The Political Conversation

I must admit that the content of this election is far richer than I recall seeing in a long time and if anyone deserves the credit for that it would have to be Donald Trump. Mind you, I’m not endorsing him, nor am I suggesting that I like the man as a political candidate but, his brazen style, cutting comments, and willingness to put himself out there on some of the more sensitive subjects has forced the competition to reveal a lot more about themselves than we have come to expect in a national election. Never mind if you agree or disagree with him, when has any other politician on their own, been willing to talk about their more specific stance on issues like immigration, welfare and other tough subjects?

Trump is definitely the irritant in the room. He says what he thinks and damn well doesn’t care if you agree or disagree. He stands his ground and while he has taken the time to re-state a few positions, there has been very little actual change. Love him or hate him, I have to respect a man that says what he believes and believes what he says. Frankly, I’m having trouble recalling a president since Harry Truman that would or even could do that and even old Harry had his limits.

The over all benefit for all of us will be seeing these political machine driven paper dolls have to actually stand up and take a stand. They will have to risk not having everyone love them. They won’t be able to cater to each and every voter and if the media has any brains at all, they will focus on those differences and make these folks explain themselves to the voting public and not tolerate any soft, warm & fuzzy answers. As you’ll notice, Hilary is loosing ground because the press and the voters are losing patience with her former simple “get over it” approach to some of her own failings and frankly, trying to sell the wiping of a mail server as just maintenance should be treated by the FBI as exactly what it is; the knowing and willing destruction of evidence, a Federal offense. As for so many of the other candidates, well, we are seeing them for what they are. Very shallow, very vanilla, with not a lot of substance. Perhaps we will start seeing the resurgence of candidates that actually take a stand and are willing to be held accountable. What a concept!

As the electioneering continues and we start seeing weaker candidates drop out, the remaining folks are going to have to be stronger, more direct, and be prepared to address tough issues with real substance rather than fluffy options that can change on the fly to appeal to the current audience. Perhaps they will be forced to actually think about their ideas and come up with something that hasn’t been considered before. Personally, I’ll just be happy if we can force them to take a hard stand so selected topics … a true indicator of a politician with a back bone.

So, as we predicted earlier, “The Donald” is most definitely having an effect on the race. I just hope he sticks in there and continues to cause these folks to be more revealing and perhaps even … more genuine. Yes, yes, I suppose that is expecting too much, but if I’m going to dream, I want to dream really big and Donald may just be the sort of fuel we need to keep those home fires burning!