by Chris James
In my previous column, entitled "Good Luck With That," I
surgically demolished the two most popular platitudes that are being used by
Trumpists to try to persuade doubters and naysayers to vote for that
quintessential Village Idiot. Namely, a) not voting for Trump is a vote for
Hillary, and b) do it for the good of your children and grandchildren. I
complacently thought that my skillful efforts more than justified a
self-satisfied "Well, that takes care of that." Wrong. The Phoenix
has since risen from the ashes. And so, like Sisyphus, I am hypnotically
compelled to push that infuriating rock back up the hill again---and to mix
metaphors.
Ground zero for this renewed fusillade was, once again, the local
Republican Club. On this occasion, the speaker was decorated with impeccable
credentials, having had an impressive history as a close adviser in the
corridors of power at both state and Federal levels. His scholarship lay mainly
in the field of education---a subject about which he had written a number of
books. His forcefully persuasive approach to energizing doubters to rise up and
smite a mighty blow for The Donald was delivered in three thrusts: 1) Common Core
flapdoodle, 2) Supreme Court appointment, and 3) Black Lives Matter manifesto.
Common Core is the Federal government's manic attempt to ensure
that all U.S. public schools are created equal by mandating that all schools
teach to essentially the same curriculum and meet the same standards. It was
created with virtually no public, nor genuine expert, input. Indeed, the public
didn't know much about it until the done deal was suddenly foisted upon them.
Of course, there is an egregious and obese money trail stuffing the pockets of
those responsible for engineering this Frankensteinian creation.
Needless to say, there has been an uproar and a good deal of
push-back (the fastest way to forfeit any Federal, and even state, grants).
Hillary is all for Common Core and, reading between the lines, is likely to
tighten the screws over its adoption and subsequent implementation if elected
to the Presidency. Trump threatens to tank it. Therefore, if you love kids and
are concerned about their educational welfare, then vote for Trump. Can't argue
with that.
If Hillary becomes President and gets to appoint the Scalia
replacement on the Supreme Court, then there is a strong possibility that we
will end up with yet another sitting liberal whack job. This will give the
lefties on the Court a guaranteed, "no fair" 5 to 4 advantage, if all
goes well for them. A President Trump will obviously appoint a conservative
whack job, thereby providing the Court's right wing with an honest,
"playing-field-leveling" 5 to 4 advantage. Therefore, vote for Trump.
Cool.
Apparently, there is a manifesto floating around, put together by
activists from the Black Lives Matter movement. The Republican Club speaker
maintained that it includes a proposal to close down all charter schools in this
country. Huh? Closing down charter schools would deprive several thousand black
students (and several thousand more aspiring to get in) of, at least, the
opportunity to better themselves. Why on earth would Black Lives Matter
activists impose such a destructive strategy on the next black generation, the
lives of whom therefore appear not to matter? Hillary is a pant-wetting B.L.M.
supporter; Trump is agin' it. Therefore, vote for Trump. No-brainer.
My wife, who is sold on the must-vote-Trump platitudes mentioned
in my first paragraph, is triumphant. She believes that the Club's speaker's
reasoning is so powerful that my shame-faced capitulation must follow, and
Trump will ultimately be blessed with my vote. But, my lady, how wrong you are!
And the reason why I haven't changed my position by a single molecule is that
the speaker's arguments were taken out of context. Trump's
"favorable" strategies need to be viewed through the lens of the
philosophy of a total Trump administration, and not just on their own
individual, alleged merits.
Thus, given the speaker's confidence that a President Trump would
actually do the things that he singled out, then I will take a leaf from the
speaker's book and suggest that a President Trump would actually do a few other
things that he has also dwelt on in the past. A few examples: 1) Take the U.S
out of NATO. Leaving a serious European power vacuum to be filled by his buddy
Putin and other thugs. 2) Bring U.S. troops home from their missions of
arbitration and policing abroad. Likely to unleash a---beyond dangerous---global
power vacuum. 3) Take the U.S. out of NAFTA. This pact has been of great
economic benefit to all three members. Its collapse would have a shattering,
long-term impact on their economies.
Just these three isolationist strategies alone could generate
inconceivable devastation to global stability---such as it is today.
Potentially, the resulting power struggles and universally ruptured economies
could persist for decades. Armageddons, breaking out like zika viruses, will be
so politically widespread and of such magnitude that preventing or reversing
their contribution to total planetary disintegration will be an incredibly
difficult, if not impossible, task.
All this unmitigated, world-wide chaos is supposed to "Make
America Great" via some abracadabra, fairy-tale transformation, known only
to the omniscient Trump. Obviously, quite the opposite would happen to America
if scenarios 1) through 3) became reality. A tiny taste of what America would look
like under those circumstances can be gleaned by pondering the status of a
nearby country that has lived under bone-headed isolationism for decades.
Crossword clue: Four letters, first one is the third letter in the alphabet. If
that doesn't do the trick, then how about taking a calibrating gander at the
poster child of loony-bin isolationism, namely, life among the common folk in
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea?
If all these super nova catastrophes actually play out, do you---dear
reader---really think that we will be giving a single, solitary, hairy hoot
about Common Core, Supreme Court, and Black Lives Matter? What? You think we
will? Ye Gods!! Well, there you go again. And there's not enough good luck in
whole darn universe to help you with that one!
