Miscellaneous

Tester’s not that good, but he’s been lucky.  He first won against Denny Rehberg in 2012, and last year beat Matt Rosendale.  Rehberg was a terrible candidate, and Rosendale wasn’t much better.

Because Rosendale has some money, he got elected statewide, as Auditor.  This apparently made him think he had some political skills.  In fact, he’s an awful candidate, phony, mawkish.  He tries so hard to be Montanan that it’s pathetic.  With Trump’s full-throated support, any half way decent Republican could have won.  But Rosendale doesn’t connect with people.

Now the word is out that Rosendale will be running for the U. S. House next year, to take Gianforte’s seat, who’ll be running for Governor.  This could mean, and probably does, that Rosendale wants another shot at Tester in 2024.  Bad idea.  Rosendale has proven he doesn’t have the skill to take out Tester.

There should be at least two alternatives.  One is former Speaker Austin Knudsen, who  will run for Attorney General next year, positioning himself perfectly for a run at Tester four years later.  The other is State Senator Al Olszewski, who will be running for Auditor, also in perfect position.

Olszewski’s a great guy, and a good conservative, but Austin Knudsen is by far the better candidate.  He’s 37, with a wife and two kids, and a Montana native and MSU grad, as well as the Montana Law School.  His great grandfather immigrated from Denmark in 1917, joined the army, and served in World War One.

He supported legislation opposed by the oil industry, and it cost him his job with one of the few law firms in his part of eastern Montana.  He paid a high price for his personal integrity.  This is my kind of guy.

I’ve never met Austin, but I hope to later this year.  A race for Attorney General of Montana can’t be that hard to win.  And after that, it’s Knudsen for Senate in 2024.

Rich people think they’re rich because they’re smart.  Take the Kochs.  Please.  Their daddy was a very smart man, and he left them his company.   They’ve managed it well, and must be smart in business.  Politically, they’re morons.

They have pissed billions of dollars away on politics, and have nothing to show for it.  Instead of giving their money to people who knew what to do with it, they kept tight control of every penny, refusing to contribute to what they didn’t control.

Why, in the name of all that’s holy, do they think anybody cares what they think about Trump?  Nobody cares.  They are a contrary indicator.  They are politically clueless.  The Kochs are jokes.

 

And mine, since I’m a year older.  We share a lot of memories from when we were kids.  We remember wonderful things, and some frightening things, that will be forgotten once we’re gone.

Trump occasionally lapses into a Jackie Gleason persona, from the old TV show, The Honeymooners.  I’ve heard him make a joking reference to “Alice”, Gleason’s wife on the show.  Trump and I remember it well.  He’s definitely a Jackie Gleason kind of guy.  He’s a New York City American patriot.  He’s not blood and soil, as it is for those from the heartland.  But his patriotism is as strong as any.  It’s the patriotism of a capitalist.

Another TV show we watched as “The Millionaire”, about random people who are given a million dollars from an anonymous donor.  The idea of making a million dollars was beyond my comprehension.  But when Trump saw that, what did he think?  A million?  Chump change.

So we’re different, but nonetheless we see the world through the same eyes.  Trump is doing everything I’ve wanted a President to do, and some things I hadn’t thought of.  I feel sometimes as though I’m channeling Trump.  Because I understand, and approve of, everything he does.

Right now he’s thinking of the next twenty months, counting down to election day.  Above all, he wants a roaring economy in November of 2020.  He’ll get his deal with China in plenty of time.  Taxes will stay cut, and regulations will continue to be rationalized.  Important work, such as the rejection of “disparate impact” as a proof of discrimination, will continue.  The entire executive branch of government will be devoted to boosting the economy.

Congress is gridlocked, and dysfunctional.  If he can get a decent infrastructure bill, great.  But there will be no important legislation in the next 20 months.  And the markets like gridlock.

Meanwhile Trump rolls along.   It’s as though he was made for this job.  We’re all along for the ride, on the “Trump Presidency”, a reality TV show, starring Donald Trump, along with the stunningly beautiful First Lady, and the First Family.

It’s the greatest.

In the gut of the American body politic stewed a foul brew of nauseating political correctness, slimy globaloney and fake news.  We were sick to our stomach.  It was all boiling up inside of us.  To regain our health, it had to be ejected.

Then we took a pill named Trump, and it all came hurling out.  It had to happen, eventually.  The pressure inside was getting too strong.  But it needed a trigger, a catalyst.  Something to accelerate the reaction.

That was, and is, the genius of Donald J. Trump.  He’s more than an agent of change.  He’s the catalyst.

 

The “Great Man” theory of history is hogwash.  Historical events that rely on a heroic individual are vanishingly rare.  Just as our bodies evolved, so did our history.  The events occurring across the world, and here at home, are all part of an evolutionary process.  Trump, the man, is an agent in an evolving story.

Because of the internet, we are at the beginning of a new political era, the era of the common man.  The old order, of the ruling elites, is being overthrown.

The ten thousand year evolution that began with agriculture has entered a new phase.  The great leaps forward of the past  — literacy, science, democracy   —  changed the world. As will the new era of the common man.

Donald Trump didn’t cause this evolution.  He leads it because he understands it, not because he created it.  His genius lies in his ability to see what is happening, to mount the band wagon,

When I started this blog in 2013 it was because I sensed a red tidal wave rising.  It would win the Senate in 2014, and elect a united Republican government in 2016.

This red tide would be so strong that an unprecedented event could happen  —   the use of Article V by the states, using only Republican votes.  And that, too, came to pass, and from 2014 to 2018 the Republican controlled state legislatures, by themselves, could have called for an Amendment Convention to the United States Constitution.  Could have, but didn’t.

It must have been in 2013 that Donald Trump saw the same thing I did.  He saw the red wave coming, and he decided to jump aboard.

He caught that wave, and he’s sitting on top of the world.