George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 23 November 2016.]
So where are we going now? We have a new president-elect voted in by Americans living across the vast expanse of our continent, people who dwell mostly in the smaller cities and towns, people who work the land, people who know their neighbors, merchants, and political leaders.
And then there are the bitterly disappointed Americans living cheek-by-jowl in the big cities located on the coasts and waterways. Their candidate promised to double down on eight more years of her predecessor’s failed policies (more here). Most of these Americans were not exactly happy about how they fared under the Obama administration, but they voted the only way they knew how, the only way they had always voted.
They voted Democrat because they were told that was the party of the poor and the working class. That was the party that made them feel good about themselves and what they had accomplished in life. And even if they hadn’t accomplished all that much, the Democrat politicians were against the rich who had appropriated their money and jobs; the Democrats once more promised to claw it all back and finally make America into a socially just nation. The Democrats told them that jobs are created by the workers, and taken away by the greedy capitalists who, under a Democrat government, will now be made to pay their fair share.
The bottom line of the feel-good argument was that the bad decisions you have made and the situation you find yourself in is not your fault. The system has been rigged against you by Wall Street, and voting Democrat will restore a level playing field where all will again earn a living wage no matter what they can or cannot do.
But enough people thought otherwise and voted for a man, warts and all, who told them that it was the old way that created and now maintains the economic and political quagmire we live in. Along the way he promised to do some pretty audacious things which his supporters knew would be tempered by the realities of the office once he was elected. For example, most well-read people understood that ‘building a wall’ really meant to eliminate, through technology and tougher policies, the disastrously porous border that Obama has created.
We don’t yet know how well this accomplished billionaire will be able to ‘drain the swamp’, but you can bet the ranch that the Democrats will do everything in their power to maintain the status quo, and keep us on the dreary path toward global socialism. Their most promising approach will be to launch a continuous stream of attacks charging conflict of interests between Trump’s duties as president and his remaining business interests. Financial experts have analyzed his holdings and conclude that there is no reasonable way that President Trump can divest himself as have his career politician and military predecessors.
Today, while in the midst of assembling his administration, President-elect Trump has teams of lawyers and accountants working on how he may maximally separate himself from his vast holdings aggregated under the Trump brand. Serious commentators like Holman Jenkins offer that “it might be modestly helpful, and practical, for his children to borrow a large sum of money … to buy out dad’s stake. Then he could stick his own cash in a blind trust. His children could claim to exclude him from management decisions and consultations.” But even this “would not deter critics and activist-connivers from hourly charging him with self-dealing on any and every public question that could conceivably affect the Trump businesses now controlled by his children.” (more here)
This national diversion will be a certainty for the next four years because America’s socialists cannot afford to have a blatant capitalist succeed as President. It would give lie to everything they have always taught our children. (more here)
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
rebanesruminations.com 
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