TRUMP TAKES A HAMMER TO THE ESTABLISHMENT

Exactly what his supporters were hoping he would do

Watching CNN tonight, I saw pundit after pundit flipping out over Trump’s choices to fill his Cabinet. They were particularly worried that the President-elect is overthrowing the “established order of things.” They totally failed to appreciate that that’s exactly what his supporters voted for.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t vote for Trump, I did everything I could to mount a vision I felt could effectively compete with him, and I can’t say I like him. But I like a lot of the people I know who voted for him, and I’ve come to understand in many cases why they did.

It’s easy for a pundit on CNN to say, “Oh no! The established order is being overthrown!” as they clutch their pearls in horror. They’re horrified because the established order is working for them. For millions of American it sure as hell is not. We’ve gone in a couple of years from the travesty of parents only being able to give their children breakfast cereal for dinner, to the breakfast cereal itself now having gone obscenely up in price.

You think that’s an America that’s working for people?

Those same TV pundits just can’t understand why voters didn’t realize the economy is actually working well! (They have the data!) Well I’ll tell you why, fellas: because it’s not working for them. Donald Trump is taking a hammer to the Establishment, and that’s exactly what his people want him to do. For many, their sense is that no matter who they’ve voted for - Democrat or Republican - nothing ever fundamentally changes. And they feel that way because in too many ways it’s true. They figure that maybe, just maybe, if they smash it all to smithereens then there might be room for a new beginning.

You might be thinking their view is reckless, and you’re right. I agree with you. All I’m saying is that it was entirely predictable to anyone who had spent much time at all thinking - I mean really thinking - about the economic conditions that dot the landscape of this country. Show me anytime, anywhere in history, that such conditions as a reported 70 per cent of a population living with chronic economic despair has not led to the appetite for a political strongman. Establishment elites now wringing their hands about how awful Trump is might one day come to the realization that they - and I do mean they - helped create him. They created a void and he jumped in.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington seem to be waking up to the fact that the party hasn’t been paying enough attention to working class economic concerns. Really?? So let me get this straight. People’s pain wasn’t enough to wake you up. But loss of your own power does?

So yeah, some of these Cabinet appointments make anyone with a left leaning, populist perspective gag. That includes me. But I don’t gag for the same reason some of my liberal friends do. I don’t care that Trump is taking a hammer to the machine. Democrats should have taken one to it long ago. Too many people who voted Democrat in the past feel they tried and tried. Now, in their despair, they are willing to try something else.

I don’t agree with their political calculation, but I respect their yearning. Until Trump messes up - or someone else offers a better alternative - he has the stage and he has the power. But so do we. Let’s not shut up.

For the sake of all of us, I hope for the best.