The Trump Card to The Race Card

A Post Mortem of the 2016 Election
Part 1 - PC BS DOA Today
 By Tim A. Michael

 

"...and the government shall be upon his shoulder..." Isaiah 9:6

 

As a voter that didn’t really have a “home” this general election cycle, I believe I have a unique perspective regarding the process and eventual outcome of it. That said, I’ll just say this

 

“Welp - I didn't see that coming!”

I have often said that I don't mind admitting when I miss the mark on something. When I make a public pronouncement that proves to be erroneous, I am happy to utter those 3 words that haunts most of humanity:  "I was wrong!" And boy was I. Of course judging from the melting snowflakes in the streets of many of our nation's cities, I was not alone on this score.

As many of you know, I was not a Trump supporter and engaged heavily in speculative criticism of him, the VAST majority of which I believe was warranted. The jury is still out on some of those indictments.  Here's the rub for me, and so many of my truly conservative compatriots, if The Donald had struck a nicer tone and/or a more conciliatory persona during the primaries, it's likely the Republican Party would have nominated a different candidate...and LOST the election.  I'm choking on those words as I write them. He tapped into the frustration and anger of the disenfranchised very effectively, and leveraged it for the win.

I think we can safely say that the PC BS is now DOA (although there are still plenty of folks throwing the paddles to it – CLEAR!). I underestimated the impact of just how many people were fed up with political correctness.  I bought into the lie that the "new normal" had become "the new normal" for a majority of Americans (which according to the popular vote may still be the case).  I thought the middle-class middle-Americans had accepted "white privilege" as a fact rather than the sham shaming tool used to perversely pontificate, reversely discriminate, harshly pre-judge. I really had little faith left in my fellow Americans. Well newsflash, there's still half of the country that embraces the red, white, and blue to fly it proudly, and honor it loudly, and unapologetically. 

I underestimated many things in this election, but the one that leaves me scarred the most is my not believing my own truth: A lot of people will forgive the short comings of someone when they believe them to be authentic.

Being "real" has been one of my strongest bits of advice to my kids. Embrace the "real" and shun the "fake." I think I struggled with The Donald's flip-flops so much that I wasn't willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on being "real." In fact, I was so sure that he wasn't, that, rather than trust people like Ben Carson, Pastor Robert Jeffress, and Mike Huckabee, it diminished my faith in them instead.

 

How could they trust this “Johnny-come-lately” "conservative"? How could he be trusted when he spent so much of the primary executing a scorched earth policy toward his own party and promoting big government solutions to healthcare including “single-payer” socialism? How could I trust him. I couldn’t. I didn’t. I still don’t fully.

But, when Trump was getting “real” in his own way, he was kicking over the sacred cows of political correctness and shocking the elite left with such outrageous comments like "We're going to make America great again," and "We're going to build that wall!"  They simply dismissed him as a fool and completely underestimated how much he resonated with so many Americans. 

 

I vacillated between agreeing with them at times, and cheering him on at times. I was completely conflicted. Who among the truly adult population doesn't scoff at the terms "white guilt/privilege" and the concepts of "safe spaces"? Yet who among the adult population doesn’t also expect their Presidents to be, well, “adults”? I’ve spent the last 8 years decrying President Obama’s childish behavior, and so did so many Trump supporters. Suddenly they were willing to overlook it in their candidate? Hypocrisy much? Of course.

The most disappointing thing to me about the entire process was the vitriol leveled at long-time conservatives and their principles/values. The rift wouldn’t have been so wide (and election so close) if they had simply acknowledged their brethren’s concerns rather than scoffing at them. To do so would entail them acknowledging their own duplicity. they chose to attack others instead.

Calling Ted Cruz an “insider” was an egregious mischaracterization when he has spent his entire Senatorial career fighting both the Democrats and the Republican establishment. Moving deeper into the abyss, they just started calling him “lying Ted.” He deserved better. He still does. He actually still deserves an apology. Trump also accused Ben Carson of being a “pathological liar” but he put it even less delicately, and I quote: 

 

“Now. If you’re pathological, there’s no cure for that, folks. Okay, there’s no cure for that. And I did one of the shows today. And I don’t want to say what I said. But I’ll tell you anyway. I said that if you’re a child molester, a sick puppy, you’re a child molester, there’s no cure for that. There’s only one cure—we don’t want to talk about that cure. That’s the ultimate cure. Well, there’s two, there’s death, and the other thing.”

Donald and “The Trumpettes” trashed everything in their path. The Trump Train had no crossing arms or warning lights, just loud horns and full-steam-ahead. They left bodies, reputations, institutions, and decorum strewn in their wake. They trashed some good people along the way. For me, that was unconscionable.

 

Ted Cruz was my guy, and he and his wife were treated unfairly. I still feel this way. The dismissive way that Trump and his supporters treated people, and traditional conservative policies was for many unforgiveable. For others, they were willing to set that aside without a second thought. To me, it smelled of compromise and seemed, well, unseemly. Ethics expendable. Morals mortgage-able. Principles passé.  We’ve seen it all before in the nominations of RINOs. Vomit.  Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Yet, while many in the party were sounding the alarm, the people that he said would support him if he shot someone on 5th avenue were all out grabbing shovels to help hide the body(ies). As the primary moved into it’s later stages, it seemed many of his supporters would take the gun from him and shoot his opponents themselves. The Trump trained rivaled Obama’s messianic movement which was another red flag to give the principled conservatives pause. Again, they were/are ready to accept government-run single-payer healthcare system for control of the executive branch and the SCOTUS. Many of us were ready to let the whole thing burn to the ground in hopes a more perfect Union could rise from the ashes.

The Donald went on to win an amazing victory. He did so with a LOT of people holding their nose while they cast their ballot. I know a significant number of “Cruz Missiles” that were launched AGAINST Hillary. I know a bunch of evangelicals personally that voted FOR Mike Pence. I too believe him to be an honorable man.

 

Additionally, don’t underestimate the number of people who were completely outraged that James Comey announced the Sunday before election day that he would not pursue the investigation against Hillary. This enraged a large percentage of conservatives and seems to have pushed many to the polls that Tuesday. Exit polls suggest a lot of republicans “came home” despite their disdain for Trump.

What I’ve seen from him since his election, from his gracious victory speech to his deliberative and measured way of assembling his cabinet, gives me hope. I’ve heard the stories of people who were close to newly elected presidents saying they could see the mantle descend upon them, even changing their countenance. The petulant childish Donald of the primary seems like a distant memory, at least for now. Even the vast majority of his most strident supporters seem to be following his lead. Good. Both had a LOT of growing up to do.

 

Smugness and petulance is the territory of liberals. We (conservatives) are better than that, so let’s wipe that mud off our boots. We can re-litigate the primary and it’s contentiousness if needed, but what one famous loser once said, “what, at this point, difference does it really make?”  At this point? – none.  Going forward, He will be highly scrutinized by partisans on both sides. Buckle up, it’s likely to be a bumpy ride. And as a footnote to the #nevertrumpers – never say “never!”

 

How could Michael Moore have been so right and I have been so wrong?  Excuse me while I go lick that wound.

In Part II I’ll discuss the blind spots of the democrat left, some of my less than congenial responses to them, and what they may need to consider going “forward.”