Getting Fooled Again
by Deacon Blues
We’ve been told that Trump is appealing to voters who want change, who don’t feel electing a female president represents anything new. Two stories in the New York Times this morning reflect how two groups view Trump positively as an agent of change, and both point out the car wreck that is about to hit us all.
In one piece, the Times reports that American veterans are going for Trump in a large way, because he speaks bluntly about stupid wars, but also because Trump states he wants a larger, better-equipped military and better-functioning veterans’ health care system. According to the story, veterans want a larger and better-funded military, to be used sparsely, and they like what Trump says about blowing up the VA. Yet nowhere in the story are veterans asked how they think Trump will pay for ramped-up defense spending with his tax plan sucking $4 trillion out of the economy over the next ten years. Nor are they asked why they think the American taxpayer should pay the tab for a trophy military that isn’t asked to do too much. The vets also state that they feel Trump won’t get us into more wars, yet they aren’t asked why they are voting for a man who wants to carpet-bomb Aleppo, blow up Iranian boats for flipping the bird to American destroyers, or why they would vote for a man who would appease Vladimir Putin.
In the other piece, Obama voters from 2008 state they are voting for Trump because he represents real change to them, after not getting the “hope and change” they were promised in 2008. Some of those interviewed are African Americans and women, who feel that Trump is a “genuine” person who really cares about them and their concerns, and feel that Trump won’t take the African American vote for granted like they believe the Democratic Party has done. Again, none of these people are asked why they put their trust in a man with his history of discrimination against people of color and his history of sexism against women. Yet these folks feel Trump is genuine in his statements of support for them and their issues.
And of course nowhere are these folks asked why they think bringing the Koch Brothers into the Oval Office through Mike Pence will be a good thing for them and their concerns.
After reading these stories, and also reading that turnout among younger voters and even African American voters may be less for Hillary than it was for Obama, in the face of a Trump presidency, it isn’t hard to agree with what Karl Rove and the most craven GOP operatives have known for decades: the American electorate can be manipulated easily and repeatedly.