A few months ago, filmmaker Michael Moore predicted that Donald Trump was going to be the next president of the United States. He then listed the reasons why this was going to happen and then added that if elected, Mr. Trump would be the “last president of the United States.”
Michael Moore obviously knows more about the “non-college-educated white male” than do the TV pundits who have worn that appellation thin on the nightly news. Moore also knows about democracy and how easy it is to get the non-college-educated white male to go to the polls and tell the world that because democracy hasn’t helped him, he’s ready to scrap it for something else.
I’ve never seen Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice,” so before he ran for office I was only vaguely aware of his existence. But several months ago, after finding myself addicted to his outrageous antics on the nightly news, I read “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,” which was researched and written by investigative journalist Wayne Barrett 20 or so years ago.
After reading this history of the young Donald Trump, every evening when he’d appear before cheering crowds, I’d ask myself how anyone who knew anything about him could support him for anything.
So, for months I admired Trump for being the greatest con man to ever breathe on this planet. When there were noises from people who had been scammed at Trump University, I remembered that a few years ago I’d attended some kind of Trump seminar in a Portland hotel. As I recall, it was something about learning how to generate wealth.
Because I was speaking at several national conventions every month, I wanted to study the men putting on the Trump show – their patter, how they stood, what they wore, lighting, temperature, how the room was set up and all of the dozens of unseen nuances that ensure a successful performance and would be of interest only to a professional speaker.
At the first break, I rushed over to the soundman and asked him what they were using for mikes. I knew that these boys would have nothing but the best. When I got home I ordered an Isomax E6 Countryman and am still using my “Trump mike” to make my radio programs today.
Are you surprised that Trump is going to be your next president? Millions of our friends and relatives voted for a Ronald Reagan, who didn’t seem to trickle down, and George W. Bush, who made a business of being misinformed. Isn’t this the next step down?
The Republicans brought Trump on themselves. They promised to share the wealth but never delivered. They shut down the government when President Obama did try to help working people. And now their blue-collar base – a whopping number of people dumbed down by their very own Fox News and talk radio – has turned its back on them and elected a crew that you and I know will be indicted within three years.
Am I concerned?
No.
I’m 80. I have no children. What does it matter if a few million animals on a speck of an insignificant planet in an infinite universe annihilate each other in one more civil war? Or, even more likely, a world war?
Eighty or more years ago the Germans elected a slick-talking strongman who promised them the moon. As I recall, it didn’t work out. And now millions of Americans have traded in Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin for Donald Trump.
What will happen?
No one knows what Trump thinks. No one knows what he will do.
He is neither Democratic nor Republican. He cares for no one but himself. For his entire life, he has bribed or sued folks when it would enrich him. Read Barrett’s book.
So you might well ask:
Will millions of illegal residents be rounded up and shipped off?
Will factories return to the U.S.? What kind of wages would they pay if they do return?
Will Muslims be banned from U.S. soil?
Will Hillary Clinton be jailed for some vague crime?
Will gay marriage and abortion be banned?
Will solar energy programs be scrapped for coal-fired generators?
Will your Social Security check be cut to pay for an even larger war machine?
Will thousands of American troops be sent abroad to fight someone else’s war?
Will our miserable Third World health insurance programs be gutted?
Will even larger tax breaks to the rich mean that those earning less than $250,000 pay more?
If you are concerned about Congress enacting legislation that would do any of these things Mr. Trump promised he would do, take heart.
He lies like a rug.
The humble Farmer can be seen on Community Television in and near Portland and visited at his website:
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story