It's Not the Man; It's the Message.

It’s Not the Man; It’s the Message.  The arrogance and bluster of President Trump will not serve him well over the balance of his term.  Even though he rhetorically avoided the narcissistic over-usage of self-pronouns ala Obama during his inaugural speech, he nonetheless comes across as eerily similar to Obama in his certitude and air of self importance.  It is unlikely that this is going to change.  Trump has exhibited the same personal style from the day he announced for the Republican nomination to the day he addressed the nation on January 20.  The commendations he will get for consistency and messaging will be severely discounted by his presentation.  The impact of these discounts will be realized in three main areas.

In today’s polarized society, anyone (and I do mean anyone…Attila the Hun, Saul Alinsky, Triple H, Jimmy Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal…) could garner 30-35 percent support if they were perceived as the sole representative of the radical-left or the radical-right in some type of political contest.  The fact is that 35-45 percent of the American public will be opposed to President Trump because he is a Republican; because he defeated Hillary Clinton; because he succeeded Obama; and because his policies will tend to be moderate to conservative.  His critics do not need any rational or pragmatic reason to oppose this man; these reasons in and of themselves prove to be quite sufficient.  So when President Trump begins to infuse his messaging with hubris, overt sarcasm, over-the-top tweets, and a huge ego; it only serves to give those who oppose him on irrational grounds excuses to continue their excitable criticisms.  Rather than pushing them to compete with his policies on a practical and rational basis, it allows them to continue their sophomoric behavior in direct response to his sophomoric behavior.  This, in turn, will give the liberal media all the license it needs to cover his dissenters as though they were Solomonic in their wisdom and demeanor.  Put simply: It gives people that don’t like him and don’t want him to be successful an opening to work against him in ways they wish too.  This they will do with enthusiasm and unless we see the unlikely event of a presidential change in presentation, it will make for an extremely contentious Trump administration.

For those who think Trump is the answer to their long-whispered prayers for a conservative political savior, Trump’s bloviations will only be a distraction from what they consider to be the announcement of a long-awaited and critically-necessary conservative agenda.  His arbitrary and impromptu announcements of broad policy initiatives will open the door for specific policy disagreements within the Republican Party itself.  His tendency to latch onto the phrase that is best turned in a political sense will, at times, be at odds with the phrase that best describes, in a practical sense, what exactly is being proposed.  I could not help noting that from the moment Donald Trump became our next President, all the way back to election day and night, Paul Ryan has been wearing a grin that two gallons of Goop and a case of Brillo pads could not remove.  It is easy to understand why he is happy.  A House majority leader must live for the moment when his or her party controls both Congress and the White House, and they can also 0look forward to a moderate-to-conservative tilt at the Supreme Court.  For quite possibly the first time in his political career, he can sense the prospect of actually generating legislation that will become law.  Once he begins dealing with President Trump’s extemporaneous utterances and tweets on a daily basis, it will be interesting to see how long that grin will last. 

Donald Trump was elected President for many reasons; Russian hacking not being one of them.  In my opinion, foremost among these reasons is the fact that Americans are sick and tired of politics as usual and want to see a change in the way our government conducts its business.  There was a critical moment in the Presidential Race that enabled Trump to win.  That moment was when a sufficient number of people in essential states were convinced not that Trump was the most qualified candidate to be President; not that Trump was the most knowledgeable candidate to be President; not that Trump could be that rare and inspirational leader that would bring our divided nation together…No.  That moment was when these voters were convinced that Trump was not a loose cannon that would incite war, destroy our economy, and allow the train of government to run completely off the rails.  They reached the conclusion that for all of his faults, he was a preferable choice to the corrupt candidacy of Hillary Clinton and was worth a risk.  That risk involves the mandate to employ a new, business-oriented approach to government; an approach that will be devoid-as-possible of politics and will be guided by practical and pragmatic principles; an approach that eschews posturing for performance; an approach that should exhibit results and not rhetoric.  People were, and are, ready for an outsider approach to government administration; Donald Trump was in the right place at the right time to be that outsider.   If he allows himself to confuse his election as a choice of the man instead of a choice of the mission, then he will be doomed to failure.  And that failure, if it occurs, will be monumental in its impact.  Donald Trump represents the first President in my lifetime of 64 years that can truly be characterized as an outsider.  I have witnessed, from inside and outside, the burgeoning and bureaucratic explosion of our government under both Democratic and Republican rule.  Nether national party has demonstrated either the will or the desire to reign in the ever-expanding monstrosity that is the U.S. government.  If Trump fails, the nation’s voters will inevitably turn back to a Democrat or a Republican that will be guided by and possess allegiance to the same old establishment-first, government knows best, all things are good in the name of government philosophy that both national political parties have used to gain and retain political control of this nation for past generations.  Not only will these political vampires regain their foothold on this nation, the electorate that took a chance on Trump will be so disillusioned and dismayed that they will likely give up on seeking an efficient, effective, honest, transparent, and accountable government and simply turn this nation over to the designated politicians from each party and return to leading their lives in a zombie-like fashion.  The chance to recapture the long-lost American dream may be lost for generations and the opportunity to truly make…America Great Again...will disappear down the rabbit hole with Donald Trump.

I hope Democrats can rise above the obstructionist tendencies that they are exhibiting at the present and become true partners in legislation.  I hope that Republicans can resist the temptations that will come with full control of Congress and the White House and understand that they only represent, at best, perhaps two-thirds of this nation.  And I hope that our new President Trump can learn to tone down his over-charged rhetoric and understand the fact that he was not elected because he is The Donald.  He was elected because he represents a new approach to government; a hope for returning government to the service of the people; and a hope for replacing liberal with liberty and conservative with compromise.

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