It began well before the ride down a golden escalator.
Manufacturing in the U.S. moves overseas for cheap labor. Either that or you invest in robots and automate. Do nothing to change your business practice and you go bankrupt. People can buy your five dollar item elsewhere for a buck fifty. Ford and Chevy assemble cars in Mexico. Places like Lordstown, Ohio become ghost towns. The mine has gone dry. People left behind are like stranded boats on a waterless lake, plagued by unending drought. Where's the hope?
Creative Destruction. Why prop up a failing business when you can sell off its assets and invest that money in a venture that has vitality and promise of success? Sure workers are left without a job but society as a whole benefits. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good. In a market economy you have to look out for yourself or turn your life over to the social worker. It's a fast treadmill. So, stay in shape.
Reality pays a visit to Lalaland. Angry Arabs fly our own planes into The World Trade Center - America's symbol of economic dominance. Patriots can't buy enough flags to display from their car windows, bursting with a resolve that can only lead to war. Dubya - George Bush, 43 - shelves his ideas to soften the blows the free market inflicts on individuals. Compassionate Conservatism is replaced with the War on Terror.
A brilliant beginning quickly degrades into a sputter of gasps. Our crusade into Iraq and Afghanistan requires we spare no expense. It's for our soldiers in uniform. But it doesn't end there. These people need schools, roads and democratic ideals. Their civilization will be graced with our beneficence. Back home in the U.S. of A. people look around at the surrounding community decay and say, "What about us?"
Financial wizards made intoxicating profits from the marketing of Derivatives - poor quality mortgages bundled into packages investor's thought would generate big payoffs while protecting them from risk. In 2008 the music ended. The Ponzi scheme was revealed. Bankers, stockholders and Federal officials all called for a lifeline. Our nation's largest banks were going under and they would sink the world's economy into depression. Only Uncle Sam could save us. The taxpayer was handed the bill. It was a loan that eventually was repaid. But the message was sent. Free market economics doesn't always apply to everyone.
John McCain was on his 23rd combat mission over Vietnam when his A-4 Skyraider was shot down over the world's most heavily defended city - Hanoi. Severely injured, Ho Chi Minh offered to return Captain McCain to his dad - Admiral McCain, who just happened to be Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet - those ships parked off the coast of North Vietnam. John McCain refused to leave his fellow POWs confined in the Hanoi Hilton - their name for the notorious prison housing Americans. McCain would come home with his group following successful negotiations five and a half years later. Running for president in 2016 Donald Trump wondered aloud how anyone could find John McCain heroic.
What politician better knows his way around a corporate balance sheet than Mitt Romney? He saved the Salt Lake City Olympics from financial ruin. As governor of Massachusetts he introduced universal health care. Running for president against Barack Obama, Romney was tarred as a heartless capitalist who couldn't appreciate your family's kitchen table economics because he had an elevator in his garage for his car.
There's no going back. World markets are here to stay. Money is the mother's milk of all that is important. Manufacturing is returning to America's shores but it is robots that now man the assembly line. People don't get gold watches for longevity. Instead you head back to school to keep up with an everchanging job market. Your career goals now come in five year increments. Smart phones keep you in touch with your boss. Even on vacation.
Who would have thought this billionaire developer would be the first to see the coming voter revolt and become their voice. Sure he lived in a Manhattan penthouse, hired illegal workers, scammed money from the unwary and lied to your face. Donald Trump was mean and combative. Just the way you like him because he represents you in the battle with powerful elites. Up till now they always won. Not any more.
The Tea Party was a very important event in the history of our country. And those people are still there. They haven't changed their views. The Tea Party still exists except now its called Make America Great Again.
- Donald Trump
love
dad
© Tom Taylor
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