Vanity Fair: Alison Klayman- ‘How Steve Bannon Manipulates His Followers’

Source:Vanity Fair– “How Steve Bannon Manipulates His Followers”

Source:The New Democrat 

“Director Alison Klayman spent 13 months documenting former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon for her documentary The Brink. Alison explains the ways he manipulates his followers by spreading conspiracies and sowing doubt in the media. Watch The Brink, out in theaters March 29th.”

Source:Vanity Fair

I think Steve Bannon might say himself that he’s not a Conservative, but a Nationalist. It’s not conservative values that Bannon represents at least in the sense that he believes in the U.S. Constitution and everything that it represents and even conservative values in a cultural sense, but it’s his nationalist, tribalist, and cultural values that he represents which trump’s everything ( no pun intended ) including character, morality and his personal values. Steve Bannon is about himself and his tribe versus everyone and everything else and as long as you’re on his team and part of his political and cultural tribe, everything else be dammed just as long as you play ball with him and his allies.

Alison Klayman, in her piece mentioned Judge Roy Moore who was an Alabama judge who ran for U.S. Senate from Alabama in 2017 in that special election and lost essentially because of his lack of character and his immorality and the credible sexual harassment allegations that were made against him. And said that Steve Bannon is not a stupid man ( as if anyone thinks that he is ) and she suggested that he probably believed the allegations that were made against Judge Moore, but stuck with Moore because Moore was part of his team and the broader Trump movement in America. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign from 2015-16 is another great example of that. President Trump’s base has stuck with the President even with everything that he’s done and said that no other Republican President and mainstream Republican in Congress would every consider doing and saying, because Donald Trump is part of their team.

When you become so partisan and even so hyper-partisan and angry in politics where the other party is not longer your opponents, but your enemies to the point that you don’t even see them as Americans, but traitors and invaders, everything is about winning and protecting your side. And you put no limits onto what you’ll do to win and protect your team, because you’re so fearful of the other team winning, coming in, and taking your power away from you. Which is what Steve Bannon and these other hyper-partisan hard-core Nationalists on the Far-Right in America represent. The great Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi had the great quote: “winning isn’t everything, but it’s the only thing” the New-Right have taken that line way out of context and put it over everything else in society like morality, character, and honesty.

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FOX Business: Bulls & Bears- David Asman: ‘National Debt Surpasses $22 Trillion’

Source:FOX Business– Our national credit card debt.

Source:The New Democrat

“Bulls & Bears” panel on how the U.S. national debt surpassed $22 trillion and whether the drop in tax revenues will be blamed on President Trump.

FOX Business Network (FBN) is a financial news channel delivering real-time information across all platforms that impact both Main Street and Wall Street. Headquartered in New York — the business capital of the world — FBN launched in October 2007 and is the leading business network on television, topping CNBC in Business Day viewers for the second consecutive year. The network is available in more than 80 million homes in all markets across the United States. Owned by FOX, FBN has bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and London.”

From FOX Business  

Replace Donald Trump with Barack Obama as President with 22 trillion national debt and a big tax cut from last year and have with this same panel on this show and let’s hear them talk about how the national debt is not that big of a deal or a real concern. You might think that you’re death trying to hear that conversation, simply because you would never hear them talking that way. Other than maybe Steve Forbes who never believed that the national debt and deficits are that big of a deal regardless of who the President is and the size of the deficit and debt, you wouldn’t hear that conversation at all.

You would instead hear things like: “those tax and spend Democrats are sending America into bankruptcy and borrowing and spending America’s future.” The old Tea Party arguments ( and they are old ) from 2011, 12, and 13 would come back again. My whole point here is when you have a national debt that’s 80-90% of your economy and it’s a big deal, then the national debt is even larger than that now especially when your economy is growing at 2-3% a year and you have unemployment at less than 4%, then it’s a big deal when the national debt is even bigger as it’s now. The national debt and deficits knows no political parties and isn’t interested in politics at all. If the national debt is a big deal, then it’s a big deal regardless of which party is in power at The White House.

The only difference here is that we have a Republican President instead of a Democratic President, with Republicans feeling no political advantage whatsoever in talking about the dangers of the national debt when their party is in The White House. Which is a bad thing because the national debt was a problem during the Obama Administration and probably had some affect on the lack of economic growth in the economy, even though job growth was very solid for most of the Obama Presidency, but economic growth tended to lag behind that job growth.

But it’s a bigger problem now especially with the economy growing now and with the Republican Congress and President Trump the last two years voluntarily raising the debt and deficit with new spending and tax cuts when they didn’t have to, when instead they could’ve started paying down the deficit and moving the country towards a balanced budget. Again, the national debt doesn’t know politics and political parties and is there regardless of who is in The White House and running Congress. So when politicians try to take advantage of it when they’re out-of-power, it can come back to bite them once they’re back in power and the national debt grows ever larger on their watch.

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Mr. Beat: The American Presidential Election of 1980- John Anderson For President

Source:Mr. Beat– A 3-way presidential election?

Source:The New Democrat 

“The 49th episode in a very long series about the American presidential elections from 1788 to the present. I hope to have them done by Election Day 2016. In 1980, Ronald Reagan seems unstoppable as he tries to “make America great again.”

The 49th Presidential election in American history took place on November 4, 1980. As President, Jimmy Carter faced quite a few obstacles, and things just weren’t all peachy. The country faced low economic growth, high inflation and interest rates, and an energy crisis, in which the prices of oil went way up since supply went down in certain areas. This shortage was partially caused by the Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which a new Islamic government hostile to the United States overthrew the old one. ”

From Mr. Beat

There are political Independents and then there are political Independents. Independents tend to get stereotyped as liberal or moderate on social issues and fiscally conservative. Which just isn’t the case in a lot of if not most cases. There are Socialists who are Independents. There are Conservatives who are Independent. There are Libertarians who are Independent and I could go on. A political Independent is just someone who who is not associated with the two major political parties and in some cases not associated with any political party.

Source:Politics Matters– John Anderson For President, 1980

When Representative John Anderson from Illinois, ran for President in the general election in 1980, he ran as a political Independent, but he was a progressive-conservative Republican ideologically. And I know that sounds like jumbo shrimp, or fuel efficient SUV, a Libertarian-Socialist and I could name a tone of other terms that sound like Oxymorons and sound like they were invented by morons who don’t realize that these terms don’t go together.

But back in the 1970s and well before as far back as perhaps the 1940s, there was a Progressive Republican wing of the Republican Party. People who would be called progressive on social issues and believed in civil rights and commonsense regulations when it came to business, civil liberties, but who also believed in fiscal responsibility. Believed in balanced budgets and lower taxes, a strong national defense, who are anti-Communists and didn’t like authoritarianism at all whether it was communist or some right-wing authoritarian ideology. Believed in the rule of law and being tough on crime.

Representative John Anderson, ran for President in 1980 as an Independent, ( meaning not as a Republican or Democrat ) but ideologically he was a progressive-conservative Republican. He was part of the Nelson Rockefeller or Dwight Eisenhower wing of the Republican. George H.W. Bush at least before he ran as Ronald Reagan’s Vice President in 1980 was from this wing of the party as well. And governed this was as President himself. Ideologically he was very different from President Ronald Reagan while at the same time sharing values with President Reagan as it related to national defense, anti-communism, lower taxation, and other issues. So if you want to know where someone stands politically, don’t look at their party registration, but look at their politics and what they actually believe.

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History Collection: Dwight D. Eisenhower- ‘Quotes On Politics, War, and Freedom’

Source:History Collections– President Dwight Eisenhower, on extremism

Source:The New Democrat 

“Dwight D. Eisenhower (”Ike”) was one of the most prominent American presidents and US Army Generals. In this video, you can find his thoughts about warfare, American politics and goverment.”

From History Collection

President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “If you want total security go to prison, where you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom.” President Eisenhower, talking about the value of freedom, freedom of choice, personal autonomy, etc, the tools that every person every free society uses to manage their own affairs.

Source:Words On Images– President Dwight Eisenhower, on the value of freedom

The only thing that is free about a free society is the freedom for individuals to make their own decisions. Everything else about a free society comes with choices, investments, even costs. To be able to do things and make your own decisions, you have to earn that by doing other things. Like getting and education, and good job that allows you to able to take care of yourself.

And those really aren’t costs either, but more like investments because you get a lot of education and a good job that you’re good at other than money and a good job which is knowledge that you can use in your future which either helps you at work or in other places, but with everything that you do in life.

And in any society wether it’s a free society or an authoritarian society or even let’s say a social democratic society where the national government attempts to eliminate as much economic risk as possible, but falls short of nationalizing the economy there’s going to be some risk there.

A good education is so important so the people have as much knowledge and quality information as possible to be able to make their own good decisions and investments. But even life in prison ( not that I know from personal experience ) comes with real risks and those risks generally having to do with one’s physical security. Even non-violent offenders have to deal with the risk that one of their fellow inmates might actually hurt them or worst at some point.

And in any authoritarian society where both economic and personal risk is eliminated or that’s what the government tries to create, there is a risk that the state might pick you up, because they see you as some threat to the regime. Cuba, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia are great examples of that. So in no society and no form of life comes without personal risk. The question is how do you manage it and what decisions you make with your own life.

For me is the best form of life is a free life where people are able to make their own personal and economic decisions themselves, but are then held accountable for their own decision making for good and bad. And allow for everyone to get themselves the best education that they can so they can make the best lives for themselves as possible. As well as encourage people to get a good education, good job, earn a good living. So you have as many free people as possible in society.

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Vanity Fair: Opinion- S.E. Cupp: ‘The Conservative Coma’

Source:Vanity Fair– Taking America back to the 1950s?

Source:The New Democrat

When I think of the Grand Ole Party ( and saying that with a straight face anymore is getting very difficult ) I think of a Conservative Republican Party that was hawkish when it came to not just Communists and communism, but authoritarians and authoritarianism in general. That actually believed deficits matter. ( Which night sound crazy in the Trumpian Republican Party today ) That actually believed not only in entitlement reform, but that it was necessary. That if Republicans as a party are going to believe in and support programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that they should all be on sound fiscal footing and not blow up the deficit.

It was a party that believed that race, ethnicity, and gender didn’t matter. Which why it supported the civil rights laws of the 1960s while opposing affirmative action in the 1970s, because the GOP believed that people shouldn’t be promoted, demoted, empowered or denied simply because of their race, ethnicity or religion. A party that not only believed in immigration, but that anyone regardless of what country or region of the world, regardless of their race or ethnicity should be allowed to come to America legally if they work hard and contribute to America and obey our laws.

A party that was strong on defense, but didn’t believe America shouldn’t try to police the world and try force our values on other countries and tell them this is how they should govern themselves. For the most part this Republican value is still in place with the Neoconservatives thanks to the Iraq War losing almost all influence on Republican foreign and national security policy. A party that still believed in limited government even with the Christian-Right becoming a force in the party, but that still believed in that Barry Goldwater line that said he didn’t want big government in our wallets, bedrooms, boardrooms, or classrooms.

That was the Republican Party that I grew up. I come from a Democratic family, but that’s what the Republican Party use to be and what the Republican Party was when I grew up. And expect for the national debt and deficits, President Ronald Reagan believed in most if not all of those values. He did have his own big government issues with the national debt, deficits, and his expansion of the War on Drugs in the 1980s, but basically he represented and lead what was the Grand Ole Party very well in the 1980s. This is not the Republican Party today and I when I think of RINOS, ( Republicans in name only ) I believe in so-called Republicans who don’t even really believe in the concept of a republic and instead want to create a fundamentalist Christian society where their religious values are not only dominant, but become official government policy.

The GOP is not dead. You still have the S.E. Cupp’s of the world, as well as Republicans like Margaret Hoover, Amanda Carpenter, Tara Setmeyer, Bill Kristol, and a few others at CNN. They’re still some GOP Republicans in Congress like outgoing Senator’s Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan, incoming Senator Mitt Romney once he takes his Senate seat in the next Congress. But the Republican Party today is now the Donald Trump Nationalist Party. That puts groups of Americans against each other and no longer preaches about America being the city on a shining hill. And instead preaches that, “you’re either with us or against us.” Meaning you either support President Donald Trump, or you’re Un-American and a RINO.

The Republican or Nationalist or RINO Party ( depending on how you want to label the modern Republican Party ) is now the party that represents the 1950s that was reborn in this century, but come from the 1950s culturally and ideologically. Where women’s place in the world is at home, African-Americans and other non-Anglo-Saxons are second-class citizens if citizens at all. Gays are either locked in the closet, or locked in prison or some mental institution.

Today’s so-called Republican party is really now an anti-conservative party, because they now believe character and morality doesn’t matter just as long as you either serve, back, or defend President Donald Trump and the people who support the President. And that instead of defending and supporting the status quo and and conserving our individual rights which is what Conservatives are supposed to support, they now want to blow up the system and establishment and create a society and establishment that supports them and what they being the Trump Nationalist movement supports and believes in.

If you read Joshua Green’s The Devil’s Bargain, he reports and argues that the Republican Party Leadership and base got in bed with Donald Trump in 2015-16, because even though they were aware of all of Donald Trump’s faults when it came to his lack of character and civility, that if he became President with a Republican Congress and Judiciary that they would get from a President Trump the things that they’ve been fighting for and wanted ever since Barack Obama became President. Things like deregulation, tax cuts, judicial appointments, a larger defense budget, etc. And that every time President Trump would do something that’s unconventional ( to be kind ) or irresponsible, reckless, anti-conservative like appeasing dictators, they would just chalk it up to Donald Trump not being a conventional politician and new to Washington. Which is exactly what’ we’ve seen the last two years with Donald Trump as President.

The GOP is not dead, but they’re not unfortunately now a small faction of the Republican Party. The never-trumpers are what left of the Grand Ole Party. They’re the Republicans ( not RINOS ) who believe that deficits and the national debt actually do matter, expect for perhaps Bill Kristol who is a Neoconservative. They don’t just support entitlement reform, but believe it’s necessary. They support legal immigration and believe it benefits the country and aren’t worried about America losing it’s European culture because they don’t believe one race or ethnicity is superior to any other. They by enlarge don’t want big government in our economic or personal affairs. I’ve argued for a while now that the Republican Party is no longer a conservative party, but party with a conservative faction and the Donald Trump experiment and his movement make that argument for me perfectly.

Source:CNN: State of The Union- S.E. Cupp: Conservative Movement is in a Coma– CNN political analyst S.E. Cupp 

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Politics and Prose: Rick Wilson- ‘Everything That Donald Trump Touches Dies’

Source: Politics and Prose– Rick Wilson, at Politics and Prose in Washington

Source: The New Democrat

“Rick Wilson discusses his book, “Everything Trump Touches Dies”, at Politics and Prose on 8/28/18.

Wilson is a seasoned Republican political strategist well versed in the art of negative ads. He’s also been a leader of the Never Trump movement, and his searing analysis of the president, from the early days of Trump’s campaign through his first year in office, is a no-holds-barred critique of the damage Trump has done to the country, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement. Combining his signature dark humor with penetrating insight about today’s politics, Wilson dissects Trump’s deceptions, exposes the illusions his followers blindly follow, and calls out Trump’s enablers among politicians and media figures. Yet dire as the situation is, Wilson is hopeful that the nation can find its way back to reason.”

From Politics and Prose

To make the Donald Trump presidency look less depressing, at least to every sane, intelligent, honest American let’s imagine that Donald Trump is actually not President of the United States. That we never had not even one so-called reality TV star working in the most important political and government headquarters not just in the United States, but in the world. Let’s just imagine that this was just some great story and mini-series put together by HBO or Showtime, maybe FX got into it. And this series was called Amateur Hour at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Or Reality Hour at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, maybe the pros in Hollywood could come up with even better titles than that for this fictional mini-series.

Source: Go Fund Me– The Donald Trump

If the Donald Trump presidency really was just a fictional series and the creators of that had an actor playing Trump or had Trump playing himself, this would be one of the best and funniest political fictional mini-series ever. Make it into a real series and give an entire season or multiple seasons and this show would be better and funnier than The West Wing. And The West Wing was a great funny show and in some cases even realistic. But that’s unfortunately for every person who isn’t a permanent resident at a mental institution, is not the reality. Our long national nightmare is heading into year three even if Democrats win back the House or Senate in a couple months or win back Congress completely, Donald Trump will still be President of the United States.

 

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Contra Corner: David Stockman- ‘Today’s Pathetic GOP: Talks Like Barry Goldwater, Spends Like LBJ’

Source: The Boston Globe– Mr. Conservative Barry Goldwater, U.S. Senator R. Arizona. Would he be a Republican today?

Source:The New Democrat 

“Here is the portrait of a dysfunctional party: On Tuesday, the House Republicans unveiled a budget that set a goal of spending cuts totaling $6,454 billion. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans defeated legislation to cut spending by $1 billion. On Thursday, House Republicans voted to renew $20 billion per year in farm subsidies.

The 2018 GOP talks like Barry Goldwater and spends like Lyndon Johnson.”

From David Stockman 

“As Donald Trump continues to steamroll his way through the GOP primary, pundits have begun to compare his rise, and what some see as an inevitable fall, to failed presidential candidate Barry Goldwater…

Source:Newsy– Donald Trump ain’t, no Barry Goldwater.

From Newsy Politics

David Stockman’s line about today’s GOP talking like Barry Goldwater, but spending like Lyndon Johnson, reminds me of Max Boot’s line from his column in The Washington Post yesterday, where he said the Republican Party use to be a conservative party with a nationalist fringe and now they’re a nationalist party with a conservative fringe. Max Boot is a conservative himself and use to be a Republican as well and he made that comment about the modern Republican Party. Well, today Barry Goldwater ( assuming he would be a Republican today ) would be part of that conservative fringe in the Republican Party that is dominated by Caucasian Nationalists, primarily Anglo-Saxon Caucasian Nationalists whose families have been in America since the 1700s for the most part.

Source: VOX News– President Lyndon B. Johnson 36th POTUS. No longer spender in-chief, thanks to President Donald J. Trump.

The Republican Party, has become a fringe party but not a fringe conservative party. We’re not talking about a party that wants to eliminate the safety net and blow up the New Deal and Great Society. The average Republican voter wants their Social Security, Medicare, and every other government social program and tax credit that they’re entitled to including farm subsidies and other corporate welfare. They just don’t want people who don’t look like them whose families haven’t been in America as long as in some cases are first generation Americans or immigrants themselves, who don’t come from Britain, to collect from those programs that Trump voters collect from.

As much as today’s Tea Party Trumpian Nationalist Republican Party, bashes Food Assistance and other Welfare programs, the overwhelming majority of Americans who collect from those Welfare programs come from Trump states. The Bible Belt, Great Plains, states like Kentucky, West Virginia, all states with high levels of poverty and populations who are eligible for government Welfare in order to help them survive. So when these voters bash these Welfare programs, they’re not so much bashing the programs them self, but people who don’t look like them who also collect from those programs. People from inner cities and places with high levels of poverty in urban America.

In other words, the modern Republican Party, is not a conservative party. They’re Donald Trump’s reality TV nationalist tribalist fascist party, that looks down at anyone who doesn’t look at America the way they do and share their religious and cultural values as Un-American not deserving of the same constitutional rights and privileges as people who voted for Donald Trump and still support him, who’ll defend President Trump at any cost short of going to prison .( Like in Michael Cohen’s case )

Instead of believing in fiscal responsibility and that deficits not only matter but that government is too big, the Republican Party now lives with deficits and are comfortable with size and spending of the U.S. Government, because they don’t want to cut programs that benefit Trump voters. Instead of being tough on dictators and authoritarians, President Trump and his supporters embrace them and embrace the Vladimir Putin’s of the world, because they like authoritarians and authoritarianism and are not fans of democracy. The conservative wing of the Republican Party, is not dead, but they’re on political life support and have now become the fringe wing of a national fascist Republican Party.

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Vanity Fair: Julie Miller- Is Reality TV To Blame For President Donald Trump? Yes!

Source: Vanity Fair– 1600 Pennsylvania at The White House Reality TV Show

Source: The New Democrat

You can’t blame reality TV for everything that is wrong with America, ( trust me, I’ve tried ) but without this facts don’t matter, everything is relative, what you can get away with to accomplish whatever your goals are celebrity culture that we’re living in, Donald Trump is the king of that. No one uses that lifestyle and culture to his advantage better than The Donald Trump.

Source: Vanity Fair– The Donald

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at The White House, is the biggest reality TV show in the history of universe. It’s on 24 hours a day even when most people in country ( except for your addicted insomniacs are asleep ) and it’s like one of those TV’s that don’t have an off button and even a mute button and to get away from it you have to be in a different room on a different floor. You can’t turn it off, but simply try to get away with it. Like turning your i-phone off while in search for a life outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at The White House.

Source: Vanity Fair– The Donald Trump

It’s not that we live in a reality TV universe, but that we live in Donald Trump’s reality TV universe. Where he’s the king of it and where they’re no rules at least that govern him. Where he never has to ever worry about being kicked off his own show ( unless Congressional Republicans grow a set off balls, or Democrats win back Congress ) because it is his own show. Unlike a reality TV show when the ratings start to slip and they believe that has to do with one character or several characters, those people are simply fired.

Firing the President of the United States, is about as easy as landing a 747 plane blindfolded without landing wheels, or pushing an elephant up the hill with just your arms and legs. Those things can only happen in extreme cases. And knowing this and the fact that The Donald has so little knowledge or respect for how American government works ( perhaps his father arranged for his son to not have to take social studies or American history in order to graduate ) The Donald views himself as a king or dictator even who can pretty much do whatever the hell he wants to without any real consequences.

Why not? He’s got a 90% approval rating inside of the so-called Republican Party and a Republican Congress that by enlarge doesn’t have the balls to hold him accountable for the most part, with a handful of Republicans Senators ( the last few Republicans who are actually still alive being the exception to this rule. Even though privately Congressional Republicans will tell you off the record that they know how irresponsible President Trump and his behavior is.

You can’t blame reality TV for anything and again I know because I’ve tried, but reality TV does has a lot to do with what’s wrong with America which is a subject for a future blog post. Personal responsibility with people taking the time to figure out the differences between what’s not reality TV but celebrity life TV where perception is more important than actual reality, has to be imaged here by every American especially the fans of celebrity life TV. But that’s the life that Donald Trump lives in and uses it to the max to advance his career goals like becoming President of the United States and being President. With 60 plus million Americans voting for him with about 90% of those voters still with him even with his low approval rating for a first term president.

Source: The Film Theorists: Film Theory- How Donald Trump is Winning With Reality TV– Donald Trump meet Uncle Sam

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Vanity Fair: Nick Bolton Interviewing Amanda Carpenter- The Conservative Case Against Donald Trump

Source: Vanity Fair– President Donald Trump, 45th POTUS

Source: The New Democrat

The conservative case against Donald Trump is pretty clear I believe as a non-Conservative, but the conservative case against Donald Trump might not be the Republican case against him or even a Republican case against him. As Amanda Carpenter ( CNN conservative political analyst ) would agree with me here, Conservative and Republican aren’t the same things. What Republican Party was at least pre-Trump was, was a vehicle to promote conservative values and policies.

Source: Harper Collins– Amanda Carpenter’s, conservative case against Donald Trump

But not all Republicans are Conservatives ( Donald Trump for example ) and believe in the same things. And as Amanda Carpenter would also agree she’s a Conservative first and a Republican second. Just like I’m a Liberal first and at best now an Independent-Democrat second. I’m not a big fan of the Democratic Party right now, which is the subject for perhaps a future blog article.

A Conservative to me at least in the political sense, is someone who believes in the U.S. Constitution and bases their politics around that and sees it as their job to conserve the Constitution and our individual rights and freedom. And not just some of them and try to pretend others don’t exist or are not important.

A Conservative is someone who believes in a strong national defense but is conservative in how to use it and bases their national security policy on what’s best for America and our allies. Not looking to invade countries simply because they have a bad authoritarian government and are bad to their people. ( Like the 2003 Iraq War ) Who believes in economic freedom, property rights, low taxation and regulation, fiscal responsibility, federalism which is a way of saying that government closest to home is the best government once you move out of national security and foreign affairs.

Donald Trump is pretty much the opposite of all of those things. He wants a large national defense and for us to spend a lot of money on it as a country, but isn’t very clear in when we should use it when we’re not under attack. Ran as a Nationalist in 2016 but hit the Syrian Assad Regime with missile strikes last year and again this year, when they gassed their own people. Sure, he believes in lower taxes and regulations, but so does the furthest Left Republican in the entire country believes in low taxation and regulation across the board as well.

What Donald Trump represents and what goes against American conservatism, is this Joe McCarthy/George Wallace faction in American politics that claims to be the real Americans and everyone else are just foreigners or traitors, or the Un-Americans, not deserving of the same rights and respect as their tribe. He represents nationalist-tribalism in America and in some cases racism and racists, as well as ethnic bigots and bigotry. He at the very least represents the people who hold racist and other bigoted views towards certain ethnic groups in America like Jewish-American. Whether he’s personally a racist or bigot himself, is the topic of a different debate. But those are the people he represents.

What Donald Trump is, is the anti-Conservative Republican President of the United States. Who sees his job as to protect himself and and his political interests. Even if it means doing things that aren’t conservative. Like attacking the American intelligence community and our law enforcement. Or attacking military veterans and their families simply because they don’t support him. Pardoning people who’ve already have admitted to committing the crimes that they were charged with, which is the latest examples with his pardons yesterday.

If President Trump thinks it will benefit him politically and personally, he’ll do it whether it’s conservative, progressive, nationalist, authoritarian, or anything else. He’s not just a political opportunist, but the most successful political opportunist that we’ve ever seen in this country which makes him very dangerous. A man without a core and center, is a man that can always be exposed, because he has nothing protecting and guiding him other than his short-term political and personal interests. Which is what you get with President Donald Trump.

Source: Albur Tube: CNN Tonight- Don Lemon Interviewing Amanda Carpenter: Gaslighting– Amanda Carpenter, on The Conservative Case against Donald Trump

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The Wawg Blog: Andy Hailey- ‘How We Got Into The DJT Political Swamp: It Has Little To Do With Russia’

Source: Wall Stats– Yep, that pretty much sums it up

Source: The New Democrat Plus

Andy Hailey seems to making the argument that Washington lobbyists became a problem, when our tax rates became lower. That since we’ve cut taxes both in 1981 under President Reagan and again in the 1990s multiple times under President Clinton and again under President Bush in the 2000s and President Obama in 2009, that is when lobbyists became a problem in Washington. And that after we made lobbying easier in Washington that is when lobbyists became a problem as well.

Source: Steemit– Deep State Fantasy

I have a different take. Economics Professor Classical Liberal Milton Friedman, who I didn’t agree with on everything mostly having to do with regulations of the economy where I tend to be in favor of them, if they’re commonsense and not intended to run private businesses, argued that the problem with money in Washington, has to do with power and money in Washington meaning the Federal Government. That the reasons why lobbyists lobby so much in Washington is the same reasons why bank robbers rob banks, because that’s where the money is. Since 1964 the Federal Government has only gotten bigger, with few exceptions in the 1990s. And since that time even if you want to go up to 1970 from 1964, we’ve also only seem more lobbyists in Washington.

My other take on this has to do with American voters themselves. One good definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. You continue to vote for the same people to serve in Congress and vote for members that are corrupt or if you prefer bought and expect their behavior to change, you’re acting insane. U.S. Representatives and Senators, are not lifetime appointments. They go up for reelection every 2 and 6 years which gives their constituents the opportunity every 2 or 6 years to evaluate them and decide if they’re doing a good job or not. Are they of strong character and have strong qualifications to serve in the House or Senate, or are they lazy, vote against their constituents interests, and are corrupt or bought by the people who write them checks and finance their political campaigns.

So if you want to better politicians in America, you have to have better voters. And voters who stop voting for politicians because they like the smartphone the person uses, or because the politician is up to date on pop culture references, catch phrases, and entertainment in general, but who can be bought for a 100 bucks to vote this way or that way. And instead vote for candidates and incumbents who will do the job that they’re elected to which is to represent their constituents especially the people who can’t afford too write big checks to political campaigns.

And to go back to the Milton Friedman argument. You want fewer lobbyists in Washington, a good way to do that is to get money out of the Federal Government and decentralize a lot if not all the social insurance programs and allow for the states and localities to run them, under basic Federal standards to make sure those programs for the people who truly need them are run the way they’re supposed to be. Stopping running budget deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars every year. And get the the country’s fiscal house in order.

A couple of things that Congress can do and the U.S. Supreme Court might do one of these things for Congress, since Congress probably won’t has to do with gerrymandering and full disclosure. Eliminate gerrymandering all together and you’ll make Congress at least in the House accountable. Because representatives will no longer be able to just run to a hyper-partisan faction in their district and instead will have to represent a district that is more balance politically and ideologically.

And the second one being which unfortunately qualifies for the good luck with that column, because it goes against current members of Congress own political interests , would be full disclosure off all political contributions in America, at least at the Federal level and force members and candidates, as well political action groups and lobbyists, to disclose how they’re funding their political campaigns. And let the voters decide if their politicians and candidates, are bought or not.

A lot of the so-called Washington swamp and lobbyists issue in Washington, goes to personal responsibility. Back to my definition of insanity about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, you keep voting for the same politicians and you’ll just get the same behavior and same policies. Which will probably be written by the lobbyists who make the biggest political contributions. But you vote for good qualified people instead and help them get elected and get them elected and you’ll get different policies that are designed to represent their constituents instead. And Congress if they decided to go against their current political interests, could be helpful here as well by eliminating all gerrymandering and passing full disclosure off all political contributions. But fixing Washington and Congress starts with the voters themselves.

Source: Fox News: Donald Trump- ‘We’re Going To Drain The Swamp’: In 2016

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