Trump Won

The above picture is not one of me. I repeat, that ain’t me in the picture. That dude is a freak and a freak is something I strive not to be. And now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll go ahead and write a political post that I’ll surely one day regret writing.

From what I gather, Democrats are condescending and Republicans are stupid. No, let me change that. Democrats are both stupid and arrogant. Hold on – maybe it’s the Republicans who know what’s going on and the Democrats are brainwashed. No matter how you put it, the other side is low information, completely immoral, and really has no clue. And that’s the truth. The media has finally won. We all hate each other.

I don’t think Republicans condescend much at all. Their arguments are too simple for that. Straightforward. On the left, there’s nuance and on the right, there’s bluntness. Whether any of this be good or bad, I’ll let you be the judge. Just know that I, as many of us claim, am in the middle. I like to think of myself as being above the fray. It’s probably not exactly true, but it’s what I’ll tell you to avoid getting myself in trouble with friends and family. But while I might not straddle the line at this very moment, my alleged position offers me the privilege of amply insulting both sides of the political spectrum as well as some of what lies in between.

I pretty much expected Trump to win this go-round. Once I saw him hang out with Joe Rogan for three hours, I knew the win was in the bag. The move was genius. That was the device that connected the Donald with the younger male vote and propelled those same young males to actually cast a ballot. Kamala simply didn’t have that connection. Plus, it seemed like the Democrat party was in somewhat of disarray once they gave Joe Biden the boot. There simply wasn’t enough time for Harris to convince the electorate to fall in love with her. Not that it ever would have, no matter how much time she gave them. While I agree that Biden needed to go, I really wish the Democrats, at the very least, had inserted a stronger candidate. Better yet, offer a quick primary to get the public’s opinion on the matter. Kamala shouldn’t have been there. It seemed forced. Trump enjoyed four whole years of his berating and belittling and Kamala only had a few months to react. Trump had the lead with the Republican machine behind him and the Democrats seemed off-kilter. But it is what it is, I guess.

I find it fascinating how different the voters of both parties are. Over the past few days, I’ve listened to my Democrat friends recite how tariffs will affect inflation and how our deteriorating relations with China and Ukraine will have a profound effect on our daily lives here in the U.S. The arguments I hear are sound and the people I’ve listened to don’t get much pushback from me at all. I mean, what do I know about tariffs and international trade and relations? On the other hand, when I discuss politics with my Republican friends, I hear a lot of “Man, we’d be so screwed if she won.” That’s it. Not much messaging there. I guess Trump pushed some strong negative branding of Kamala. He seemed to accomplish it rather quickly too. Not many of us knew too much about her until recently, relatively speaking.

I tell Laura that I honestly wish the Democrats would revert back to their blue dog days. I think a lot of the country connected with their center-right ideologies. I think Bill Clinton (and even Barack Obama back in the beginning) was a blue dog Democrat. He might not admit to that, but he held some fairly, what would today be considered, conservative views. Today’s blue dogs hold only fiscally conservative views while socially, they lean liberal. And when I say lean left, I mean they lean really, really far left.

I also tell Laura that I wish Trump learned how to articulate his ideas so they’re somewhat coherent. I don’t enjoy listening to him speak. I struggle to avoid a frustrated frenzy whenever I glimpse him during an interview. Recent big name Republicans seemed to have suffered from the same affliction. I felt Bush Junior didn’t get his points across very well either. But perhaps that’s how some Republicans speak to their bases. Simple. Simple. Simple. Where I look for nuance, detail, and eloquence, they offer mere basics. It does annoy me at times because I feel that at the level of president, you should be the best. Period. No questions asked. You really should be the best. Like Reagan and Nixon. Those two Republicans put many others to shame; Nixon more so. I think Nixon possessed greater inherent foreign policy acumen while Reagan possessed more charm. Both were effective and persuasive communicators though, no matter how you cut it.

I don’t have any advice for Republican voters as of this moment. After all, their man won. No, wait, that’s not true. I do have some advice to give my conservative friends. Don’t gloat because sooner rather than later, your time will come again to be on the losing end. And maybe, just maybe, if you act human today, your perceived enemies will act human tomorrow. I don’t know, just a thought. Plus, it’s not nice acting like jerks. Let’s keep what civility we have left in our society intact. Simply put, don’t gloat and don’t be jerks. People hate both.

Regarding the Democrats, I also have a teensy, tiny bit of advice to offer as well. And this is coming from, remember, a guy who sits firmly in the middle. Stop being preachy. If you don’t know what preachy means, look it up. Yes, keep the nuance and intelligent perspectives, because people like that, but keep it in a way that seems somewhat cool, attractive, and welcoming. If you don’t, you’ll lose the cool vote and with today’s politicians who are now aligned with the likes of Joe Rogan, RFK, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy, it appears that cool is back. Simply put, the public can not stand being around or listening to preachy people. It’s ugly.

And for God’s sake, would everyone stop thinking that the other side is going to kill them? Like, literally kill them. Because just to let you know, it probably won’t.