Trump’s Invisible Shield

It already seems like a lifetime ago that MachadoGate and Lewd-Comments-on-the-Bus-Gate appeared on the political scene and, according to all news sources, derailed the Trump candidacy. Little did we know that a few days later, the Trump campaign would be dealt yet another setback -- only this time by a cadre of women parading around the alphabet stations with sudden flashbacks of memory that conveniently materialized just a few weeks before the election. According to the punditry and press, the Trump campaign has received a death blow from which it cannot recover. Clinton is president! For anyone paying attention to presidential campaigns, this could hardly be a surprise -- after all, it is October and our opponent is the party of “win at all costs.” While imbecilic Republicans bicker and snicker about Trump, Democrats will, once again, coalesce around Hillary despite their competing coalitions. Republicans are stuck in the quagmire of who killed the GOP and who is a more principled conservative, while the Democrats work with their media comrades and perfect their ground game. How do they do it? By dangling distractions with the one hand that Republicans fall for every time, while working their election magic with the other hand.

Prior to this succession of October surprises, right-wing Trump-haters had somewhat backed off, but now have re-emerged more emboldened and feeling completely vindicated. The end of Trump is nigh, they gleefully clamor. It’s time for him to resign. Congressmen are jumping ship. Others are planning to mutiny. Trump may very well lose the election. I’m not in the habit of prognosticating either way. But personally, I think it is just as likely he pulls this off as he is annihilated. I’m not advocating for Trump in as much as for the people who support him. And that is the piece to this conundrum that has been missing all along: the People -- not a bunch of deplorables and irredeemables, hunkering down in their basket of -isms. But marginalized average Americans hurt by Democrat policies and used by Republican politicians. These are the “everyday Americans” that a flawed and filthy rich Hillary loathes. These are the “everyday Americans” that a flawed and filthy rich Trump embraces. While this isn’t news, I still don’t think anyone has really grasped the Trump phenomenon and what really feeds it. Let me first tell you what this election is not. It is not about a cult of personality centered around the Donald, as some claim. It is not about his debonnaire je ne c’est quois. It isn’t about his political acumen or his finesse on the debate stage. It isn’t about his ability to pivot and re-direct answers to questions. It isn’t about knowing the minutiae of information required to pass a State Department exam. It really isn’t even about his business prowess or successful deal making. Support for Trump is more of a jury nullification -- a complete rejection of all of the evidence. Not the evidence of how bad things are -- we all know our economic, cultural, and national security health is hanging by a thread. It is the wholesale renunciation of all that political gamesmanship has wrought. Things may be grim, but if we don’t address the underlying cause of “WHY” our outlook is bleak and it doesn’t matter who is elected. The cycle of misery will just continue. Too few who earn their living inside the Beltway seem to get this; and the few who do, rarely have national exposure. It is also too simplistic to cast the Trump phenomenon as the natural outgrowth of the fading glory of the angry and frustrated white man juxtaposed against the ascendant power of minorities -- the throwaway line that permeates political commentary. It is far more nuanced than that. The Trump phenomenon is better understood as a colossal F U to all of the lies and broken promises politicians have hoisted upon the masses over the years. It is the savage blowback to the money-sucking rules and regulations and taxes that heavily burden a broad range of the middle and upper middle classes. It is a YUGE “suck it” to the self-aggrandizement and pocket lining that goes on within the Beltway. It is a swift backlash against the swarm of Beltway wannabees who want in on DC action in order to enrich themselves on the backs of the people, to the detriment of the country. It is the sweeping repudiation of the Democrat-Media Complex with its corruption, collusion, and revolving door between Democrat candidates like Hillary, the White House, the DOJ, the IRS, the press, the academy, the 1%, the think tanks, Wall Street, the Occupy and Black Lives Movements, the unions, the community organizers, and the entire Democrat Party apparatus. It is a gigantic body slam against the brutal tactics the left employs every election -- regardless of who the candidate is and what his/her credentials may be -- tactics deployed to seek and destroy the opponent at all costs using falsehoods that are shamelessly disseminated because the ends justifies the means. This election is a referendum against the very kind of unbalanced treatment of the candidates we see unfolding right now, where the only news featured is Trump’s sexual misconduct. Anyone with a passing interest in the election tuning into the MSM for an update has no idea about Hillary’s history, her transgressions, or her incompetence. They will not know about her intentional destruction of emails that belong to the People, her illegal server, her lies to the FBI, her negligence in Benghazi, or how she destroyed the women who, in her own words, deserve to be heard, how she mocked stay-at-home moms who like to bake cookies, let alone how she portrayed a little girl who was raped as the predator, then laughed about it. Some champion of women and children. This is a referendum against the press looking the other way as far as Hillary Clinton goes, while perseverating on the foibles of Trump; against the kind of mean-spirited, scorched earth tactics employed by the left that always emerge in the final weeks before the election. It doesn’t matter if the lies are about tax returns, salacious affairs, Air National Guard, DUIs, women in binders, dogs on roofs, or illegally obtained tape recordings from private events. This is how it always goes. And the little guys have had enough -- and they aren’t just men, they aren’t just white, and they aren’t just the working class whose jobs have been displaced. They are legion and span the demographic spectrum. The Democrats aren’t worried about winning. They’re worried about the backlash and they should be. The attitude of the average Trump supporter is that no matter how much of a buffoon he might be, he isn’t as bad as all of the other career pols out there who misstate, misspeak, and misremember but always get away with it because they claim to be above the fray, of impeccable character, or to soar high when others stoop low. Whether hard-core from the get-go or johnny-come-latelies, Trump supporters have such little regard for political elites, that they’ll support anyone who isn’t making his or her money off of their votes. The more the media focus on Trump’s indiscretions while blatantly ignoring the mounting evidence of the Clinton Machine’s abuse of power and complicity in criminal, treasonous activities that put the homeland at risk, the more people dig in their heels for Trump. This might not be enough for Trump to win, but that’s ok. Trump is the second phase of a freedom-based-on-constitutional-governance-movement whose genesis started with the Tea Party. Even though Trump is not a Tea Party candidate and Tea Partiers generally did not support him in the primaries, they want many of the same things -- restoring liberty, law and order; returning to constitutional governance and limited government; and unleashing the power of free markets. Do not mistake Donald Trump for the movement or even its leader. He is merely a conduit for that movement to act and organize; the first national voice of what is still a grassroots movement. The Tea Party had a tough time getting press attention; Donald does not. He might stink as a candidate. His character might be less than worthy. But he is and was the only guy on the debate stage willing to say what needs to be said, offering to do what needs to be done, speaking on behalf of those who have been silenced by the left’s own version of intolerance, bullying, and political correctness. He’s got our six and he’s unafraid. This is why evangelicals can vote for a guy whose views on life, gay marriage and religion are debatable; why they can turn the other cheek when he uses crude language. This is why accomplished professional women who have broken the glass ceiling working in a man’s world, like Ann Coulter (or me) can put up with his remarks about women and still vote for him. This is why devoted and hardened conservatives like Bill Bennett or Victor Davis Hanson, who take their conservatism seriously, can vote for Trump. This is why Tea party conservatives who supported Anyone But Trump in the primaries, can support Anyone But Clinton in the general election. The People understand what this election is about. Why can’t the rest of the conservative universe? While pundits like Jonah Goldberg and George Will have turned this into a urinating contest of who is the more conservative conservative and who is doing more to destroy the GOP and conservatism, the People are waging a completely different war, using bunker-busting bombs to destroy the mess at its core. The two-party system has already been irretrievably corrupted with bugs and malware. No matter what we say, no matter what buttons we push, nothing will change. The only fix is a virus and it just so happens, Trump is the virus. But it could have been anyone -- as long as he or she would call out the double standards and refuse to cower or capitulate when attacked by self-righteous pundits, haranguing journalists, rabid Democrats, or scaredy-cat Republicans. Have no doubt. This is every bit a renunciation of Obama’s eight years, failed Democrat policies, and Hillary Clinton’s failures in office, as it is of the Washington leviathan, including our own defectors on the right. Everyday Americans are looking for an advocate, a champion, a voice, and a backbone, not a spineless sycophant who apologizes and backtracks when the going gets tough. Millions of everyday Americans have flipped the proverbial bird to overweening government bureaucracy, the political process, political elites, and the entire political machine. They know they are ignored. But Trump can be heard above the din of even the most biased in the media. And Trump is the collective voice of more than 50 million F U’s.