Intro

It's time for a reality check ...

Maybe we’ve reached the point of diminishing astonishment.

But I suspect that much of what we’re hammered with every day really doesn’t make much of an impact on most of us anymore. We’ve heard the same stories too often. We’ve been exposed to the same issues for so long without any meaningful resolution. We recognize that reality is rapidly becoming malleable, primarily in the hands of whoever has the biggest microphone. How else can we explain a society where myth asserts itself as reality, based entirely how many hits it gets online?

We know that many of the “issues” as defined are pure crapola, hyped by politicians on both sides pandering to “the will of the people,” which is still more crapola. Inevitably, it’s not the will of all the people they reflect, but the will of relatively small groups of people with disproportionate political influence.

Nobody wants to face up to the realities of the issues. Nobody wants to say what’s right or wrong – even when it’s obvious and there are numbers to back it up. Most of us are afraid to bring up the realities for fear of being accused of being insensitive or downright mean.

So we say nothing. Until now.

It’s time for a reality check on the fundamentals – much of which is common knowledge to many of us, already. But it might be comforting to know you are not alone …

Monday, March 14, 2016

Yes … but how?

I’ve been paying more attention to Trump’s interviews lately, since he seems to be hurtling headlong into the Republican nomination. 

He says the same things all the time. Build a wall on our southern border and Mexico will pay for it.  Stop illegal immigrants from taking jobs from Americans.  Replace ObamaCare with something much better. Bring back American jobs from other countries. Cut better and smarter trade deals. Build up our military.  And of course, make America great again. Only the order changes.   

None of his interviewers seems willing or able to ask:  Yes … but how? 

I don’t think Trump has a good answer anyway. 

Amidst all the snark and name calling, there’s no there there.  Seriously.  Even if you go to his web site you won’t find any details.  I’m not saying he should deliver a line-by-line explanation of how he’s going to get from A to B, along with specifics on how he plans to pay for something, but at least he should be giving rational, logical support for how he’s going to accomplish something instead of just why. 

It’s easy to point out our problems. It’s easy to say you’re going to fix them. It’s a lot harder to articulate thoughtful, practical solutions to those problems.

Trump’s not alone in this.  Hillary and Bernie do the same thing.  In fact, every current candidate for President is skating away on the details of executing their promises.

To his credit, when Obama ran the first time he set out very specific details of what he planned to do. Unfortunately, hardly anyone paid any attention; they were too wrapped up in the persona rather than the substance. But had they read his plans – as I did – they wouldn’t have been surprised at how Obama acted and his priorities once he was elected. I wasn’t.     

In Trump’s case, it’s all persona and zero substance.

I dare anyone – whether they support Trump or oppose him – to find any detail whatsoever to justify how he’s going to accomplish what he keeps promising on the campaign trail.  

The closest thing I could find on bringing jobs back to this country was lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% -- but most of us know hardly any big company here pays any corporate income tax anyway; the reason they move jobs overseas is for cheaper labor. What’s Trump’s backup plan – build another wall to keep American companies here?      

As far as repealing and replacing ObamaCare with something much better?  Trump’s just regurgitating or simply plagiarizing the same standard Republican ideas from the past decade: more competition, health savings accounts, blah blah blah. 

I heard him say the other day he’s not going to touch entitlements.  So how is he planning on reducing government spending without addressing those, while he boosts spending on the military and infrastructure? Where is that money going to come from? 

The truth is he simply doesn’t know. Scarier, I don’t think he cares.  He seems to think that once he’s President everything will fall into place through willpower alone.  He keeps saying he’ll surround himself with “really smart people” and they’ll tell him what to do. 

Last night in an interview with Sean Hannity he suggested Hannity might be one of his advisors. Nothing against Sean Hannity, but I’d hope his “really smart people” advising him had more substantive credentials than being a cable TV commentator.

Trump repeatedly says he forms a lot of his opinions about foreign policy from watching the Sunday news shows. 

Just think about that for a moment.  Someone who wants to be President thinks he can learn what to do by watching TV.  Yikes. 

Trump apparently believes simply wanting something makes it achievable.  And the more he says the same things they will become real. Damn the details – full speed ahead.   

Our government doesn’t work that way. Obama’s abuse of his authority may make it seem that way at times, but even he has limits on how far his pen and phone can take him. 

So far Trump has gotten away with his bluster. Sometime, somewhere, somebody is going to pin him down on exactly how he plans to deliver on his promises. 

Either he has details and he’s just holding back, or there are no details.

I suspect the latter.  It's just a matter of time.     
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