Beech Tree News Network

I often think about how many new, young drivers feel about their first car.  I am not referring to families with a lot of money who can start out their youngster in a brand new Hummer.  For most regular folks, the plan is to scrape together whatever they can and buy whatever they can reasonably afford to purchase, insure, and fuel.  Thus, for many 16-17 year-olds, their “new” car leaves a lot to be desired.  It has flaws.  It’s not what they really wanted, but it’s what they have.  It does a job, albeit imperfectly at times, and for the most part is able to get them from point A to point B.  This analogy, I believe, is beneficial to understanding how many sympathetic voters feel about President Donald Trump.  However, those sufferers of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), which includes our notorious media chieftains and the celebrity class, have yet to understand this phenomenon.  They still seem to think that somehow the allegiance Trump supporters have for their president/candidate is personality driven, when, in fact, for many the opposite is true.  That’s why the media’s next big “gotcha” moment when Trump says this or does that rarely has much impact on his core supporters. 

In 2016 Donald Trump was viewed by his supporters as a disruptor candidate.  He still is. People were sick and tired of smooth-talking politicians who knew what to say and how to say it very well but whose policies were both detrimental and divisive.  The most recent former president did this extremely well...so well, in fact, that individuals with polar opposite political beliefs could somehow manage to project their own beliefs onto him.  Now, that’s skillful… and quite deceptive.  Trump is the opposite of that.  All that he is - good and bad - are on view 24/7.  He was elected as an antidote to the establishment and status-quo mindset that had captured Washington D.C., which is represented vividly by the 47-year career of Joe Biden.  Has Trump fulfilled that role?  You bet.  Has it been pretty to watch at times?  No, not really.  Did we expect it to be?  No. Resistance and true change typically come with a heavy price.    

For some perspective, I remember how the Left’s new-found favorite Republican president, George W. Bush, was ridiculed and attacked relentlessly by his political opponents.  "W." did very little to respond to the lies.  He was trying to be presidential, as we’re all reminded is so important.  McCain?  A media darling until he found himself awash in the “Yes We Can” stampede.  Romney was savaged as well by his opponents, accused of hating dogs and, along with his VP pick, of wanting to kill old people, not to mention the veiled religious innuendos.  His tepid push-back sounded more like an NPR voice reading a vintage recipe.  It goes without saying that all of these individuals at different times and in varying degrees, were called racist, homophobic, old white men who wanted to get rid of Social Security and put America women back in the kitchen and reduce their reproductive freedom to the days of back alleys and coat-hanger abortions.  That was all ridiculous, of course, and untruthful but that never got in their way.  Implicit in all of this angst and anger directed at these candidates was the assumed rampant stupidity of their supporters.  For the progressive Left, it is never enough for a conservative Republican to simply be wrong.  They must be stupid, gullible, evil or some combination of all three.  

Trump entered this political world and said “Enough.”   He was brash and unapologetic in what he stood for and in what he believed and would not let attacks against him go unchallenged.  You hit him, he hit you back.  Trump defended the “deplorables,” stood up against the cultural ravages on political correctness, made political promises on the campaign trail and then actually kept them.   That’s a shocker in D.C.  Voters, unlike the media and the Left, understood his straight-talking approach, his jocular sense of humor, and his propensity to troll his opponents.   Trump went directly at the elites of both parties and he didn’t back down when the heat came … and it came through the hoax of Russia and impeachment and a torrent of other things … but you know that story.   

Trump has battled forces on all sides for four years now in an attempt to right the course of a nation that has veered badly.  He had stood in the gap, seemingly alone at times, trying to protect the nation, as best he can, from the forces of radical progressivism,  lawless anarchy and unfettered globalism.  He is a crude instrument at times for sure; a means to an end, no doubt.  And, even his core supporters cringe at some of his comments and actions.  But, we know what’s on the other side and we’re not going there.   Now, with a little more than a month until the election, the president finds himself coming off a shaky debate performance, locked in a contentious Supreme Court nomination battle, behind in most every poll - nationally and in battleground states, contending with the potential craziness of mail-in ballots, and dealing personally with a coronavirus diagnosis.  Where’s the kitchen sink?  I’m sure it’s coming soon.  If the polls are even close to being accurate, Trump is heading for a significant popular vote and Electoral College defeat.  Does it feel that way?  Are those polls accurate? Can the president rally his political base as he did in 2016?  Will voters actually turn to Biden, Harris, Ocasi0-Cortez, Sanders, et al, to lead the nation?  Maybe. Maybe not. But, we’ll all find out soon enough.   

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