Trump Protestors and Policies

I am pretty sure that we will not get back jobs unless both the left and the right unite. That to me is the single greatest challenge facing young people. The second biggest challenge is what we do with people when there are not enough jobs to go around. These are not complicated issues; but, they are rarely discussed by politicians. The two people discussing them are Trump and Sanders with the others just giving mouth service. Kasich and Cruz would lower taxes on the wealthy to increase jobs, even though that hasn't worked in the last 30 years and actually led to more jobs being sent overseas, and Clinton would spend more on retraining workers; but, that does nothing if there are no jobs for them to take. In fact, it is harder than ever before for people with college degrees to get jobs that pay more than the minimum wage.

Now, I was a Sanders supporter and believe in his positions the most; but, I am sadly disappointed in his refusal to tell his supporters to not make disruptive protests at Trumps rallies. That is an instance of the left failing to unite with the right over what matters, jobs and the economy. I am also disappointed in the rights calling Sanders a communist, when he is not, and berating his beliefs. The difference is that Trump is not calling on his supporters to protest anyone's rallies.

So what are the protestors saying? Well, Trump gave a speech in California today and I watched a lot of news reports. Not one mentioned jobs, the wars, the economy, social security or welfare. Not one. They talked about racism. Now, I do not know what is in someone's heart and have no idea if Trump is racist; but, having been in the public eye for over 35 years they have not found one instance of Trump saying anything negative about blacks or Asians. His comments regarding illegal aliens is about immigration and borders, not about Latinos. For those who may remember I preached to Latinos from all over south and central America and Mexico. In fact, the last time someone tried to portray me as a racist they were laughed at by people of their own race. It was an attempt by someone in business to undercut me. Two things that never worked in business against me were trying to call me a racist or a liar. Both would get you laughed at even by my enemies. I don't even hate the English and they starved one fourth of my people, the Irish to death including my family members.

The Pimpernel has been writing this blog for about 7 years and there is not one thing that anyone can point to and say was racist. I got mad at black churches saying gays should die; but, I also get mad at white churches for saying the same thing. I wish ill on none; but, will call out others for wishing ill on others. If I ran for office they would probably use that to say that I was pro-gay, anti-family and racist because that is the way the establishment divides and conquers. The reason they would have to go after me without discussing what I have said is the real issue, jobs and the economy. They don't want those things to be solved to the benefit of the American people, they want profit at the expense of this nation.

Now lets talk about the women's "issue". On a personal level I will start with this. For most of my career I had a higher number of female employees than in the rest of the organization. There are a lot more women in administrative positions than in other construction jobs. I transferred jobs at one point and my old supervisor was immediately challenged by all of my former employees for being sexist and anti-minorities. I later found out that they had waited to formally challenge him until I had left because they didn't want me to be dragged into it. When I retired I thanked the people who worked for me because they always took care of things and gave me the time to work on long term projects that benefited the organization. My employees were great because I let them be great and expected success in all our endeavors, they never let me down. Mano of the women that worked for me would confide in me, they trusted me. Again, if you have read this blog then you have never seen me say anything derogatory about women as a gender. Yet, I have said that my wife was an adulterer. If I were running for office they would say that I was anti-women. Trump got in a fight with Rosie O'Donnell and the media has said that what he said about her was anti-women. It was just anti-Rosie. One can also see the things she said about him; but, nobody called her anti-men.

This is what we need to consider. If you ask black or Mexican Trump supporters why they support him they will say jobs and the economy. That doesn't get reported; but, it is important. Before we went into Iraq, Trump and Sanders were both saying that we should not. They are the only ones running for President who said that. You know the last time we have seen protests like the ones we are seeing now, it was protests against the war in Vietnam. We have not seen the young protest against the war in Iraq as much as we have seen them protest Trump. I find that disgusting. Trump has said that he doesn't want to constantly go to war and that he wants the United States to demand more from the NATO and other countries for us to protect them. Sanders hasn't even said that. In fact, George Wallace (1968 Presidential candidate who was an avowed racist) did not get as many protests as Trump and Wallace was for segregation and attempted to deny black children from entering a white public school.

The point I am trying to get you to ask is, why now? Why the protests now. I do not believe it is actually about Trump. We know that "Black Lives Matter" is the most organized protest group right now and we also know that members had protested at Trump rallies. We know that there are many conservatives that have gone after "Black Lives Matter"; but, Trump really hasn't been part of that discussion. We also know that "Black Lives Matter" had protested at some of Sanders rallies, even forcing him off the stage at one. Now, while I find the number of unarmed blacks being shot by cops appalling, I believe they are protesting Trump because he gets larger crowds. Their playbook calls for going to the largest events they can, Sanders was just the largest crowd for Democrats. Since Trumps rallies have dwarfed Bernies they go to Trump's rallies. I understand this from a strategic, get media attention; but, it sort of misses the point. Neither Trump nor Sanders is racist and both want to expand opportunities.

Finally, here is my point. WE have a problem and the problem is opportunity and power for the majority of people in the United States. If we do not create more jobs for Americans and take care of all Americans then we will become a third world nation. Climate change is not the threat to Americans, not being able to feed ourselves as automation takes over is the threat, not having jobs is the threat, not having enough to live on is the threat. I usually chastise the conservatives for not finding common ground with liberals; but, the liberals are making the exact same stupid divisive move. They have been divided and conquered by the establishment that will not address the real issues.