I'm Starting To Get It

It was raining the other day, and I was driving home from a short trip when, suddenly, I got it. A really big IT. 

It was enough to let me understand a lot of things, and to realize why Trump supporters have won so much so quickly. And, don’t deny it, they have.

It also explains why so few of them are disappointed in The Donald, and why there have been - let’s face it - so few problems in his administration so far that have generated a bipartisan revolt.

And, knowing it will give old-fashioned liberals a lot of...well, something. Not power. Not clout. Not influence. But, it will give them knowledge, and we all know knowledge is power. If you use it in the right way.

So, what is IT?  Well, everyone knows it already. To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, everyone sees things that are right in front of them,  but many do not recognize what they are seeing.

Remember all the people who thought Trump would lose. Them.

Now for the big reveal. Donald Trump rarely means what he says. Just think about it. Except for lusting after women who are not his wife, Donald Trump doesn’t really mean what he promises. He won’t start building a wall on the border. He won’t stop foreign trade or try to impose a broad tariff on imports. He will not send tens of thousands of additional troops into a hot war in Korea or in the Middle East or anywhere else that we are not dragged into by a sneak attack on the United States.

It’s all just the opening bid in a negotiation. A negotiation with Congress. A negotiation with the Supreme Court. A negotiation with the American public.

And, if you reject the opening bid, he just folds like a cheap camera, to use a phrase so old that it dates back to a time when cameras actually folded up to be put away.

That’s why so few Trump supporters are disappointed in his actions so far. They never believed the things he promised in the first place.

When he says he will bring back coal mining jobs, they know he can’t do it. But, they hear someone paying attention to them, and offering hope that something will be done to help them. I know the Democrats talked a bit about bringing alternate energy and high-tech manufacturing jobs to West Virginia and Kentucky, but they certainly didn’t say it clearly and they didn’t say it anywhere loud enough for most people in those states to hear it.

When he talks about building a huge wall and having Mexico pay for it, they know he is just saying border security will be beefed up, and saying it in a way that is pure genius. No one has to worry about the details of his plan, because everyone - at least his supporters - know that’s not the plan he really wants.

It’s why he doesn’t expect many problems with his plan to cut taxes for the rich. He just says he will cut taxes for everybody, and everybody knows he can’t do that, but what most Trump supporters hear that he will be making an effort to cut their taxes. A few, the really rich ones, hear “We’ll take care of you first, and sweat the rest of it later.”