Nobody for President
Is this what we are? Is this where we’re at? — No more American dream, no more equality of opportunity, no Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, and no more a new nation, the exceptional nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal?
For many the Dream if it ever was is no more. And at the present moment growing inequality is everywhere, and not about to be lessened by any actions of the government.
And the nobodies? In an earlier blog posting I did say that the Donald was a nobody. But as I think about it, aren’t we all?
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know,
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog
While it’s true that the Donald is a nobody, it’s also true that nobodies have a long history in the leadership of our country. And why is that? Because the mostly ignorant and mostly ignored people, the ordinary guys and gals, about half of whom, and not necessarily the most knowledgeable half, actually vote in the elections, readily identify with the nobodies running, probably for the reason that they’re nobodies too.
What is the attraction of the nobody Donald Trump? What is the draw? Well, for one thing, he says that he wants to make America great again, and as he says this the nobodies line up behind him and join in, “me too” they say, that’s what we want. In fact nobodies always look back to a past that was golden in contrast to the lead of their present lives.
Also for Trump and his followers the country, America, is being pushed around, and by whom, by little people for the most part, people who shouldn’t be challenging us. By first of all the crazies, the radical Islamists, —and don’t forget that ISIS is a part of Islam. They would in fact restore the Caliphate, the very first one dating back to the 7th century, to the immediate aftermath of the death of Muhammad. And they will go on being a part of Islam until Islam (Islam where are you?) decides to clean house and throw them out, which it hasn’t yet found the courage to do.
Then there is Russia, led by another nobody, a little man, Putin, and the Donald would know just what to do about him. And there’s Godless China engaged in stealing our wealth by stealing our secrets and taking our jobs out of the country. The Donald would know what to do here also. And finally there are the hordes of illegals who have crossed over into our land through porous borders from the South and once there take for themselves the opportunities and jobs of our own people.
Well the Donald is the somebody who would end our being pushed around and push back, at least that’s more and more what his supporters seem to believe.
The journalist Peggy Noonan in today’s WSJ explains the Trump draw while talking with an old friend who reveals to Peggy that she is now a Trump supporter. Here is the Journal article.
Perhaps Peggy herself is a closet Trump supporter? She could be. She does marshall tightly together her friend’s many arguments in Trump’s favor while admitting to only a few unfavorable traits such as Trump’s “ideological incoherence and intellectual inconsistency,” his being “a self-puncturing balloon,” (although as she points out, a balloon held aloft by a lot of supporters), and her predicting that his August 6 debate performance will not be substance, but mostly bombast (saying this perhaps to restore her standing among her Journal colleagues).
Here in brief are the essentials of her friend’s arguments for supporting the Donald for president:
- Trump’s rise is not just due to the people’s anger at government, but stems even more from their contempt for the government, that which the Donald clearly shares.
- Then ISIS won’t like it, won’t like it at all, that Donald Trump’s is now in charge.
- Trump’s not afraid to kick ass and will thereby get the economy moving.
- He speaks for the people and ignites their passion by saying that, yes, the country can be made great again.
- Trump already has everything and certainly doesn’t need the job, unlike the usual candidates for the office of President.
- Then like many on the far Right, including the Tea Partiers, Trump has no affection for the illegals, would like to deport them, and promises to finish the job of building the wall between them and us on our Southern borders.
Here is where one sees the similarities between Trump’s position on immigration and that of The Know-Nothing party of the mid 19th. century.
The Know-Nothings were an outgrowth of the strong anti-immigrant and especially anti-Roman Catholic sentiment that started to manifest itself during the 1840s. A rising tide of immigrants, primarily Germans in the Midwest and Irish in the East, (now it’s the Mexicans, Latin Americans from all of Central America, and Asians, principally Chinese and Indians) seemed to pose a threat to the economic and political security of native-born Protestant Americans.
- Trump comes across as self-made. In spite of his wealth he never made himself smooth and proper and polite. In fact, he’s rough on the edges, probably a lot like someone you know, and that’s a good part of his power.
- He’s someone who can get the job done. He’ll restore our bridges and highways, in short, rebuild our infrastructure. For he knows how to build things (hotels and golf courses, for sure).
Finally, Noonan quotes a longtime GOP operative who sums up the people’s, and in particular the Republicans’ attraction for Trump, very nicely:
“Trump intuits that the Republican base loves this country and yearns for an American restoration. The GOP once was a party of industry—bricks and steel—and Trump, the builder, connects with that narrative.”
I’ve talked about the Nobodies, and the No-Nothings (or the Know Nothings), but I haven’t said a word about the Do Nothings. Well we all know about them, don’t we, that’s the US Congress, and if there’s one thing that the Donald is not, it’s a Do Nothing.
So what’s my conclusion? Vote for Trump? Sure he’s a Nobody and a No Nothing,… but he’ll do something. Nobody for President.
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