Forum: What's Your Reaction To The Campaign Thus Far?

Every week on Monday, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question: What's Your Reaction To The Campaign Thus Far?

Don Surber: My reaction: It's August

Fausta's Blog : As for the campaign, I'm seeking refuge in opera. All of the drama with half the calories.

JoshuaPundit : I'm finding this campaign fascinating. We're seeing something unique in American politics here.

For starters, we have to throw out the usual Democrat vs. Republican stuff to truly understand it. This is a mostly bloodless rebellion against the uniparty political class and our self-appointed elites who have plundered the country for their own fun and profit while leading it into a quarter century of decline. Needless to say, that's why the elites from both parties and their paid for minions in the media and punditocracy are united against Trump, because a Clinton presidency means the status quo...which suits them fine.

That also explains why Trump's campaign hasn't put out more ads and why his campaign staff remains skinny. Trump wants border control and has never budged an inch on wanting to rein in serial outsourcing overseas, our ridiculous trade agreements and corporate H1B visa abuse to put Americans out of work in favor of lower wage foreigners, especially in the tech sector. These are bottom line issues for the donor class, so most of them are sitting on their wallets.

Another difference is the attitude of most of the media. They've never been so nakedly partisan. It used to be that they at least made a show of objectivity. Now, they no longer even bother.Mrs. Clinton is a hard sell, so the only alternative is to demonize Donald Trump and the press,including a number of self labeled  'conservatives' has been an eager accomplice.



With all that going on, Trump is surprisingly holding his own.

Is some ways, this reminds me of Harry Truman's 1948 campaign. Truman had the advantages of incumbency, and the media climate was not nearly as poisonously partisan as it is now, but he was not a popular candidate within his own party. The FDR progressives loathed him as a Southerner and an ignoramus, while Southern conservative Democrats considered him far too liberal. Both factions split off into third parties and Truman had little support from mainstream Democrats and donors. His opponent, Tom Dewey had united,  full support from Republicans eager to retake the White House after 4 terms of democrat rule.

TV and presidential debates were not a factor in 1948. So Truman did the only thing he could. He took his case directly to the American people with a whistle stop tour, often doing four events a day. Sometimes, he ended up speaking to as little as a dozen people on a railway platform. Dewey, on the other hand was far less comfortable speaking in public and relied on press conferences and scripted events. While the polls showed Truman far behind, on election day he won handily.



Donald Trump is doing exactly the same thing now, appearing before thousands of people.

He's also doing a few things Republican candidates haven't done for years. He's actually courting the black vote and challenging them by reminding them that years of voting Democrat have done nothing to better their lives. And as I pointed out previously, he's even willing to subject his positions to input from his supporters publicly on national TV..thus showing them, among other things, that someone running for president actually cares what they think. I'm fascinated to see how this all turns out.

The biggest problem Trump has right now are the #nevertrumpers, especially those in the pundit class. They remind me of the Tories in our own original Revolution, willing to put their personal economic benefit first before the good of the country. They're under the illusion that if Trump can be defeated, they can take control of the party. They couldn't be more wrong.

What Trump has spearheaded is a movement that isn't going to disappear. Even if they get what they want and  Trump's defeated, his supporters  already hold the Republican Party as it is today in contempt. And they aren't going to have anything to do with a GOP headed by these folks. No matter what happens in November, a lot of folks are going to remember the words and  deeds of the #nevertrumpers and react the way our forefathers reacted to the Tories after America's  freedom was won. That's true whether Mrs. Clinton becomes president or not.


Puma By Design :What is my reaction? Where do I start?

Moving past the “omigosh, it’s only August and as I prepare this post, 71 days, 10 hours, 4 minutes and 26 seconds to go” repertoire (yeah, I actually checked so humor me), my fiercest reaction is to the NeverTrumpers who are colluding with their fellow Progressives on the left and the media all of whom have anointed themselves our betters aka soldiers for Hillary.

The elitists talking heads, correction soldiers for Hillary have taken to thrashing anyone within earshot over the heads with the misconception that Trump supporters are angry, white, racist and unintelligent, middle class working men.

Absent from the conversation, not for the sake of political correctness but for the purpose of deceiving voters is that one need not be Caucasian to be angry, male or a Trump supporter as proven by the countless Black and female supporters that the media when covering Trump rallies intentionally avoid or edit out of their reporting.

And while we’re on the subject, isn’t it really the establishment of both parties who are through their propaganda guilty of deflecting their own bias and about non-white and female Trump supporters on to the so-called alt right? Yesterday, we were wack-o birds. Today we are the alt right. Stop pretending that we do not exist.

Moving on let us talk about the policies of the past eight years and the fact that Hillary Clinton in the White House means more of the same, if not worse.

I find myself more often of late revisiting the days during George Bush’s presidency when one could not miss the number of Black owned businesses opening in Black communities throughout New York City.

New businesses, whose owners some of whom were of other ethnicities had begun popping up where none had existed in thirty years since before the burn baby burn era and late 60’s riots that devastated Black communities in this country.

So yes, I am disgusted and angry that because of failed social engineering policies, before the end of Barack Obama’s first term that many of those same businesses that flourished just years earlier, not just in Black communities but across the were no longer thriving and many had gone out of business.

An Obama second term made life even harder for the poor and the middle class but Donald Trump is the only voice out there speaking for us.

After eight years of failed Progressive policies, my reaction to the 2016 presidential election campaign season is that as resilient as we are as a nation, America deserves better which is something that Hillary Clinton will not deliver, not to the nation’s middle class America, not to America’s poor and for darned sure not to Black America.

Clinton cannot run on her merits because she has none so Barack Obama to ensure that his failed policies live on has contracted the mainstream media to spin, misquote, lie and divert attention away from Crooked Hillary’s sins and omissions as they’re being swept under the rug.

Of course, none of it is for love of country or their fellow Americans but to ensure that global ideologues who know nothing of the hardships endured by America’s middle class and poor and for whom the establishment holds disdain remain in power and secure in their bubble to relish in their elitist lifestyle.

The Independent Sentinel: This election is making me sicker. The thought of eight years of Clintons is horrible. They're the reason I left the Democrat party.The media is ganging up on Trump.

Stately McDaniel Manor : The campaign so far? There hasn’t been a campaign so far, at least not a professional political campaign. Hillary Clinton has been raising money, shouting angry wooden, speeches, lying, lying about lying, lying about lying about lying, and dodging innumerable new scandalous revelations by first trying to ignore them, then blaming the vast right wing conspiracy, crying racism or sexism, claiming it’s old news and she already gave whatever authorities thousands pages of whatever and answered hours of questions, and besides, Trump’s a racist, a sexist, a nativist, hates puppies and sunshine and is a poopy face besides. Oh yes, he’s a Klansman too!

Bizarrely, she is running on a platform of destroying the First and Second Amendments, not only ignoring immigration law, but obliterating it, going even farther than Barack Obama has done on usurping the separation of powers via unconstitutional executive orders, destroying the coal industry, putting innumerable Americans out of work, destroying the economy by dramatically raising taxes, spending us into oblivion, preserving Obamacare, supporting Black Lives Matter lawlessness, and in general, abandoning the rule of law and encouraging chaos.

But she’s the patron saint of the Middle Class.

Republicans are proving, as if any proof were necessary, that they truly are the stupid party. NeverTrumpers have convinced themselves that eight years of Hillary Clinton, and a Democrat-controlled Congress is merely another brief period wandering in the wilderness rather than the final push off the cliff into Venezuela-like squalor. They ignore history, which teaches us that the devolution of a nation first occurs slowly, and suddenly, at warp speed. They seem to believe a Supreme Court controlled not by honorable constitutional scholars, but by partisan Progressive hacks and “wise Latinas”—how does Justice Barack Obama strike you?--will somehow be only a mild inconvenience until they can once again take political control. They're stupid enough to think their brilliance can undo the utter destruction of the Constitution and rule of law wrought in the name of making it forevermore impossible for Republicans to hold the reigns of power.

Some people suggest these NeverTrumpers are smart, even brilliant people, people whose only thought is for what is best for the Republic. Not so. Anyone that lets their ego get in the way of their intellect is behaving like a butt hurt adolescent and not a serious adult whose heart is in the right place.

And then there is Donald Trump, who has been behaving consistently like Donald Trump, a self made man/entertainer, whose bluster, New York vulgarity, brash personality and loud mouth have worked very well for him through all of his 70 years. Fortunately, he has never been a politician. Unfortunately, he has never been a politician.

Trump won the nomination fair and square. He played the game and beat every other candidate like rented mules. And now, he has done something very smart. He’s hired Kelly Ann Conway to manage his campaign, and the difference is already apparent.

One of Trump’s biggest failings is his refusal to use ads to attack Clinton. Oh, he’s had a few, and many of them have been effective, but he has not produced the volume and content necessary to effectively play on Clinton’s historically yuuuuge negatives. Sorry Donald, but your personality isn’t enough. “Let Trump Be Trump” is only a recipe for disaster, not a strategy for electoral victory.

The ads practically write themselves, yet we’re not seeing them. For example, juxtapose Hillary’s claims to be the savior of the middle class with a 20 mile private jet flight. Oh, what fun I could have producing that ad! There is voluminous footage of Hillary’s bizarre, seizure-like behavior, her taking weekends off and her many health problems. That should be playing continuously everywhere. Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation pay for play, Bill’s rides on the Lolita Express, the list is endless. Where are those devastating ads?

It’s early. Clinton’s negatives can only go down, despite the desperation of the Lamestream media, and the Obama Administration to keep her afloat. It remains Trump’s election to lose, but despite many Republicans doing their best to lose it for him, he has a chance

The campaign really begins with the first debate. If he can present himself as well informed, temperate, and can hammer at Clinton’s vulnerabilities, which are legion, without being crude and nasty, and if he can nail the debate moderators, who will surely go easy on Clinton, without sounding like a bully, he can win. Yes, he can still be Trump, but a smart, focused Trump. He knows what it means to win, now he has to adapt to a different style of winning. If he presents himself as the sneering, eye-rolling, without-a-clue name-calling buffoon he has so often played, Americans will find out what “fundamental transformation” really means.

Hint: there won’t be an America around to assess it.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason : This presidential campaign is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Our country is being polarized by forces on the left and the right and I believe it is going to get worse as we get closer to November. It’s hard to believe Hillary Clinton has not been indicted for her many quite serious scandals. The main stream media is only now beginning to show an interest in her nefarious activities while serving as Secretary of State. If it weren’t for Judicial Watch and Citizens United it is possible we would never know about her emails and the conflict between her duties as Secretary of State and pay for play dealings through the Clinton Foundation.

Donald Trump is being excoriated in the media for everything he says or does while Hillary Clinton skates and avoids speaking with the media. This is truly a choice of the lesser of two evils. Neither candidate is a conservative and I don’t trust either one to shrink this bloated and too powerful government. At this point I have chosen to be a one issue voter. That issue is the Second Amendment and because of this it has to be #NeverHillary.

Well, there you have it.

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