A Conservative View

POLITICS – SOME UNEXPECTED INTEREST!

POLITICS 

One of my grandsons and some of his friends sent me some unique thoughts about politics. As many people who read my articles know I am sick of 24/7/365 where politics has taken over the media and only major tragedies and the weather interrupt constant politics. These young men have been having forums and debates and allowed me to use these issues to frame both their thoughts and my evaluation of their work. I had the chance to complete this on this Christmas day and decided to publish this tonight.  CB

The First issue they agreed on was “every politician is a corporate whore”. I can’t disagree in full but there are a few, who try hard to blaze new trails but the seniority power system is so powerful they have little or no voice. A perfect example is one of my Texas Senators, TED Cruz, is the most hated Senator within in the Senate today. This is one of the reasons Americans are totally upset with Congress. They feel they are superior to the common American and new Senators are expected to shut up until they have tenure to express themselves. This former astute body of elected officials believe they are “royalty” like our President and the leadership of the House of Representatives. Basically they are above the law if necessary like Charles Rangel as an example.

The second issue they discussed was, “campaign finance law basically exists to be super vague to keep out 3rd parties and disguise or totally hide where all politicians money is coming from”. “They feel that only the politicians themselves truly know who each they owe favors to. They concluded that it has to be far more people, usually a lot of people. The consensus was it was definitely influencing policy. They agreed that with Donald Trump we know exactly where his money comes from and it will be difficult for army of lobbyist/backers to be able to manipulate Trump. They concluded that this is reflected in some policy positions he has promised, like the changes to the tax code to close loopholes, that he knows as well as anyone, because he’s used them himself for decades. This analogy by these young men is impressive and zeros in on many of the changes that must be made to give them the freedoms and opportunity that I have enjoyed for 85 years.

The third issue they had consensus was the traits of successful leaders. Their discussions ranged a historical figure you admire, to a great coach and the leaders including they have studied and they really admired. They typically singled out those who are straightforward and honest with their people. They admired the ones who speak their mind and stand up for what they believe in, are open-minded but firm in their convictions, and tend to shine when making difficult decisions.

Sadly they see that today the traits necessary to be a politician are directly opposite. They concluded that to be a successful politician today you have to be covert in expressing your true thoughts and motives when they’re controversial instead of providing people what they really want. They believe politicians purposely avoid tough decisions like the plague and only stand for what no one is opposed to. As an example look at political debates, most of the politicians evade direct responses to every questions. Most just talk and talk and say nothing. Trump has no trouble expressing himself legitimately to say exactly what he thinks. They feel he seems honest, even when what he expresses is unexpected. He has no concerns that some people aren’t going to like what he has to say. They conclude that Trump answers every question in the debates, with refreshing responses.

It appears that the consensus agreed that Trump has flrxibility. Even though Trump was once a Democrat, just like I was, now he’s running as a Republican they feel he’s still very liberal on a large number of issues and I can’t agree with their term “very liberal. I am about four paces to the right of Attila-the-Hun but Trump’s promise to clean up the Washington swamp is worth allowing some liberal flexibility.

They feel the Comedy Central roast proved he was a good sport about it. He’s clearly capable of laughing at himself, which implies he’s aware he may be wrong at times. Any honest person will admit they are not perfect

These young men don’t think he’s racist at all, though he’s definitely more worried about terrorism than they feel is warranted. This is one point where they are completely wrong. I agree with their assessment that he is brash and they are not interested in having him as a friend.

They feel that George W. Bush seemed like a genuinely nice guy and we invaded two countries, Obama seems like a genuinely nice guy and NSA spying and drone strikes are at an all time high. Maybe being a nice guy isn’t that important to running a country. In reality both Bush and Obama are Progressives but Bush is not as socialistic as Obama.

I agree with their conclusion that Trump has been the victim of gotcha journalism and misquotation or out of context quotation by both the Demoncrats and the GOP. We agree that most politicians don’t like what he really stands for as the entire Washington cabal is so scared they are shaking in their boots.

Another issue has been his statements that made the front page recently on the internet that were wildly misrepresented. He was asked specifically about ISIS’ ability to recruit online and was talking about trying to take steps to limit that. To me it was obvious from what he said that he doesn’t know much about the Internet, but to me what he said about “get with Bill Gates” that was so heavily mocked here was pretty clear in context, that he was saying he wants to meet with experts in the field and see what our options are. As much as he has been ripped they thought he was making a point mentioning Gates. Trump knows Bill Gates politically, and how liberal he is, and I think was implying it’s a non-partisan issue and showing the angle they’d take, which was what the next line mocking people crying about freedom of speech was about. Trump knows Bill Gates is the last guy on earth who would want to filter the Internet and restrict freedom, that’s his point in dropping his name.

They seem far more concerned with the similar statements, from a more informed position, that Hillary and Obama have already made concerning freedoms and spying on the Internet.

My grandson, Landon Miller, provided me with the feelings of a group of young men in their late 20’s. I hope Landon will give any credits to others by listing them in comments after this article is posted. Although they may be neophytes, they show some real courage and challenge that really surprised this old man. I have never tried to influence my children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren politically but to be the best at whatever they choose to do with their lives. All of them are not aligned with me totally and I served over four years in the US military defending their, mine and every Americans rights to free speech and political leanings. I hope everyone enjoys some unexpected thoughts from these young men. My commentary will surprise no one.

Please express your comments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.     C Brewer