Trump Now Scares Me – He Could Actually Win It All

Until today, this blog assumed that eventually America would wake up and smell the Trump coffee, have a laugh, then move onto a serious candidate. If the Republicans were unable to stop Trump, for sure the American public would thwart him in the general election. Today, this no longer appears to be a certainty.

It is not Mr. Trump’s foreign affairs speech today that changed future possibilities. It is the inevitability that Mr. Trump will win the Republican nomination (following his five state victory yesterday) and the realization the Secretary Clinton will not be able to handle the rascal. The speech, by the way, did not make Mr. Trump appear presidential. Being presidential appears to no longer be a requirement for the job. We have allowed far too many of our standards to be lowered.

For all the pundits speaking of the vast experience of Secretary Clinton – she really does not have much street fighting experience. She has competed in two senatorial elections and two presidential primaries. That is three more political campaigns than Mr. Trump has competed in – but both of the senatorial campaigns were not competitive and she lost her first presidential primary. Secretary Clinton was served those senatorial elections on a silver platter by the Democratic machine that loves her Clinton last name. The current primary campaign had no serious contenders. Furthermore, Bernie Sanders let Secretary Clinton off the hook on her questions of character (her emails, her own email server, Benghazi, and the Clinton Foundation donations from people, companies and/or countries doing business with her State Department).

Rest assured that Mr. Trump is not going to give Secretary Clinton a pass on these issues. These issues can severely damage Secretary Clinton’s trust and likability ratings. Secretary Clinton does not have any street fighting experience. but Donald Trump does. He is a down in the mud brawler. He is so unpredictable that the weak retail politician that Secretary Clinton is will be unable to respond with some quick witted response to the outrageous comments that Mr. Trump is sure to make. “Crooked Hillary.”

Then there is the hand grenade that Mr. Trump tossed into the Clinton campaign headquarters (right between Hillary and Bill). That hand grenade is sitting there for Secretary Clinton to think about from now until the November elections. Mr. Trump tossed this hand grenade from the O’Reilly Factor cable show last week. Mr. Trump said that if Secretary Clinton is not prosecuted by the Justice Department for her emails that he (when elected President) might take another look at the case. Mr. Trump stated that the statute of limitations will not yet have expired when he takes office.

There it is, the hand grenade that Hillary has to look at every time she thinks about some negative campaigning against Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump also stated that he expects Secretary Clinton to campaign fairly. If she does not campaign fairly, he will be taking another look at the Justice Department’s investigation into Secretary Clinton.

The hand grenade is brilliant – which is not something this blog has ever stated about anything done by Mr. Trump. As long as Hillary plays fairly (whatever that means to Mr. Trump), she won’t have to worry about going to jail. By the way, numerous legal pundits have stated that Secretary Clinton’s handling of classified emails was a felony. Whether the current Democratic administration will actually bring charges is questionable. So why does the FBI have 147 agents investigating the matter? Why have Secretary Clinton’s top aides just received subpoenas? Why did the techie that wiped Secretary Clinton’s email server clean plead the 5^th – and why is he now being granted immunity so that he can testify? Why did Secretary Clinton have the techie wipe the server clean in the first place? Looks a lot like Tom Brady’s broken cell phone and you know how the judge ruled on that. There is a lot of smoke surrounding Secretary Clinton. Does anybody think there could be fire?

 It is unclear why the media have not paid any attention to this hand grenade. Maybe it is because Secretary Clinton gets off easy with the press. The press (along with Bernie Sanders) has given Secretary Clinton a pass on her many serious issues. Maybe nobody else noticed the hand grenade. Really? This blog is the only entity that saw the hand grenade being tossed? Well once the calendar turns to July, the heat will be on. The general election street fighting will begin and the press will have to cover every minute of it - even the to-this-point-in-time ignored hand grenade. Actually, Trump and Clinton are not going to wait until July. Oh, wait a minute – that hand grenade was the first punch.

The general election will be as much of a street fight as the Republican primary campaign has been. America will the laughing stock of the world and it is now very possible that Mr. Trump could win it all. This blog is now terrified.

New York, Please Count to Ten Before You Vote

President Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature”.

It is time again for Americans to stop being enemies. We must not be enemies based on our last names, our religion, our gender, our economic status, or even by our political ideologies. We must all allow ourselves to be touched by the better angels of our nature. We must not act out of anger and fear but from compassion and good faith that we can all work together to solve our problems. America’s problems are not caused by one religion, or by the rich or the poor. America’s problems are caused by technological disruptions to the global economy that have impacted wealthy nations more adversely than developing nations.

In the past, America has been able to work together to solve our problems. Today we are unable to do this. Not because we no longer have the brain power and work ethic that has made America great – it is because we have become so polarized that we cannot find enough common ground to summon the American spirit into action. It is because we have a dearth of leadership that can bring people together.

What America needs is leadership to harness the spirit of Americans towards addressing our problems – not a fear monger that leads Americans to believe that they have no part in solving our problems other than to point to a group of people as the cause of our problems.  Does anyone believe that deporting all illegal immigrants would solve our problems? Would deporting every Muslim solve our problems? Would torturing people solve our problems? Did shutting down the government solve our problems?

Not one of these actions, nor all in combination would solve our problems. To the contrary, each and all of these actions would only make things worse. Irrational actions as a result of fear and/or anger rarely make things better. As children, we were all taught to count to ten before responding to someone that had made us angry. If ever there was a time to count to ten, it is that moment in New York right now. One thing is certain, Donald Trump has made Americans angry.

It is my sincere hope that after counting to ten, New Yorkers will choose a leader that speaks to unity rather than divisiveness; a leader that offers rational solutions rather than blame calling; a leader with the character required to be the leader of the free world; a leader that provides the confidence of being able to manage a world conflict with maturity rather than with a tweet; a leader that knows the issues and has a track record of solving issues; a leader that can work within the framework of a democracy.

New York, please count to ten. Donald Trump has provided plain descriptions of many of America’s problems and his blunt talk and bravado does provide a sense that he will actually do something about those problems. Unfortunately, he doesn’t speak to the main problem America faces: the lack of leadership required to unite people to work together to solve our problems.

Mr. Trump should be credited with awakening our politicians to the severe mistrust we all have with Washington politicians. Mr. Trump’s identification of the many problems we face also sheds light on our government’s incompetence to fix these problems. But please do not be fooled into thinking that Donald Trump can fix the problems by his mere determination. Polarization in Washington is our biggest problem. A man that believes that he can be the dictator in a constitutionally democratic government can only further polarize Washington.

Donald Trump has some good ideas. We need a wall on our border. But we need to get Democrats and Republicans to agree to such an action. The President is not a dictator. Government is not a business. Donald Trump is the dictator of his business because he owns the business. In America, 330 million people own the country.

The only area where our president has near dictator authority is in the use of military power. Do you believe that Donald Trump has the maturity of restraint necessary to prevent world disasters? Would Donald Trump tweet out his anger at Russia’s President Putin or would he air mail a nuclear missile instead? His behavior to this point must lead us to conclude that we do not know what he would do. Please count to ten – either choice (the tweet or the missile) is not good.

Mr. Trump speaks with common sense on some issues and with complete ignorance on others. Building a wall (or at least controlling our border) is common sense. Torture is a really bad idea. It sounds good to say that the terrorists torture our soldiers so we are going to torture the terrorists. But we are Americans and after we count to ten, we know we are better than the terrorists. Torture is beneath us. After being interviewed on the issue of abortion, Mr. Trump changed his position three times in three hours because he had not previously thought the issue through. Then there is the Middle East. How many common sense solutions has he provided on the Syrian situation? First it was let the Russians handle it. Then it was let Syrian’s neighbors handle it. Then it was let the Russian’s take out ISIS and then we’ll take out Syrian President al-Assad. Mr. Trump’s reactionary solutions sound like common sense in the moment of his reaction, but they do not stand up to the test of time – if they did, they would not have changed so frequently.

If Mr. Trump gets that 3AM call with an issue of world war or peace, will he have enough principle and knowledge to confidently make the right call? We do not have any facts to tell us the answer is yes. Actually, his behavior and changing positions suggest that the answer is no. At best we do not know.

With Donald Trump disqualified for consideration by actually considering the consequences, Senator Cruz may arise as a potential replacement. However, the Senator is also a polarizing politician that has been unable to gather support from his fellow members of the Senate (except for a mere two at this point in time). Senator Cruz single-handedly shut down the government during the “fiscal cliff.” He is proposing to patrol Muslim neighborhoods to root out radical Islamists. Need it be mentioned that he used the term “New York values” in a disparagingly manner? Again, count to ten before selecting Senator Cruz. He offers no solution to America’s greatest challenge – the lack of unifying leadership.

So that leaves one man standing – Governor John Kasich of Ohio. Fairway Frank endorsed Governor Kasich on January 22, 2016 when there were still 17 candidates in the Republican race. My reason stated for endorsing Governor Kasich was that he was a unifier – a leader willing to work with the other side. Governor Kasich is a man that knows how the America government works and he has made it work. He is a good and honest man that has the character required for the job. He is a man we can be proud to call our President.

Consider the three Republican candidates remaining, and picture which one you would consider a statesman. That is the one that should be our president.

Today (April 12, 2016) Governor Kasich gave a speech in New York titled “Two Paths.” As of the writing of this blog entry, the speech is not yet available online for viewing. Had it been available, a link would have been provided here. In fact, this blog entry will be updated with the link as soon as it becomes available. Governor Kasich’s speech is powerful. It summons the better angles of our nature to select between two paths: one of darkness and division or the positive path of problem solving through working together. I encourage all readers to watch Governor Kasich’s speech.

Count to ten New York. Your vote will select the path for all America. Your vote could put Donald Trump’s delegate count high enough to enable him to clinch the total delegates required before the nominating convention. Or, your vote could deny Donald Trump this advantage and provide America with more time to consider what we are doing.

It is a near impossibility for Donald Trump to win the general election so voting for him to be the Republican nominee is giving the Democrats the presidency and maybe both houses of Congress. If you still think the statement of voting for Donald Trump to be the Republican Party nominee is a noble cause because it sends a message to Washington – you’re correct. But that message has already been sent and received. Again, Mr. Trump deserves credit for making Washington aware of the anger and distrust of the American people. That alone however, does not qualify him to be the president.

Your vote may satisfy the anger you feel but it will not magnify the message already received in Washington (Americans are distrustful and angry at an incompetent government). Forego the personal satisfaction of the anger venting vote and remember what President Kennedy said in his inaugural speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” Kenney’s inaugural speech in 1961 came 100 years after Lincoln’s in 1861.

This appeal does not come from the “Stop Trump Movement” nor from the “Establishment.” The author has never held a political office nor aspired to do so. The author is a member of no political organization. Furthermore, the author has been a registered independent for the past ten years because of the divisiveness perpetrated by both parties. Recently, the author changed his registration to Republican so that he can vote for Governor Kasich in the Pennsylvania primary elections on April 26^th. Following the Pennsylvania primaries, the author intends to re-register as an independent.

This blog entry goes directly to the purpose stated on the banner of the blog itself: “This blog is dedicated to public awareness of the issues facing America, civil discourse, and a search for leadership!” I believe that Governor Kasich is the leader we are all searching for!

As an American concerned about all the issues you are concerned about – I strongly urge New York Republicans to count to ten before you vote.