Make America Great Again

I am writing this at the request of a friend so I know that while some of your will want to scream and break your own stuff and lovingly wish me dead, there will also be some of you who will cheer me on (silently so no one screams at you, breaks your stuff or lovingly wishes you dead for disagreeing with them) and some of you who may appreciate the opinion and maybe change yours as a result.  Maybe.

If you've already made up your mind that Hillary Clinton is this nation's fairy godmother and that that little incident in Benghazi doesn't make any difference now; that that little email thing was just an innocent and inconsequential mistake; that the Clinton foundation is a totally transparent charitable organization completely on the up-and-up and dedicated to spreading love and joy across the globe and nothing else; that Whitewater never happened; that Hillary does know the secrets to fixing the economy (what? It's broken?) and healing a "post-racial" America and she just thought it would be clever not to share those answers with Barry; that she knew nothing of the primary rigged against Bernie Sanders; and that lots of people know 100 folks who could have testified against them if they hadn't died under the most bizarre set of circumstances imaginable (insert liberal eye-roll here) then you're probably better off just picking out that porcelain coffee mug you've been thinking of getting rid of anyway and getting started hoping my grandchildren are born with tails.

If you're in the camp that is terrified she may be the next president but you don't know how to get the taste out of your mouth by supporting a billionaire seemingly dedicated to shooting himself in the foot on a daily basis and saying things in such a non-presidential manner that he makes Gerald Ford and George W look like masterful orators then please just consider a few things.  First of all I'm not going to tell you not to believe your lying eyes and ears, but please don't believe the interpretation of Trump's words by the Obama Press (AP), MSNBC, CNN, The New York Slime or The Washington Joke (Post).  The Donald says a lot of stupid stuff. But it is true that many of the people crossing the Mexican border are criminals that Mexico would rather see here than there.  It just might be a good idea to develop a more sound strategy than the current eeny, meenie, miney, mo one we're using for vetting Syrian refugees before we let ISIS supporters sneak into our country (see France, Germany, Belgium, et al and shut up). And yes, his current wife is way prettier than anyone in the Clinton family tree, although I'm not sure why that's a crime.  Oh, and yes, some of his companies have made use of (exploited) foreign factories and workers for fun and profit.  If you're going to be a billionaire you play by the rules the other billionaires play by on the playing field we created (read, the highest corporate taxes in the world domestically).

All true and more if you think Don Lemon matters.

But without spinning this into an endless debate that will have us all chasing our tails and throwing statistics at each other--real ones and "adjusted data" (I love that term), here's what I (and lots of others, believe it or not) think:

If Donald Trump is president our borders will be more secure. Maybe he gets the wall built, maybe he doesn't. I don't care. I just want a president who is as worried as I am about border security and our current lack thereof.

If Donald Trump is president the economy will improve. More jobs will be created. Standards of living will increase. Economic hope will abound.  Don't waste your breath trying to convince me that Hillary Clinton has any better idea of how to increase jobs than B Obama had and that a billionaire with over 10,000 employees does not.

Our military will become strong again.  I have heard it said by guys who know a lot more about it than I do that we could not win a war on two fronts right now. We would have lost World War II if it were fought today. Russia-China. Iran-North Korea. Pick your nightmare. We need to quit apologizing for having been the mightiest nation on earth and become that again. How much more stable would the world be had it not been for the Arab Spring, the development of  ISIS (yes, I do blame Obama for that) and the re-emergence of Russia as an international military threat?

Our cities will become safe again. Our federal government has all but funded the most racist, hateful organization formed in this country since the KKK--blacklivesmatter.  Crime has risen by double digits in every major city in the country since the myth that was Michael Brown. Rudy Guiliani's Broken Windows Policy and its many permutations throughout the country worked. We enjoyed two decades of the safest streets we have known since before the 60's and then the most racially divisive, fairy-tale spewing president in the history of this country allowed it/encouraged it to be unsafe to go to an ATM machine without an armed escort in most urban areas. Thousands of men, women and children are dying in the streets of JUST CHICAGO every year because of unenforced gun laws, decline of anything resembling a healthy family culture, the propagated myths of victimization and a secret war on blacks (but not Asians or Latinos) by cops and now, reluctance of cops to help the areas that need them most lest they be accused of participating in Barack Obama's imaginary war. Trump will support law enforcement's effort to make us safe again rather than create a DOJ that will actively and willingly attempt prosecution on the barest of hearsay and lack of facts of police officers just trying to do their jobs.  Go ahead--adjust some data and keep living in your fantasy world if you'd like.

If Trump is president we will add conservative Supreme Court justices. If he is not we won't. I don't care if he tells you every child will get a free winged-unicorn, imagine a few decades with the Supreme Court H Clinton will seat. Do you even want to be alive to see it?

Veterans will convert to a voucher system rather than continue to rely on a VA that has gotten so large and bureaucratic it is ineffective at almost all levels save creating government jobs for incompetent adminstrators. It won't cost us as much as the current VA system and vets will be able to get the care they need.

Education may also convert to a voucher system if Trump can get it through Congress. Imagine the freedom to send your child to a school of your choosing rather than the one you are zoned into because you may be unfortunate enough to live in a neighborhood that doesn't attract teachers who are worth a darn.

Obamacare can become something that works instead of the colossal-soon-to-be-a-total-failure we are experiencing as we see what was in the bill we passed.  I am so sick of the media saying the Republicans never had a plan for improving health care and even sicker of liberals who believe it.  I still like McCain's proposed plan the best but I'd have settled for Romney's. I am certain Donald Trump can improve on it because almost anyone could.

Is Trump knowledgeable enough to manage all aspects of the federal government by himself? Of course not.  He wouldn't be able to manage all aspects of his multi-billion dollar businesses by himself. What he knows how to do is surround himself with people who do have expertise in a given area and you don't amass the fortune he has amassed by not listening to them and making stupid decisions.  I have faith (yup, I said it) that he will run the country in much the same manner, no matter how maddening his shoot from the hip speaking style is at getting him negative headlines.

I was so encouraged when this round of Presidential Jeopardy started by the fact that Trump, Sanders and others who were completely outside the realm of Washington's power-brokered stranglehold on politics became the immediate frontrunners. Trump wasn't my first choice either and--surprise--Bernie was my last choice, but I was encouraged by the fact it appeared America was angry and fed up with politics as usual and we might be ready to hit the reset button and....Make America Great Again.

I still believe that is possible and I hope it is so.  The current media drivel about Trump polling poorly, blah, blah, blah doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. How many times did they write him off in the Republican primary process only to eventually see him win the nomination with more votes than ever in history.  The headlines of all the Republican nonsupporters should point as clearly as anything to the fear in Washington of the political gravy train becoming the political whirlwind. The polls that show Hillary leading in popularity make me think that if she indeed wins, and she certainly could, that this country will surely get exactly what it deserves. And I think that is the opposite of greatness. 

Most of us have already made our minds up.  If you haven't yet, take your responsibility seriously this fall and vote. You could be the difference between four more years of this (if Obama was so great why are the liberals so upset about the state of things?) and Making America Great Again.