THIS PRESIDENT ONLY HAS TWO DRIVING DESIRES

…..Trump wants everyone watching Fox News to love him

 

Wage growth in “Trump Country” states has been nearly flat.

 

Donald Trump was being a basic ass when he chided his fellow Republicans for being afraid of the NRA in their respective districts. 

 

The truth is that it’s Trump, that once again has lied about taking on the NRA, he’s the one that is afraid of the National Rifle Association.

 

This was well proven when he defaulted to what the NRA agreed with, on the policy of guns and immigration.  As usual, he flip-flopped and agreed with the NRA a day after he said that the age to buy an assault rifle should be changed from 18 to 21.  The NRA’s’ explanation for not changing was that 18 year olds in the military are using assault rifles to protect our country, so they should be able to buy an AR15 assault rifle like they use while serving the country.  If that’s their reason, why today do they have to be 21 to buy a hand gun or a 6 pack of beer?

 

Donald Trump only has 2 real compulsions in life.  They are the same basic attitudes of a teenage high school Junior, (no, not a Senior, a Junior).  Those 2 compulsions are “looking strong and being liked”. Those so called "compulsions" sometimes seem to regularly collide, and he tells lies in trying to explain his ins and outs of what he really believes. 

Both of these traits speak of a man for whom personal beliefs are his basic politics.  It is impossible to know what his true political policy commitments are because they are secondary to his personal commitments. On any given day, and at any given moment, his actions are dictated by what will make him look strong and what will bring him applause.

 

A good example was last weekend when he defied all the norms of decency and presidential decorum in his self-serving and self-involved bizarre speech in Pennsylvania.  Another example was when he proposed to execute drug dealers.  He said he got that idea from China’s increasingly dictatorial leader, Xi Jinping.  And we all know how much he respects all authoritarian dictators.

 

But there is a danger that is becoming more serious for his working-class supporters.  These are those supporters in the key swing state groups that gave him his electoral college victory.  Today, they have little to show for their electing Donald J. Trump.

 

Yes, this past Friday’s robust jobs report provided continued good news overall, but it also found that wage growth in these supporter's states was nearly flat. And as it has been noticed by many political bloggers like myself, economic growth remains concentrated in all those states that rejected Trump. “Trump Country” is not experiencing the renaissance he predicted and that he campaigned on.  That is in part, because we are now aware that he could not have kept his outsize promises in the first place.

 

Thus we have the current Republican nervousness about today’s special congressional election in a western Pennsylvania district that had backed Trump by nearly 20 points. If the Republican Rick Saccone loses to the surging Democrat, Conor Lamb, or if Saccone prevails only narrowly, it will be a stark warning that the GOP could face some major losses this fall, even in the president’s heartland.

The reality is that those in Trump Country are not doing any better than they did under Obama.

 

While Trump did scale back somewhat, the reach of the tariffs from his original proposal, they still sent a loud message to his straying base: Remember the old me; I’m still here. That was also the message Trump sent with his rambling, speech Saturday, which was supposed to be on behalf of the struggling Saccone.  But it was as usual, a campaign style speech that was all about Trump. 

 

Should the GOP prevail on Tuesday, count on Trump to tout his tariffs opposed by most of his party, and his unplugged performance in Pennsylvania, for pulling the race over the line.

 

We must remember that all presidencies are shaped by the personal attitude of the current occupant of the Oval Office. And we have not had a president who focused so much energy on trying to be strong, or who like Willy Loman in the play, Death of a Salesman, so desperately wanted to be “liked.”

 

These drives are the biggest threats to Mr. Trump and, and unfortunately to our American democracy.

Copyright G.Ater  2018