Monday , March 18 2024
This election has proven Donald Trump’s contention that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support.

Some 2016 Election Observations

1. Wow, I mean WOW. Donald Trump in one political season dispensed with two American dynasties, the Bushes and the Clintons, two political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, and the dignity and grandeur of the American political pageant with his only (successful) attempt at public office.

This generation of the Bush family is through in American politics; same with the Clintons. Alas, so too are the feigned majesty and solemnity Americans like to believe characterize the process of selecting a President. In an election that swung from Donald Trump talking about the size of his penis to his denying ever grabbing women by their private parts as he was heard to say in a widely disseminated video, the dignity of the American political process died. From here on, after selecting a Mama-jamming president, everything goes – there can be no return to civility.

2. Donald Trump started out with the objective of preventing Jeb Bush from winning the Republican nomination, but he accidentally tapped into the anger of white America – all of white America. And with the support of their misdirected angst he cruised on to the presidency. This vulgar man gained the support of white so-called Christians, which reveals the nakedness of white Christians, who were miraculously able to overlook Trump’s many unchristian traits. How they reconcile their support of Trump with their confessed belief in Christian values is yet to be seen. Perhaps there are no white Christians – or rather, there are a few whites who are truly Christians, but surely not those who backed this man who is incompatible with religious principles.

the model First Lady
The model First Lady

3. Even before the general election, Trump’s wife Melania, a former model, was showing up naked in some very sexual provocative photos that makes it puzzling to understand why Michelle Obama was criticized early in the Obama era for baring her arms – a fade like the “terrorist fist-bump” that has gained in popularity. Trump’s wife bares it all and gets a pass from the so-called Christian far right. Now more photos of the new president’s nude mate will flood the internet and perhaps someone will publish a coffee table book of them. There will also be a montage of nude Melania photos with a voiceover by her husband explaining where to grab. Somebody will put this all together, I bet you.

4. Rudy Giuliani’s strong support of Trump gained him another chance to be significant and relevant. If he is appointed Attorney General of the United States he will initiate harsh measures to clamp down on anti-Trump protesters, but his main focus will be to repress black and brown people. He will ignore and under-staff the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. He has already convinced Trump of the value of a National Stop and Frisk program; now brace for the extracurricular shooting of black and brown boys.

5. Maybe they won’t lock up Hillary Clinton, but after her devastating slight of Giuliani at the St Patrick’s Day Dinner in New York last month, he will hold investigations into her dealings as Secretary of State and her connections to the Clinton Foundation. Giuliani, like his new boss, is thin-skinned. Irony of ironies: Two abrasive New Yorkers who themselves can’t take it.

6. The coterie of Trump, Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich form a unique team of thrice-married men who have wronged the women in their lives in openly public ways yet are at the head of a movement that professes to want to upend evil. It’s not so easy to predict exactly what will derail this runaway train, but we all know that the wreck looms somewhere down the track and we wait…

7. Sometime soon Trump will have to come clean on his taxes. While he will never admit to any wrongdoings, he may admit that he has legally not paid any taxes. He may even admit that it’s a spectacle and a bad example to have a President who helps control the spending of the American people’s tax money, but doesn’t himself chip in. It would be great if he offered to repay some of the back taxes he had skipped out on. Then there is the whole issue of how he will untangle himself from his many business enterprises to avoid all conflicts of interest.

8. In the first six months of the Trump presidency we’ll all know which of his campaign promises were bogus and which he really meant. Six months is enough time to have started construction on the wall and to set Mexico up on a payment plan. In six months we should know the number of illegal immigrants in holding cells awaiting deportation. Day one is the timeframe set for the repeal of Obamacare, but if Trump doesn’t move on any of this I have the distinct feeling that it won’t matter to his supporters, whose main concern is that Trump remain the focal point for white nationalism.

9. This election has proven Donald Trump’s contention that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes, and I for one would like to see him do it.

10. Finally, white women, lots of them, have been so subservient to white men for so long that they have voted against their own self-interest by ignoring all of Donald Trump’s acts and statements of misogyny. Whom will they have to blame when Trump selects a Supreme Court Justice who will tip the court on abortion rights? Whom will they have to blame when the income gap between male and female workers remains large? Whom will they have to blame when little girls get the message that they are less valued than little boys? White women have been a great disappointment to their own.

About Horace Mungin

Horace Mungin is a writer and poet. He has published many books. See more at www.horacemunginbooks.com.

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One comment

  1. Dr Joseph S Maresca

    Approximately 8% of African Americans and 29% of Hispanics voted Trump for President. That is comparable to Republicans in prior elections like Reagan. People must have been moved by a lot of things like the premium increases in Obamacare delivered 11/01/16, a very modest growth in GDP in recent years, a lower labor participation rate for the workforce, slow movement in hiring recent college grads and much more.

    Perhaps, a Trump Administration will change the dynamic on some of these issues. Shortly, we will find out for sure. I don’t lean in favor of having too much of an imbalance on the SCOTUS. Trump will nominate a conservative to fill the current vacancy. That would tip the balance back to 5-4 in favor of conservatives. After that, I would encourage the new president to place the current nominee-Judge Garland on the high court. Soon enough, we’ll see the details on these issues.