Donald Trump speaks American.

That’s what his critics don’t understand. That’s what the analysts on the TV talk shows can’t comprehend.

When Trump says this is the greatest country in the world, when he brags that he’s really smart, when he claims that we have the mightiest military and he wants to show it off by having a massive parade, he’s speaking American.

OPINION

This is the way his supporters were taught to think about this country. Suggest that we’re not the greatest, the best, the most wonderful place in history and you risk being buried under a mountain of ridicule.

Former President Jimmy Carter is revered as one of the most moral presidents in modern history.

But when he was in the White House, he appeared weak. He said Americans had to lower their household thermostats in the winter to 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 at night because supplies of oil and natural gas were limited. Times were changing. He implied that this country’s best days were behind it.

Ronald Reagan said America was still the greatest country on earth and people could use all the energy they wanted. Voters sent Carter back to Georgia and Reagan became one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history. He bragged about building a Star Wars defense system and told the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin wall. Reagan spoke American.

Trump not only talks the talk, he lives the American dream.

He’s fabulously wealthy and he’s not going to let us see his tax returns because that’s his business, not ours. The American people get that.

He builds giant buildings and puts his name on them in letters 100 feet high. He marries beautiful women and then cheats on them with other beautiful women and pays them off to keep quiet.

People who disagree with Trump are morons, stupid, nut jobs, whackos, sad and pathetic. His critics say that’s impolite, immature and not worthy of a person serving in the most powerful office in the world.

Nuts to that. Trump is talking the way Americans do in barrooms, restaurants, at kitchen tables and family barbecues.

Football players who fail to stand during the national anthem are pampered babies who don’t appreciate what they have. That’s not Trump speaking. That’s any number of middle-class people I’ve heard bitterly complaining about the protests at NFL games.

Did Trump’s speeches free them to talk like that at public gatherings? Sure. Did he embed those thoughts in their brains, like some sort of evil mentalist? No.

When Trump mocks the weak, when he spews bigotry, when he disparages people in African and Hispanic countries and says he’s tired of immigrants coming into this country, taking our jobs and raping our women, he’s speaking for millions of Americans.

You may want to believe America is better than that. You say Trump supporters are idiots, morons, whackos and racist jerks. Well, there you go. You’re talking American.

Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters “deplorables.” Well, she actually said only half of them were deplorable. See, liberals are nicer than conservatives.

Trump knows Americans care about money more than ideals and ethics. That’s why he said the stock market would fail and everybody would become much poorer if he’s impeached.

Greed is good. Truth isn’t truth. There are alternative facts.

You can’t trust the courts, Congress, the newspapers or U.S. intelligence agencies. They are your enemies. They are enemies of Trump nation.

The reality is that millions of Americans love that kind of talk. And Trump knows how to run a reality show that people love. He speaks American.

Email: philkadner@gmail.com

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