Trump

Okay. It's time.

Many of you have disliked some of the things I've written over on Facebook about Donald J. Trump. So here goes: I'm about to disclose my bonafides (what some kids these days call "the receipts").

I am a registered Republican.

No, really, you can go look it up if you're bored.

Why am I a registered Republican? There are several reasons, but here are the two that explain it as best I can (not that I believe any one person's political leanings deserve an explanation). First, I'm from the red part of a blue state, staunchly red, and had been raised in a quite conservative household. When I registered, it made the most sense to me because the majority of our lawmakers locally were Republican. This fed into the second, and what I believe to be significantly more important reason: in the great state of New York, one can vote in the primaries only for the political party with which one is affiliated. In other words: in New York, only registered Republicans can vote in the primaries for that party. As the vast, VAST, majority of the people who had more day-to-day contact with me and my life were likely to be the Republican candidate, this is where I would get the most say, where my vote would count the most, in terms of who ended up getting elected in November.

There is a third reason as well, and it bears telling here: on my father's side of the family, there are not many of us. I have no cousins on that side, unlike my mother's far more prolific and quite frankly far warmer side of the family. So it's me, my 107-year-old Grandmother who no longer votes, my Uncle, and my parents. Because of the rules regarding the primaries in New York, as well as the decidedly political bent of my father and his brother in particular (my Uncle should have been one of those pundits on CNN, really, sincerely--he's got a brain for politics that puts the rest of us to shame, even in his 70s. Simply brilliant), as a family we got together in the 90s and chose who got to be with which party, as the Democrats were starting to rise in Central New York. As my parents were both registered Democrats (the result of my father doing computer programming work for the Democratic Party in New York back in the 60s and 70s), my Uncle and I had the mantle fall upon us to select the candidates locally that we believed were the best people for the job in the primaries. I mean, we talked about it as a family--not necessarily long discussions unless my Uncle was involved, but we discussed the issues, probably over dinner on a Sunday before the primaries, and made our choices accordingly. We felt this gave us a greater voice in the democratic process as a whole. (I could do an entire blog on what happened when I changed counties after I got married--my Uncle had a FIELD DAY with this, finally getting his hand into the slightly larger Onondaga County arena and going off at length about his favorite candidate ever, Nancy Larraine Hoffman...you want to hear that man talk for days, say her name.)

I still believe that voting in the primaries and in the local elections gives one the greatest voice in this democracy.

So that is why I am a registered Republican. But I am also from an area of the country where economic downturn during both the Clinton and Obama administrations has made the people as a whole believe that charity starts at home and should not be regulated and that Democratic policies are likely to blame for such failings--whether this is the case or not. I've seen Supply-Side economics actually WORK, even if only for a season, locally. But the issues of each party are far more partisan now than they were when I first registered to vote, way back when, now becoming polarized caricatures of what they once were. I remember Dennis Miller in the 90s joking about remembering that there used to be Conservative Democrats and Liberal Republicans, but with the advent of the media these lines were drawn as people stopped thinking for themselves and wanted someone else to suss out the meanings for them, resulting in the cacophony we presently live with.

Which brings me to Trump.

I'm not going to lie: there are policies that are Conservative, which is now synonymous with Republican, that I agree with, many of them without reservation. I'm not going into those here, but I'm just going to make a blanket statement that I think Republicans need to start choosing the right battles to wage and to stop worrying about the ones that, quite frankly, are idiotic. They live in a media-saturated world, and they need to start acting like they know their words need to be chosen delicately. I'm looking at you, Paul Ryan, aka the man I desperately hope becomes President after an impeachment and a resignation in shame in my ideal universe. (I hope this because that's what would happen if Trump and Pence fall off a cliff--and let's face it: Mike Pence makes Paul Ryan look like Santa Claus, okay?)

So when I attack Trump--and I'm going to, repeatedly and without hesitation--do not mistake this for an attack on the Republican Party or its ideals. I just don't buy the party line that you think he'll abide by--he's not going to. I don't buy "drain the swamp" because let's face it--everything he's done since his surprise win (don't think he wasn't surprised, people, he didn't think they'd pull it off) has proven that the man is an ABSOLUTE BLEEPING HOLY CANNOLI OH MY YODA MORON. And instead of draining the swamp, he's filling it with more people like him. Our country is in grave danger. If you believe in the Republican ideal of a strong military and strong borders but also understand that this comes with strategic diplomacy that makes people work with you so that the strong military is a last resort, then Trump is simply not your candidate and not the man you want in that Oval Office.

And if you're a person who personally defends Trump because you're happy that the Republican candidate got in: I feel for you, because what you believe is about to be wholly thrown on its ear in favor of a man who believes a sound bite is infinitely more important than character. Oh please, do not START me on Trump's character. His wife is a former escort. That's American Family Values? Please, do not kid yourselves about Trump's character. The man is a blight on humanity.

So yes, from one standpoint, the "Republicans" won.

But they didn't. And they know it. Washington is all about control, and they can't control this guy. "Good!" I'm sure many of you just said.

But if you like our friendly status with foreign nations, I don't think you realize the implications for our stability as a nation. As God is my Witness, Mark Cuban would have made a better choice if you wanted a Millionaire President. Mark is smart enough to know when he doesn't know something and then, unlike Trump, goes and does his research or gets his top researchers to get on it and brief him.

The problem with idea of shaking things up and draining the swamp is that you are attempting to depose people--there's really no better word for it--who have had power for a long, long, LONG time. And these people have friends who are just as powerful and still in power in other lands, in high places. Forgive the language, but I'm sure if you walk up to Queen Elizabeth II and say, "Fuck you very much" as a diplomat, your days on the planet are numbered, and she's not even IN the political arena any more (don't start with me on the conspiracy theory that she rules the world secretly with the Bilderbergs. Been there, done that). And with some of the things the people who are now in power are wont to do...that might actually HAPPEN, folks.

There's a reason politics are gridlocked with people who are interested in staying in power. Obama was an outsider, honestly, and needed people like Hillary to help him. Everyone in politics at the federal level has sold his soul somewhere--and if you don't believe me, go ask John McCain. He'll tell you to watch the 1972 movie The Candidate. Everyone is dirty--and so is Trump. The man is so dirty, he's practically covered in mud.

I'll also tell the truth: if Marco Rubio had won the election, I would not be sitting here going "he's an asshole" and railing about him. I don't really LIKE the guy, but I also know that Rubio is not an idiot who believes that giving the masses the sound bite they troll for and then going "Oh I didn't really mean that" is the way to make friends and keep any political job. Honestly, compared to Trump, Rubio and Ted Cruz and most of those other Republican candidates are the equivalent to the Pope and Mother Teresa--and I'm even referring to the current Pope, a man who refused the fancier vestments of his station and snuck out to serve communion daily because he believes in the power of connecting with people. I like Frank, I really do, even if I disagree with him about some things theologically.

So yes. I'm going to keep coming after Trump and his team and singing my song in the darkness. You may laud me. You may hate me. But I will tell you this: history will prove that what I have said is accurate.