She went into a speech about how Trump was a no-nonsense, tell it like it is, straight shooter. My camel’s back was starting to give way as I sat in silence. “And he is a BRILLIANT business man!” There it went. Here’s what happened next.
—
Recently I was having brunch in a small café with my sister and brother-in-law. While I tend to be reserved, they are the life of the party types who will carry on a conversation with a stranger at the drop of a hat. Which was what was about to happen.
And stranger, it could not have gotten.
The tables were inches away from each other. A solitary older woman sat at the one closest to us. In conversation, my brother-in-law made a comment about Donald Trump.
The woman’s ears perked up and she took his remark as a clear invitation. “I’m a Donald Trump Supporter,” she declared.
“Are you serious?” he said back.
“I am,” she said proudly.
“Well… that’s great,” he answered. (Disclaimer, I am the only progressive renegade of the family. My bro-in-law would have said “that’s great” to anyone that was not Hillary or Bernie.)
“Thank you for being supportive, “ the woman went on. “I am so tired of being thought ignorant, or uninformed, or irrational. I am not a bigot or prejudiced. People think I am kidding , but I am not. I have done my research.”
“Well, he is certainly is better than Obama,” my brother-in-law said encouragingly.
“Obama? Oh, HE’S a Muslim!” She said, as if it were either true, or meant something.
And. It went downhill from there.
She ranted and raved over the sins of “the media.” She ranted over the status quo political parties. She called Ted Cruz a “snake.” (Ok, ok, I liked that part…)
She went into a speech about how Trump was a no-nonsense, tell it like it is, straight shooter. My camel’s back was starting to give way as I sat in silence.
“And he is a BRILLIANT business man!” There it went.
“Who went bankrupt several times,” I heard my voice say. It was like in one of those horror movies where you are hiding behind the crate, and the monster is nearby and some sound just involuntarily exits your body, even though you know staying silent is the only way you will live.
“No! You are wrong!” she shouted. “I have done the research! You have not! His BUSINESSES went bankrupt but he personally did NOT! They never tell you that part!!”
She had me speechless. It was a cross between my personal shock that I had fed the beast, and my mind reeling over what she had just said. Yes, yes, by all means. Let’s elect a President who bankrupts the country, but it is OK as long as his own personal wealth remains in tact. Phew. I can now sleep at night.
I should have known better. It was not my first fore into Trump Supporter territory. Here is my note to the Trump Supporters amongst us.
Dear Trump Supporter,
Yes. I get it. I understand exactly what you like about the guy. He is shocking the system that we all have come to loathe. He is not playing a victim. He is not cowtowing to the usual suspects.
He slapped down the smarmy Fox News, for God’s sake. He practically called the clown car of Republican candidates… a clown car. He has got the Republican establishment in a lather. He even pulled Sarah Palin out of obscurity and got her to be even more hilarious than Tina Fey. You cannot out do Sarah doing Tina doing Sarah. It was Reality TV at it’s…best? Worst? Most self-actualized?
So yes. We all get guilty, and not so guilty pleasure watching the guy burn the house down.
But there is a cost.
He stands for nothing good, and he will not accidentally fall into somehow making life better. Burning down is not building up. He demeans women, minorities, diversity and anyone who may actually need humanity.
Because he bullies those who criticize, does not make him a straight shooter. He panders, and panders big. He has flipped his flop on almost every issue. The hair tells him which way the wind is blowing, and he follows right along with it.
But, that’s politics. Right? No. You can’t have it both ways. Either he is the “straight shooter” non politics as usual guy, or he’s not. If you cut slack on that key point you are as ethic-less as he is.
Here is the thing. And this is THE thing. Let’s go back to the point that broke my silence— the claim that Trump is a great businessman. He can create value out of money. He will improve our “infrastructure.” (A talking point he mouthed and keeps getting repeated in his wake.)
Infrastructure is buildings, roads and power supplies. I was unaware there was a shortage. I was also unaware that any of that was on my wish list for a President (we’ll just leave out that those things are usually the domain of the states themselves… you know “states rights”.) But it sounds good, and the man did build a few buildings.
I know this man. Not him personally, but everything he embodies. He is a CEO. I have worked for several, and some really good successful ones. Everything he has done is out of the spirit of leading as a CEO.
CEOs are not Presidents. They are not elected, and their value to those they lead is not made of inspiration or hope. They lead those they pay to be there.
A CEO gives orders. A CEO hears a problem in a few minute window, and makes a pronouncement. His or her underlings must make the pronouncement happen… or heads will roll.
Yes. CEOs get things done. They are straight shooters, and those who cross them, don’t last long.
If you elect a CEO as President, you may get for what you asked. I witnessed some CEO power first hand. In a business situation there were performance issues with a woman who had returned to work after surviving cancer. The recovery drugs made her lethargic at times, and there were errors. As her immediate managers tried to resolve and work with the issues, the CEO gave the order. She had to go. Immediately. It was up to them to get it done, and make it seamless and legal. That is what happened. Humanity is the roadkill on the path to executive efficiency.
Are all CEOs like that? No.
But Trump is. He is not running for President. He is not seeking to represent a diverse public. He is not seeking to live by a heightened set of ideals. He is objective oriented and he won’t take “no” for an answer.
He is running for Dictator.
Yes, he is funding it himself, so it will be free for his constituents, and free for you, Trump Supporter.
He will stand up and yell at everything you are afraid of, and sell you on how productive he is being. He will not fulfill a principle, but he will humiliate all the people you hate.
And it won’t cost you a thing.
Except your soul.
Source: 30dB.com – Donald Trump
Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore
People are so easily swept up in the cartoonish caricatures of each side. It’s the same thing as the distraction and misdirection a magician uses to make his illusions successful. People, it’s time to put aside your assumptions, biases, and expectations, to look behind the mirror and see what’s really going on in the world.
Read this article by a very well respected international journalist:
http://johnpilger.com/articles/silencing-america-as-it-prepares-for-war
This guy isn’t some internet hack. Check out his credentials for yourself:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pilger
Souls aren’t real.
How would you know?
Of course your like minded friends agree with your thinking. Gosh sakes so do mine! Gee. That’s a revelation. More than likely ww3 has already begun. Much of it because a progressive leader of the most powerful nation on earth hadn’t a clue as to the realities of the world. If so, then.a president like this one brings the great probability that we won’t survive it. How’s that grab ya?
Rob, I totally agree with you. Trump is an irresponsible bully and is already having a negative affect on our country. I am shocked at the support he is getting. My like-minded friends call him “scary”. One comment was that with Trump we will survive WWIII. I think if we get Trump as a president we will get WWIII!
It sure is a dramatic difference between Bernie and Trump this election!
There are plenty of other venues to get news and opinion on the presidential races. I was hoping GMP would not be one of them.
Then don’t click on it Mike. You saw the title. There’s lots of articles I don’t click on.
Nope. The one that says I know why your voting for trump etc etc etc.
Speaking of CEO’s …. While CEO of Walt Disney in 2009, Iger earned a total compensation of $29 million, which included a base salary of $2,038,462, a cash bonus of $9,260,000, stock awards of $6,336,509 and option awards of $8,308,647. Iger earned a $13.5 million bonus in 2010, which was a 45.4% increase from 2009.
The President’s job, at least as outlined in the Constitution, is to be the CEO of the Executive branch of the Federal government. I should think that if a candidate has actually been a CEO, that’s a good thing.
Meant DeBlasio. Pushing voting rights for illegals.
First of all change the names and the entire rant is what it will cost us by a “progressive president” . This whole Republican democrat arguing is plain bullshit. That’s what they want us to do. Talk about cost. Deflation apparently is pushing the city alderman in NYC to allow illegal aliens to vote. How crazy is that? If so, then what’s the point of being an American citizen? Can I now just send absentee ballots to England and France to get their opinion on who they want to be president? Your progressive Rob is going to cost us much… Read more »
Funny how people in prison are never given a second chance to make something of themselves when they are released unless they were high ranking white collar, corporate thieves.
Reading the replies here, you gentlemen are demonstrating exactly the innate, obsolete drama that will accompany her to the Whitehouse…that she will bring.
If the monumental moment in human history (electing a woman to the most powerful position on earth) is punctuated by a radical gender feminist…well, when the aliens land and try to take over the world, I’ll be helping them.
I’d have no problem with a woman president (maybe then we can stop talking about the guys in congress and start talking about the one’s in arlington national, the coal mines, the construction crews etc. What I have a enormously huge problem with is a gender feminist that is both a liar and a crook. I figure it this way. AT least with Trump, I have a shot at surviving WWIII. With Hillary? Might as well just cut em off and send em to the white house, as her entire candidacy will be about getting even with men for what… Read more »
Interesting thing about Trump’s business “acumen” is that he’s currently worth about $2.9 billion. If he’d simply invested his father’s money in an index fund that mirrored the S&P he’d be worth close to $9 billion.
Anyone, no matter if they are friend or family, who supports the evil that Trump prides himself on would be dropped from my life forever.
Yet you then would support, if she is nominated, a liar, an investment insider violatorviolator, and quite honestly a probable leader of national security. Wow. What a choice you’ll make.
What is this evil of what you speak, that would cause you to cut yourself off from family and friends just for their daring to think we’ve been on the wrong path for a very long time? Enforcing our laws? Investing in our security? Rebuilding the middle class? Personally I think those are worthwhile goalsrhat none of the current oppositional candidates hold, and I do think trumps delivery could be better, but other perhaps it’s time we do get a Peter finch who screams from the Windows that we’re mad as he’ll and we’re not taking it anymore.
I can see some doing that … Afterall, Hillary cheered when it was said that there is a special place in hell for women who don’t support women. Alienating family and friends is nothing compared to being condemned to hell.
You lost me when you start mocking his hair. Hmmm…my guess is you have no clue about different chapter laws and what they are good for. In ALL of Trumps ‘bankruptcies’, it put his company in a super strong negotiating position against the bankers (yeah, the ones that nearly collapsed the economy in 2008). Talk about clueless… Yeah those great past presidents: Endless wars Hundreds of billions on poverty – hows that working out? Hundreds of billions on the war on drugs – hows that working out? 11 million+ illegals invading our territory – A decinated black race ripped anout… Read more »
I’m not a Trump supporter (or a supporter of any of the major candidates in this election cycle, frankly) but I never understood why people declared him unfit to lead because of his bankruptcies. Trump owns or partially owns over 150 different businesses. Four of them have gone bankrupt. That’s a failure rate of 2.7%. I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn’t mind a president whose policies only failed 2.7% of the time. Of course, that rate obviously wouldn’t directly translate over to a Trump presidency, but I still hope my point is clear.
But then again we have Bernie that In August of 2015, Bernie Sanders reported net worth assets at a minimum of $187,026 and a max of $759,004. Sanders also owns a condominium in Vermont valued at about $100,000. He has debts of at least $25,002 and as much as $65,000. Let’s see …. a billionaire who has a failure rate of 2.7%, who employs many or a man whose first paying job was at the age of 40 and has minimal assets.
It’s cute that you think elections matter, that you have somehow convinced your self that clearly the other guy will be a cult of personality tyrant with impunity…..when you have been living under the same meme with a different brand for the last 8 years.
How many heads have rolled under the Obama? If conjecture and rumour are right, Scalia was just the latest in an ever growing list.
“CEOs are not Presidents. They are not elected, and their value to those they lead is not made of inspiration or hope. They lead those they pay to be there.” The articles diatribe is obvious and most easy to point out in this idea that CEOs are ‘Dictators with underlings whose heads will roll’. Now whose pandering? CEOs do a difficult job. Many are elected by Boards of Directors who are responsible for the investment given by shareholders. CEOs who lose credibility and respect of their team are fired or abandoned. What the US needs is a strong minded business-minded… Read more »
Your argument is hilarious. You see no distinction between giving someone a second chance and putting them in the most powerful position in the world? Especially using the logic that you are putting them there because of the skills they have that brought them the failure in the first place. And CEOs are not “elected”, they are HIRED. No one said their jobs weren’t hard… they are very hard, and unforgiving. No profit. No job. Those are NOT the criteria that I want for my President. CEOs layoff a portion of their population when they are not hitting their number.… Read more »
NAFTA and Free trade agreements are the middle class layoffs of epic proportion. So you either get in Bernie’s corner or Trumps…BOTH want an end to free trade and favor Fair Trade….. So hate to break the news but Bernie is not going to get the nomination. He was put in to give Hillary an easy path to the nomination. I love the fight he is putting up but in the end this was owed to Hillary and she will win no matter what given the super delegates. The Dems ensured her victory. Unless Bernie or Trump get in, it… Read more »
he CEOs in the last 36 years always seem to get paid off even when they run their companies into the ground plus they always seems to find another job and the reason why is that they know the Board of Directors because they serve Board of Directors so what you have is a tight little group of networking that most of us don’t have. They are not going to turn on each other even when they know that they are terrible CEOs. George Bush, Jr., and members of his family were failures when you look at their business records.… Read more »
That lady made an attempt to convey her reasons for supporting her candidate. You did not tell us your reply to her in person, detailing your counter-argument. You then have all the time in the world to write what you could not come up with in person, and say whatever you wish. Try it in a conversation next time. Much harder to do.
Children will often convey their reasons supporting the idea that Santa Claus is real. There is no need to justify a lie.
Why do I feel that some are panicking? I guess these kinds of articles will be increasing as time goes on. Again, these articles mean little to me and the many who don’t see GMP as an influence but more of a affirmation of voters on the other side. Nice try but you helped me lean more toward Trump. Nonetheless, I’m still undecided. As I have mentioned before, rather then concentrating on the Republican candidates, it would be far more beneficial to address issues on the Democratic side. The only time I felt discomfort was when some wanted to bring… Read more »