THE TRUMP PROBLEM - WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

“How do you solve the problem of The Donald”, to hum along with Julie Andrews as she also faced a seemingly unsolvable situation in the Austrian Hills in the musical, “The Sound of Music”. The fact that the Oval office is occupied by an individual whose word and promises mean absolutely nothing, who has been found to be a chronic pathological serial liar, whose loose tongue threatens a nuclear war, whose personal fortune is increased every second by the fact that he is President, whose election was illegally assisted by a foreign power with whom members of his administration and campaign had contact with, who refuses to disclose the information that would allow examination as to whether the Trump Presidency is a front forTrump Inc. and that his half filled administration is incompetent, has not meaningfully impacted the support that magically got him elected. 

So how do you oppose him?

AMERICANS LET TRUMP HAPPEN

While it is self evident that his victory was facilitated by just a small number of Americans who switched in key States it was also accompanied by wholesale disinterest by nearly half the electorate. All this begs the question as to what is being done by the Democratic Opposition to prevent a recurrence of another minority victory by The Donald or the likes of him. While the reasons are many and complex as to why Trump emerged triumphant one factor stands out above the rest- the electorate were totally and utterly disillusioned by self serving politicians and “politics as usual”. The fact that Trump daily perpetrates at least one action that would herald the end of the career of any conventional politician is irrelevant. Poor old Anthony Weiner who had even been mentioned as a possible Presidential candidate had his career terminated because he texted sexual stuff to a few apparently consenting females. Contrast that with the multiple actual complaints The Donald has had of sexual harassment not to mention that he is a self confessed “pussy grabber”. Then there was the tragic case of Mitt Romney who couldn’t get past first base because he wouldn’t produce his tax returns. Compare that with the daily revelations of The Donald’s local and international malfeasance let alone his point blank refusal to produce his returns. 

To illustrate that nepotism and illegal gain of the Presidency is alive and well around the 100 day mark and is regarded as business as usual, the Duterte affair tells it all. The President, out of the blue, invited the President of Philippines, an unashamed brutal murderer, to the White House. Simultaneously there was a report that a billboard in Manila featured Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter and a Special Assistant to the President, who was advertising the new Trump Tower Manila. The media let alone Congress has not as much featured this blatant abuse of power. 

So judging Trump by normal standards just doesn’t cut it. Even the media seem to have given up the ghost on the Trump m. o. as the above example suggests. He is given a pass on everything because he is “not like the crooked politicians in Washington”.

“CROOKED INCOMPETENT” TRUMP’S BEHAVIOR IS NOT ENOUGH TO LOSE HIS ELECTORATE’S TRUST

The penny should have dropped by now that Trump still represents a preferable alternative to the “Washington swamp” of both parties to at least three groups - a group of disillusioned Democrats, Republicans that held their noses and pulled the levers and those citizens that didn’t think it important enough to vote against him. His first hundred days if anything have proved the fact of his unconditional support from his base.  So what if anything are the Dems doing about it besides rubbing their hands with glee at every inane Tweet and pathetic stumble that The Donald provides with monotonously regularity? The answer is - not much! Trump believes, as he did in the campaign, that his coalition is enough to get him re elected. Those who believe that lightning won’t strike twice just better have a plan B in case it does. 

So let us look at a snapshot of where the politics were at this hundred day mark.

POLITICAL ACTIVITIES ON THE 100 DAY WEEKEND

A number of events took place around  the historical landmark of Trump’s 100th day in office which serve to illustrate where American politics are at:

* Yet another mass protest hit the streets protesting Trump. This one was on Trump’s denial of climate change. Tens of thousands of American took to the streets. According to Michael Moore the level of civil uprising against ‘Trumpism’ far exceeds even that of the sixties where Vietnam was a central issue. (Blog: “Protest Trump’s America”). This country widespread mutiny shows no signs of abating and the momentum seems to be growing. The traditional May Day protests were morphed into massive anti Trump demonstrations. However, all this has to be translated into regime change otherwise it serves only as a frustration release. 

• Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Committee saw the largest gathering of African American leaders in a long while. The impressive list of participants included several members of the Obama administration including former Attorney General Eric Holder. Bearing in mind that there is more than a whisper that the African American constituency were not out in force in the Hillary campaign this renewed commitment may be significant now that the stakes have been laid bare and African American voting rights are on the chopping block.

• The annual WhiteHouse Correspondents’ Dinner was held. This annual jamboree reflects to a lesser or greater degree the tension between the Administration and the predominantly liberal media. It also showcases the level of satire directed at the incumbent President. Never before have the cadre of late night comedians been so unashamedly and blatantly anti a President. These performers, particularly as a group, have the largest and most important demographic of youth following them. The fact that the network satirists have the complete go ahead to give Trump a full go is indicative of the fact that the business people don’t believe that this blatant partisanship is impacting their advertising revenue. Conspicuously absent from the Correspondents’ fest was the President himself. Trump not being there is like a production of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. There can be no greater affirmation in the non appearance of The Donald that he does not give two hoots about expanding his constituency. They can all go to hell.

* To reinforce the Trump isolationism and his belief that all that matters is his base, he held a rally in rural Pennsylvania, a key state in his electoral victory. This instead of attending the Correspondents’ black tie dinner which he ridiculed to his adoring following. He was into his campaign mode, where he is most comfortable, promising the world with not a care or a clue as to how he is going to deliver. This self indulgent orgy followed the previous day’s comforting address to the National Rifle Association where he reassured the faithful that their democratic right to have as many guns as they liked, whether they be AK- 47s or not, would be defended till kingdom come. So if there is any doubt that Trump was about to become the President of all Americans he, once again, dispelled it this weekend with a one two punch. Notwithstanding the disaster of his first 100 days he declared victory to the cheering faithful, reaffirming that, at this stage of the game, he still wasn't to going to allow reality to interfere with his world view.

* At the political business end of the weekend is the pending Georgia House of Representatives bye election where feverish electioneering is taking place. The outcome of this contest is already being considered a bellwether of whether buyer’s remorse has begun to set in in the Trump Presidency. The Republican in 2016 won the district by thirty points but Trump only won the constituency by six percent. A fortune is being spent in this election and according to pundits the Democrat has a fifty percent chance of winning. Regardless of the outcome this contest is being fought, principally, as a referendum on Trump and not on the basis on an alternative vision for America. The real fight is going to be in 2018 in a national wide contest. Hopefully the battle lines will be carefully drawn between the alternatives that America faces. 

SO WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

Regardless of the fact that by every parameter and every form of measurement the Trump Presidency is a disaster The Donald soldiers on declaring victory all the while to his cheering base.

While there is objective evidence that Trump has lost a small section of his base for all in tense and purposes the faithful are still faithful. Trump for his part is not adjusting his strategy to extend his constituency believing that he is dealing with a rerun of previous polls that got it wrong. After all look who is President.

The Democrats for a host of reasons should not sit back in the belief that Trump has to implode and then his base will desert him. To date the Trump faithful don’t seem to care that he has sold them a bill of goods. The crisp point is that even though he and his administration are worse than the swamp that they supposedly replaced, his base still supports him because he is so different from the smooth self serving operatives in DC. 

The Democrats need to translate the mass uprising against the Trump phenomenon by mobilizing the protestors into political action. They need to do this by unambiguously promoting their policies and running on them as opposed to running on Trump as a joke - been there done that and it failed. In addition they need to address the fears and anger that produced the Trump switch. They need to reassure the electorate that they are really going to drain the swamp because, as The Donald, has convinced them, the Democrats are part of the malaise that has so dominated decision making in Washington for decades. It is indeed big business and their lobbyists that are the major constituency of the legislators on both sides of the aisle. 

Jay H. Ell has indicated again and again that Trump is in a quicksand created by his campaign’s involvement with Russia. If the criminal investigation shows there was collusion with the Russians there will be a clamor for impeachment. Realistically this could not happen if Trump still has the forty percent of the electorate he has at the moment. There has to be a groundswell against him.Clearly his supporters currently believe that whatever people may allege it is fake at best and at worst he is still better than anything else that Washington has had to offer these past fifty years. 

ELECTORATE’S PERCEPTION TOWARDS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

 Jay H. Ell believes Nate Silver’s assessment, reinforced by Hillary Clinton, that Russia’s targeted interference, hacking and Comey’s inexplicable late intervention was responsible for the eighty thousand votes that gave Trump his electoral triumph. However that begs the question why the race was that close. Jay H. Ell would argue that the narrative that the conventional politicians could no longer be relied on to meet societal needs had taken root and this is what put the populist Trump within striking distance. While the Democrats have an able stable of political candidates they might need to recognize that they may need a figure outside of politics to run with. Someone like Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, who has walked the walk, is the type of candidate that might fit the bill. He is quoted as saying that employee benefits should not be viewed as an added cost but rather as a powerful energizer of growth. Schultz also believes that those who are fortunate enough to achieve authority have a responsibility to see that no one is left behind.

The paradigm has changed throughout the world with regard to political leadership. This should not exclude exceptional individuals such as Elizabeth Warren or New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. It is however salutary to reflect that there was no one more qualified to be President of the United States than Hillary Clinton but at the end of the day that worked more against her than for her.