I Overheard A Conversation Between Two Trump Fans That Every Journalist Needs To Hear

I was sitting in an airplane, trying to dash off a few emails before catching a nap on the way to Indianapolis.

“Trump is out there,” a man in a baseball cap said in the row in front of me, “but he’s saying what people only wish they could say.”

“No other politicians will say what needs to be said,” his seat mate agreed.

“Obamacare is killing my company,” ball cap guy continued. “We do just $150 million per year, but no one in DC knows or cares. It’s killing us.”

I shoveled a few peanuts into my mouth and listened. Much ink has been spilled over who exactly is the “Trump voter,” like they are some unknown, exotic beast that lives in unreachable lands like Alabama. Since most journalists live on the coasts or in large cities, they don’t naturally run into the disproportionately working class Trump supporters.

“Today’s big puzzle is how so many otherwise rational people have become enamored of Donald Trump,” wrote noted American economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell. “…projecting onto him virtues and principles that he clearly does not have, and ignoring gross defects that are all too blatant.”

This was no mystery to anyone on that flight to Indiana in earshot of the two guys in front of me. In fact, the next sentence out of 12B’s mouth perfectly sums up the Trump enthusiasm.

“Hillary is the same as we’ve had for 20 years,” he said. “They’re all just politicians who’ll never get anything done.”

In other words, the Donald Trump vote = the “what the hell” vote, and it’s not altogether unreasonable.

The American people have been repeatedly deceived and ignored by career politicians of both parties. It’s not that people believe Trump is a true conservative or think he aligns with their values. But no matter who people support, they get nothing in return – no leadership, no discipline, and no restraint. In fact, they get worse than nothing. They lose the nation they love…bit by bit.

Rational politics is no longer rational.

Trump supporters know very little about how Trump will govern. But they do know this: he will blow the whole system up. He plays by his own rules and conventional wisdom slides right off his Teflon political persona.

The most recent example of this, of course, is his decision to back out of the Fox News debate.

“Everything he’s doing goes against the book. Everything that any analyst or consultant or professional would tell you not to do, Donald Trump is doing it, and he’s leading the pack,” said Rush Limbaugh. “This creates its own set of emotions and feelings and thoughts that run from person to person. Now, the political business, if you want to look at it that way, is like any other business. It has its people who are considered the elites in it — and like any business, they hate outsiders.”

Here’s the thing. The “outsiders” hate the political elitism right back.

I’m not talking just conservatives. I know Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren fans who tell me they like Trump because he just might burn the whole thing to the ground and stick it to the crony politicians. Their anger is a natural and rational reaction to politicians routinely lie, breaking their promises, surrender when the fight gets tough, and spend money we don’t have.

It’s a rational reaction when the majority of Americans never supported ObamaCare, still don’t support ObamaCare, and are getting financially pounded by ObamaCare. It’s a rational reaction when our borders (still) aren’t secure no matter how much they talk about “building that wall.”

It’s also rational when Islamic terrorists attack us on our own land and our leaders say it has nothing to do with Islam.

However, blaming it on anger seriously underestimates the American people and makes voters sound unreasonable and emotional. What’s really irrational is going to the polls every four years, pulling the lever, and expecting a different result.

Voters can do the math. They know the current financial trajectory of the nation is unsustainable; collapse is imminent. The markets are falling and the world financial situation is perilous. Yet, the politicians of both parties conspire in the last omnibus to raise spending by $200 billion per year. Politicians and bureaucrats continue to mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren for their own benefit.

Politicians and bureaucrats should heed the warnings they’re receiving from voters. Regardless of who’s elected, the gig is up. The emperor has no clothes and the people know it. They’ve been betrayed by their own government.

Yes, they’re angry, but they’re also intelligent, observant, passionate, engaged, and sick and tired of an entitled ruling elite.

Many people don’t trust Trump to actually govern Constitutionally, because he’s impossible to predict and has a liberal record. But people support him because of that very volatility.

“Trump is functioning totally outside this structure [of traditional politics] that has existed for decades. As such, the people who are only familiar with the structure and believe in it and cherish it and want to protect it, feel threatened in ways that you can’t even comprehend.”

Good. Let them be threatened.

I am not a Trump supporter, nor do I publicly support any candidate. But I understand why “What the hell?” is now less a rhetorical question anymore than it is a voting strategy.

Article also published at IJReview.

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