already tried to take Health Care, which Obama eventually did. But she is NOT another Bill Clinton, who ruled by moving to the Center to get re-elected and working with the Gingrich Congress to reform welfare and reduce spending. No, Hillary will move America further toward the radical vision of a socialistic society with bigger government control over business, education, economy and environment, not to mention a smaller role in world affairs. Keeping Bernie Sanders voters will just push her further. The America we have known will be changed forever. Make no mistake about that.
One other thing disturbs me deeply as a member of the Builder Generation(born 1932-1945). I have believed in America and its values, its unique leadership of the world toward democratic freedoms and I have taught this patriotic image. Sure, there would be scandals to appear like in Teapot Dome or Watergate, but these would always be exposed and corrected. However, I never thought I would say this about my country—It has become corrupt at the highest levels and nothing is being done about it. Even the Federal Reserve Board and the administration departments are papering over a disastrous economic situation to help the incumbents stay in office. Whomever is elected will have hell to pay for what is mushrooming beneath the surface. More and more economists are seeing debt beyond our GDP that threatens currency, bank and market crises that make the Great Recession look like a picnic. But back to corruption. One of the most important values of our country is the RULE OF LAW, which says “no man is above the law.” The Clintons definitely behave as if they are above the law. Before leaving office Bill Clinton pardoned over 160 criminals, who had personal contacts and are now donating big-time for Hillary’s election. They “sold” nights in the Lincoln bedroom to “guests” who were big donors. They stripped the White House of over $200,000 worth of furniture, pictures and articles they claimed wrongly were theirs (some were returned). She maintained private servers and emails against the federal codes, destroying 30,000 emails and smashing or erasing phones and servers that could be used as evidence. Others went to jail for less but the DOJ did not think it would be worthy of charges. The National Review has since found that 18 of those emails were with the POTUSA, implicating him. Any trial would have really messed up the administration! The emails obtained clearly show that the Clintons were using their State Department position to obtain donations to the Clinton Foundation even from foreign governments in a “pay for play” shake-down. Why are the major media putting this on the back page with hemorrhoid ads? How did these people who claim to be penniless when they left the White House become worth a quarter of a billion? Is this the $250,000 fees for 20-minute speeches to the banks, corporations and governments who want access to their power? Imagine $21 million in speaker fees. Can the media find out what is being said to these groups she promises to tax more? I am terribly disappointed in the American government and media.
What this situation does show unmistakably is this. There exists, as Eisenhower warned when he left office, a shadow institution behind the administrations of both parties, an “establishment” that includes the insiders in both parties and all branches of government who keep the charade going. The bureaucrats, lobbyists and consultants working with Wall Street insiders are all in as well. This has been referred to as the “Deep State,” which keeps increasing the size of the budget and the government all to their advantage. The biggest increase in income in Obama’s first term was to government employees, who now average annually #117,000 in salary and benefits when compared to the $52,000 in salary and benefits for the average family(a decrease in the last 8 years!) The overreach of that government in regulating business and controlling our lives is suffocating the economy. Home ownership now is at the lowest since the 1970’s and the labor market has 90 million who have left the labor force. Washington is not working, at least not for the people. The level of wealth and prosperity in Washington and its environs far surpasses the rest of the country. The public is catching on. When the 2014 Republican victors in Congress did nothing that the voters demanded they do to reverse Obama and government spending, the revolt started and swept an Outsider ahead of everyone else in the Republican primaries. Trump is not the ideal standard bearer, but he is what the people have rallied around against the Establishment. The Brexit surprise and the Colombian referendum failure this week suggest CHANGE is the desire of the people. This year is the year for a “change election,” and it might just happen.
The CHOICE clearly is between a corrupt leftist politician for the Establishment versus a badly-demonized business man on the Outside with some offensive manners who might change everything! The scary thing is that with the media betrayal of its journalistic ethic and the growing demographics of the dependent classes, this might just be the last chance to save America. The corrupt voting practices in the big cities might have already determined it.
Hillary Clinton has been a mean lawyer and corrupt politician throughout her career, The names of the scandals are like a cascade of bad memories: Rose Law Firm, Whitewater, Cattlegate, Travel Gate, Filegate, Hillarycare, etc. down to the Clinton Foundation. Her treatment of a young rape victim in her successful defense of her rapist and her attacks on the women who claimed sexual abuse by her husband show that her “feminism” runs shallow, and a bit hypocritical. Her abuse of the women exploited by her husband(bimbo eruptions), even threatening them with personal destruction and employing private investigators to harass them shows less compassion for some women.
But what about her record? As first Lady, she made a mess of the White House Travel Office, removing career public servants who had served 5 Presidents to throw the business to her friend, even pressing false charges against the former workers, all of whom were later exonerated. As First Lady she not only failed at Health Care Reform but several other initiatives. They “sold” nights in the Lincoln bedroom to big donors. What laws did she pass during six years in the Senate? What successful strategy did she employ as Secretary of State? The Russian “reset” or the Arab Spring in Libya? How did that go in Benghazi? Those who oppose her have been targeted by the IRS and worse—There are over two dozen mysterious deaths of people capable of exposing Hillary from Vince Foster to the death of the Wiki-leaks Lawyer last month in front of a train. Why are there so many people who are suspicious of her?
I certainly do not think Donald J. Trump is an ideal candidate, but his crass, straight-forward style has touched the nerve of millions of out-siders who do not feel the government or the traditional parties are serving them. Were not Bernie Sanders supporters also showing the rage of people long excluded from the table? Of course, Bernie has now joined the party faithful, after he got a new lakefront home to go with his other two. Does not the discovery of the Democratic Party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s emails revealing the fix against Bernie tell you this is not an ethical bunch? Whatever happened to her after that? She was hired the next day by the Clinton campaign! Hello?
One unfortunate thing about Donald Trump – there are many –is his authenticity as a businessman. He’s egotistical, braggadocios, offensive, and insensitive and close to his roots growing up in Queens. But he has never lied under oath before Congress or court. But I have read both his books and am impressed that these are his own words, and they reflect sound principles and good business sense. Over the years he has supported many causes and candidates from all persuasions, and even made donations to both sides. He is open to criticism for having products made overseas, for failing in a number of ventures, for avoiding income taxes after business losses, and even for being over sexed. One thing that strikes me is that he lost almost $1 billion in the Atlantic City gambling bust and came back to higher levels. His optimism is refreshing. I like the the thought of Making America Great Again and I think with a political outsider choosing good minds to advise him and a supportive Congress we just might be able to do it. Let the insiders keep doing what they have been doing is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
This election is the most important in our lifetime, if only because we are approaching a point of no return to the country we have known and been proud of. Our children and grandchildren deserve that we make the wisest decision for them on this election day. To stay home or to vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for the insiders and the Deep State. Trump is not the lily-white, born-again charismatic figure you might like, but he’s the best choice we’ve got to take America back from those who have brought it to the brink.