Dear Readers,I have written six posts on Donald Trump (see footnote). Most were not very laudatory of his campaign, but I tried to give credit when it was his due. However, I have not drawn a final conclusion about him. This article in the American Thinker has offered a rational perspective. It helped me. Perhaps it will help you.It was a bit long so I edited out a few paragraphs that I didn’t believe were contributory (or were crude and/or demeaning). You can read the entire article here at your leisure.And thanks to JM for forwarding this to me.Roy FillyTrump’s TrumpG. Murphy DonovanDonald Trump is a piece of work even by New York standards: tall, white, loud, brash, entrepreneurial, successful, rich, ruthlessly candid, well-dressed, and fond of heterosexual women. He has married at least three delicious ladies in fact. Trump has five children and seven grandchildren. Indeed, his progeny are well above average too, smartly groomed, photogenic, and successful to boot.As far as we know, Donald does not have any tattoos, piercings, unpaid taxes, or under-aged bimbo interns, nor is he a drinker or a junkie. Trump projects and enterprises probably employ more folks than the NYC school system — or the United Nations.You could say that Trump is living the life, not the life of Riley, but more like Daddy Warbucks with a comb over. “The Donald,” as one ex-wife calls him, is not just living the American dream. Trump is the dream — and proud of it.You could do worse than think of Trump as upwardly mobile blue collar. He is the grandson of immigrants and the product of Long Island, a Queens household, and a Bronx education. The Donald survived the Jesuits of Fordham University for two years before migrating to finish his baccalaureate at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.When readers of the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books speak of “the city”, they are not talking about the Queens or the Bronx. Growing and schooling in the blue-collar boroughs gives Trump a curb level perspective, something seldom found in Manhattan. Or as any “D” Train alumnus might put it, Trump has “a pretty good Bravo Sierra detector.”So what’s not to like about Donald Trump? He doesn’t just stay in four-star hotels; he builds them. He doesn’t just own luxury condominiums; he makes them. He doesn’t just own historic buildings; he restores them. He doesn’t just eat at the best restaurants; he creates them. He just doesn’t belong to the best country clubs; he builds those too.And Donald Trump, unlike the Manhattan/Washington fantasy Press and every Beltway political pimp, doesn’t just pay lip service to a bigger and better economy, he creates micro-economies every day.The only thing we don’t know about Donald Trump is why he would like to immigrate to the District of Columbia.In any case, the merits of entrepreneurs like Trump might best be defined by the character or motives of his critics. Trump detractors are for the most part “B” list politicians, ambulance chasers, and a left-leaning Press corps that lionizes the likes of Nina Totenberg, Dan Rather, Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, and Brian Williams.If the truth were told, most of Trump’s critics are jealous, envious of his wealth — and they loath his candor. Donald might also be hated for what he is not. Trump is not a lawyer, nor is he a career politician who lives on the taxpayer dime. Trump is paying for his own campaign. Bernie, Barack, McCain, and Kerry could take enterprise lessons from a chap like Trump.Unlike most government barnacles, Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time. He knows how to close a deal and build something. He is a net creator, not consumer, of a kind of wealth that provides “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for Americans — real jobs not feather merchants.Today, Trump has nothing left to prove. Yet, success has allowed him the rarest of public privileges, an electoral pulpit and the courage to speak his mind. Alas, truth is not necessarily a political asset in a socialized democracy.Indeed, the erstwhile presidential candidate stepped on his crank recently by suggesting that Mexico, already exporting dangerous drugs, cheap tomatoes, and even cheaper labor, was also exporting violent felons to the US.Truth hurts! Trump’s rude candor is underwritten by nearly half a million illegal felons in American jails. Coincidently, events have conspired to support Trump’s take on Mexican dystopia with the El Chapo Guzman jailbreak and the murder of Kathryn Steinle by Francisco Sanchez.Senor Sanchez sported a lengthy criminal record and had been deported on four previous occasions. San Francisco, a “sanctuary” city, failed to honor existing warrants and released Sanchez from jail just before he blew Kathy Steinle away.… To date, Trump has run a clever campaign. He is chumming, throwing red meat and blood into campaign waters and all the usual suspects are in a feeding frenzy. McCain, the Press, the Left, and the Republican establishment all have something to say about “the Donald.” It is truly amazing how cleverly Trump manages to manipulate the establishment.If you are trying to sell an idea or a candidacy, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.Who knows where the Trump campaign goes? For the moment, he has scored direct hits on Mexico… every time a toilet flushes in Sinaloa, Mexican garbage is likely spill out in Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle. Indeed, it’s hard to believe that the Left Coast could survive without cheap labor, pistileros, meth, coke, heroin, or weed. Necrotic immigration and its byproducts are ready made targets for a gunslinger like Trump.Trump is no bigot. He probably employs more Latinos and Blacks than Enrique Peña Nieto or Barack Obama. In his own way, Donald Trump is both immigrant and POW, a refugee from Queens and still a prisoner of Wharton… He is the wildly successful capitalist that some of us love to hate.Before democratic socialism, success and effectiveness were measures of merit. It doesn’t take much insight to compare Trump’s various enterprises with federal programs. Public education, banking oversight, public housing slums, poverty doles, veterans fiascos, Internal Revenue hijinks, and even some Defense Department procurement programs are consensus failures. The F-35 “Lightning” fighter is an illustration, arguably the most expensive single DOD boondoggle in history. Pentagon progressives seldom win a catfight these days, but they still spend like sailors.If and when Trump fails, he is out of business.In Trump’s world, failure has consequences. In contrast, Washington rewards failure with better funding. Indeed, generational program failure is now a kind of perverse incentive for Beltway politicians and apparatchiks to throw good money after failed programs…Any way you look at it, Donald Trump is good for national politics, good for democracy, good for America, and especially good for candor. If nothing else, The Donald may help Republicans to pull their heads out of that place where the sun seldom shines.The author had two tours in Vietnam as a junior officer and subsequently served as command intelligence briefer in Hawaii where he updated CINCPAC, John McCain’s father, on POW matters.
#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846 -- #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp {border:1px solid #d8d8d8;font-family:Arial;margin:10px 0;padding:0 10px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp hr {border:1px solid #d8d8d8;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp #yiv2606163846hd {color:#628c2a;font-size:85%;font-weight:700;line-height:122%;margin:10px 0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp #yiv2606163846ads {margin-bottom:10px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp .yiv2606163846ad {padding:0 0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp .yiv2606163846ad p {margin:0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mkp .yiv2606163846ad a {color:#0000ff;text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-sponsor #yiv2606163846ygrp-lc {font-family:Arial;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-sponsor #yiv2606163846ygrp-lc #yiv2606163846hd {margin:10px 0px;font-weight:700;font-size:78%;line-height:122%;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-sponsor #yiv2606163846ygrp-lc .yiv2606163846ad {margin-bottom:10px;padding:0 0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846actions {font-family:Verdana;font-size:11px;padding:10px 0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846activity {background-color:#e0ecee;float:left;font-family:Verdana;font-size:10px;padding:10px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846activity span {font-weight:700;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846activity span:first-child {text-transform:uppercase;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846activity span a {color:#5085b6;text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846activity span span {color:#ff7900;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846activity span .yiv2606163846underline {text-decoration:underline;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846attach {clear:both;display:table;font-family:Arial;font-size:12px;padding:10px 0;width:400px;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846attach div a {text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846attach img {border:none;padding-right:5px;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846attach label {display:block;margin-bottom:5px;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846attach label a {text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 blockquote {margin:0 0 0 4px;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846bold {font-family:Arial;font-size:13px;font-weight:700;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846bold a {text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 dd.yiv2606163846last p a {font-family:Verdana;font-weight:700;}#yiv2606163846 dd.yiv2606163846last p span {margin-right:10px;font-family:Verdana;font-weight:700;}#yiv2606163846 dd.yiv2606163846last p span.yiv2606163846yshortcuts {margin-right:0;}#yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846attach-table div div a {text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846attach-table {width:400px;}#yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846file-title a, #yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846file-title a:active, #yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846file-title a:hover, #yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846file-title a:visited {text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846photo-title a, #yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846photo-title a:active, #yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846photo-title a:hover, #yiv2606163846 div.yiv2606163846photo-title a:visited {text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 div#yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg #yiv2606163846ygrp-msg p a span.yiv2606163846yshortcuts {font-family:Verdana;font-size:10px;font-weight:normal;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846green {color:#628c2a;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846MsoNormal {margin:0 0 0 0;}#yiv2606163846 o {font-size:0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846photos div {float:left;width:72px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846photos div div {border:1px solid #666666;height:62px;overflow:hidden;width:62px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846photos div label {color:#666666;font-size:10px;overflow:hidden;text-align:center;white-space:nowrap;width:64px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846reco-category {font-size:77%;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846reco-desc {font-size:77%;}#yiv2606163846 .yiv2606163846replbq {margin:4px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-actbar div a:first-child {margin-right:2px;padding-right:5px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg {font-size:13px;font-family:Arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg table {font-size:inherit;font:100%;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg select, #yiv2606163846 input, #yiv2606163846 textarea {font:99% Arial, Helvetica, clean, sans-serif;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg pre, #yiv2606163846 code {font:115% monospace;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg * {line-height:1.22em;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-mlmsg #yiv2606163846logo {padding-bottom:10px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-msg p a {font-family:Verdana;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-msg p#yiv2606163846attach-count span {color:#1E66AE;font-weight:700;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-reco #yiv2606163846reco-head {color:#ff7900;font-weight:700;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-reco {margin-bottom:20px;padding:0px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-sponsor #yiv2606163846ov li a {font-size:130%;text-decoration:none;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-sponsor #yiv2606163846ov li {font-size:77%;list-style-type:square;padding:6px 0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-sponsor #yiv2606163846ov ul {margin:0;padding:0 0 0 8px;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-text {font-family:Georgia;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-text p {margin:0 0 1em 0;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-text tt {font-size:120%;}#yiv2606163846 #yiv2606163846ygrp-vital ul li:last-child {border-right:none !important;}#yiv2606163846