Why Trump, Indeed.

So, at this time, Trump is apparently gaining in the polls. Trump somehow managed to win his parties primary while being openly racist, and sexist. And people are scratching their heads as to why?

Well, I am not a Trump supporter, I see him as being everything wrong with our society, and if not for certain endorsements, I could have seen myself voting for him, despite his comments and actions while campaigning. I'm pretty sure I am not a racist or a sexist. Yes, in the testing I do show a slight biased, but lets be truthful here, just about everyone shows a slight bias in terms of race and gender, its not even something you would be aware of. That bias stems from how you were raised, where you live, and the people that you associate with. But just because you have a slight bias, does not make you racist or sexist, of which Trump appears to be.

So, why, outside of slight biases are people flocking to him? The truth is, its because his message resonates with people enough. His support against Muslims, fear based because we had 9-11 crammed into every fiber of our being. His support for the wall, and kicking out “illegals” is backlash against bad free trade deals, and the fact that jobs are vanishing, while people watch as their savings and earnings vanish and profits skyrocket. His sexism, yeah, I don't really have anything on that one.

So, why could I have seen myself voting for him. Its because he is promising jobs. Promising jobs to someone without a job is like giving them a key to Fort Knox. Telling them that he will fight against Obamacare, while they see their premiums and co-pays increasing at exponential rates, will resonate with them. When you are poor, and understand that jobs dictate wages, that means a chance to escape. When you see things constantly going wrong in your life, the man who promises real change becomes God. Yeah, he is saying a lot of bad things, things you probably don't agree with, but he is also promising something better.

Another sad fact of the rise of Trump, is bad policy in and of itself. People are starting to see that these last thirty plus years of policy have crippled them, and their families. Gone are the days of sitting on fifty acres and making money with cattle. Gone are the days of going to college, or learning a trade and making a good living at it. They see the dysfunction in Washington DC, and in their state houses, and they no longer want compromise. They see compromise as being the enemy, because the truth is, the compromises don't benefit them. These compromises are for the wrong things.

The fact of the matter is, over the last three decades, things have gotten worse... A lot worse, for a lot of people, and here comes Trump. Promising that things will change under him. Sure, people realize, these changes probably won't be for the better, but just the same, it will be change. Rather than the devil they know, the current establishment running things, Trump is the devil they don't know. That said, Trump is just a different aspect of the establishment, but people no longer care.

Trump promoted himself as a “man of the people,” in a time when most people feel that they are not represented. He seized on something that people have been feeling in the pit of their stomach. Sanders for his part also seized on it, and if not for the rumors surrounding the nomination, we might have seen an entirely different race. People are flocking to Trump because he is speaking to something that they feel, but otherwise cannot express.

It is not racism or sexism that he is speaking to, in a large number of people. It is not his political incorrectness that is driving. It is what lies beyond those things, it is the thought that Trump represents something that was forgotten by those within the GOP and Democratic Party. Its that people are suffering, and no matter if your belief is that they brought it on themselves, or if you feel that nobody should suffer as many have, that message does resonate with people.

Say what you will, but the Trump standard has been allowed to roam outside of the bottle, and it will not go away. This is a product of failed policy and two candidates who represent both. Clinton wanting to continue the path well traveled, Trump seeking to start a new one. Clinton, despite what she says, doesn't want to change things, after all they are good for her. Trump doesn't want to change things, but understands that more money in our pockets means more money in his. Both are bad and while people know this, they find themselves in a no win situation. Do we continue down the same path, where things constantly degrade, or do we go with Trump on his new path, where things might get better. It appears, with as close as this race is allegedly becoming, that people are choosing to go down a new path, consequences be damned.

Oh, before you say that we are in a no-win situation, just remember this. Clinton, at her heart, is all that is wrong with politics. Trump is playing up all that is wrong with our society. But ultimately, what is wrong with our politics helps create all that is wrong with our society, and you cannot cure one, without curing both. In the end, and this is pretty much the end, until we manage to get our politics lined out to where people aren't suffering (or they are suffering greatly) from bad policy, we cannot get our society engaged enough to pay attention.