These past fourteen days in October mark the true beginning of the Trump presidency and a new beginning for America. The one thing I knew after the November election, America would never be the same. I just didn’t know how it would play out. America wanted change so it elected a disrupter. Brash, reckless, no political experience, saying what he thinks when he thinks it, a seasoned and accomplished businessman but a babe in the woods with Washington politics…it looked like the swamp would consume him right from the get-go. I actively supported him and voted for him. Even I had my doubts on that dreary Inauguration Day last January as his political opponents violated every premise of our great democracy by boycotting the event.
During the campaign I said numerous times that Donald Trump was the symptom of what was wrong with America. If it wasn’t Trump…it would have been somebody else. The vast middle working class of America had had enough of taking a backseat to everybody else in the world. Trump was their last gasp asking: “What about me?”
I think I can safely say that after ten months of turmoil and upheaval, either by design or momentum or accident, the end-result is coming into focus in ways I couldn’t possible imagine last November.
Over the past two weeks President Trump has, by executive order, fundamentally changed America. Midst his antics and tweets and off-the-cuff comments, he has moved on every major campaign promise he made during the election. In the process, he has Congress on the defensive; exposed who his Republican political enemies are in both the House and Senate; has energized the populist wing of the Republican Party to put those enemies on notice their antics will not be tolerated. In the process, he has bolstered his political base to protect his back in any effort to dispose of him from within. Through trial and error, he has put together a Cabinet and White House staff that is finally working to protect his interest rather than sabotage his presidency. This is about as strong a cabinet and staff that I have seen in my lifetime, especially Tillerson, Mattis, and Kelly. His foreign policy has been stellar as he addresses North Korea, Iran, NATO, and the United Nations. Slowly but surely European leaders are moving towards Trump’s view of the world, including Britain, France, Canada, and now Austria. Finally, he has dealt with three major hurricanes and a mass shooting in Las Vegas with competency and grace.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is imploding. 84-year-old Senator Diane Feinstein will face a primary challenge by state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, 50, a Los Angeles Hispanic. He is not particularly well known in California, but he will be. He can win. Nancy Pelosi was shouted down by her own left-wing constituency at an event two weeks ago. Hillary Clinton is going around the world making a complete ass out of herself. Her tone deafness and complete denial about the election last fall is beyond any understanding other than she is disturbed.
Culturally, the hypocrisy of the Hollywood elite is on full display right now with the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. It will only get worse as the dam breaks and other revelations about the progressive media, entertainment, and tech giant progressives start to flow. The National Football League is in tatters, unable to control their own players who apparently are running the show right now as team owners cower not knowing which side of the quarter can help them. The answer: neither. The news media is in complete chaos as they have now resorted to simply making up stories and printing or broadcasting them. Nobody is paying attention anymore except for themselves.
And most telling of all…the move to amend the Constitution is picking up momentum. Several groups have been working quietly behind the scenes lining up states for a Constitutional Convention. They already have 14 of the needed 34 states in line supporting language which would impose term limits for members of Congress. It will be a major issue in the 2018 election.
In the middle of it all stands Donald Trump. The attempted coup by establishment Republicans and Democrats to dispose of him through the so-called Russian investigation is backfiring on all cylinders. They keep expanding, expanding, expanding because they can’t find anything. It will be all for naught anyway because any indictments will be thrown out of court. The entire fiasco is illegal ab initio. There was no underlying crime to investigate. There is no crime of “collusion.” By statute and the Justice Department’s own rules, there must be an underlying crime to investigate to appoint a Special Prosecutor…an actual crime like lying under oath or breaking into Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate or outing a CIA agent. There was no underlying crime when they started. There isn’t any now. Anything from the investigation will be fruit of the poisonous tree.
I can’t predict where any of this will end up. What I can say is the first two weeks of October is marking the beginning of the Trump presidency…and a new America.
By: Mark G. Mangie