Establishment Denial is Trump’s Greatest Political Advantage Among Four Key Predictors of 2018 Winners September 14, 2017 Vol. X, No. 8 10:13 am You can forget about a Democratic wave election in 2018 The biggest political mistake being made today by establishment leaders of all institutions everywhere, at every level, is underestimating the ability of
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Establishment Denial is Trump’s Greatest Political Advantage Among Four Key Predictors of 2018 Winners
September 14, 2017 Vol. X, No. 8 10:13 am
You can forget about a Democratic wave election in 2018
The biggest political mistake being made today by establishment leaders of all institutions everywhere, at every level, is underestimating the ability of President Donald J. Trump to get what he wants. The Establishment is in denial. Establishment denial is Trump’s greatest political advantage among the four key predictors of 2018 likely winners, including the economy, Supreme Court decisions on immigration and redistricting, and presidential job approval.
Establishment denial. It’s as if the Establishment cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that a self-made billionaire … one with his name atop 65 resort properties and skyscrapers scattered over the world, the author of 15 books, including best sellers, with a degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the conqueror of two political dynasties, the Democratic Clintons and the Republican Bushes … just might be as smart as they are. Or God forbid, even smarter!
Further, the news media elite of all persuasions, the academic community and many of the best and brightest from the worlds of business and government cannot bear to admit Trump’s ability to get what he wants without their genius and support. In Trump’s Washington, DC, they are no longer indispensable.
Establishment hubris; establishment denial is Trump’s greatest political asset.
Donald Trump won because he rejected the Establishment. The Establishment of both the Republican and Democratic parties. The establishment way of doing things. Of measuring success.
Today, September 14, 2017, in Gallup’s latest national poll on the most important problems facing the country, once again we see “Dissatisfaction with Government/Poor Leadership” at the top of list as the #1 problem facing the country in the minds of voters. But poor leadership was the #1 problem facing the nation the entire year in 2016 … before Donald Trump was elected president.
The poor leadership in Washington, DC is the Establishment and their way of doing things.
Voters know that until we get rid of the Establishments way of doing things in Washington, DC, we will never solve the other problems in dire need of attention like immigration, tax reform, health care, race relations, the national debt and unifying the country.
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the consummate establishment Republican, demonstrated just how out of touch he is with most Americans when, in August, he told a civic group that President Trump’s “excessive expectations” about how long it takes to get legislation passed were because Trump had “not been in this line of work before.”
McConnell is apparently unaware that Trump’s “excessive expectations” are a mandate from voters who elected him over the establishment candidates precisely because they, like Mitch McConnell, have proven themselves inept lawmakers despite their experience in the line of work of governing.
Trump won because he would not be cowed by the establishment. The news media. Wall Street. The GOP. The Obama insiders. Trump would not be broken by those who buy ink by the barrel or sell airtime based on popular ratings. Broken like most Democratic and Republican establishment leaders.
Voters didn’t reject Democratic and Republican ideas, they rejected Democratic and Republican establishment leaders. Both parties still have great ideas. It’s the leaders who have sold out on those ideas in exchange for the security of a rigged federal government favoring privileged insiders.
In electing Trump, voters put solving the Country’s most important problems ahead of all matters of political loyalty or ideological bias. Even ahead of gender and religious sensitivities.
Imagine this: Voters who elected Trump considered solving the Country’s most important problems a weightier consideration than all his personal weaknesses, his lack of military and government leadership experience, and every offensive comment he ever made … combined.
Trump voters see him as the only revolutionary leader in Washington, DC rich and powerful enough to stand up to the rich and powerful establishment insiders who have ignored the fears and concerns of those struggling to make ends meet while feathering their own political nests.
If Trump maintains his forcefulness as a revolutionary leader intent on getting things done with or without the establishment, odds are a new Trump-led bipartisan congressional coalition will pass immigration, tax reform and infrastructure legislation that will drive his job approval numbers up.
The economy is already trending favorably. Per today’s Gallup poll, the percentage of Americans naming the economic concerns as the #1 problem is now 17%, “the lowest since July 2007.”
US Supreme Court trending right on immigration and redistricting
With the nation’s economic recovery picking up steam and the likelihood of a successful Trump-led bipartisan governing coalition coming together in Washington, the final major predictor of likely winners in 2018 is the US Supreme Court. And it is trending right.
Two US Supreme Court’s decisions announced Tuesday, September 12, 2017, signal the rightward shift of the court on immigration and redistricting, a turn of events that may yield many years of “wins” by Trump on those two volatile issues.
One decision, overruling the historically liberal San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit in favor of Trump’s efforts to tighten restrictions on new immigrants and refugees, is a win likely dismissed by the establishment because other travel ban related cases are pending. Meanwhile, there have been 3 Supreme Court “wins” for Trump on his travel ban executive order.
Another decision announced Tuesday, with implications for Republican legislative district remapping in North Carolina, blocked a lower federal court ruling in a Texas case where Republicans were accused of intentionally drawing racially discriminatory districts. If the latest Republican maps pass US Supreme Court scrutiny, the GOP is favored in 2018 to win supermajorities in the North Carolina Senate (need 30 of 50 seats) and House (need 72 of 120 seats).
The fact is, under the United States Constitution, there is no greater potential for “winning” politically than a president’s ability to create a favorable ideological balance on the United States Supreme Court. Trump secured that potential with the nomination of 49-year-old Neil Gorsuch as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Think three to four decades of Trump “wins.” The Trump Court.
One more conservative nominee on the Supreme Court, someone like US Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and Trump will surely be able to keep his campaign promise, “We’re going to win so much. You’re going to get tired of winning.”
On Tuesday, September 12, 2017, the US Census Bureau reported that median household income in America was $59,039 in 2016, the highest earning-year ever. Democrats will soon argue that only President Obama deserves credit for record middle-class household earnings. After all, President Trump was not sworn in until January 2017.
However, in 2018, voters will not care to quibble over details like the fact that Trump was not at the helm when the highest earning-year record was set. Whether the news is good or bad, the ins get the credit and the blame. It’s fundamental to American politics.
Meanwhile, the establishment will likely continue to deny their ineptitude and not change the way things have always been done. Their denial is Trump’s greatest political advantage, the impetus for forming a bipartisan governing coalition to get things done.
With the economy in solid recovery and a right-trending US Supreme Court, a successful bipartisan governing coalition is the final key to making 2018 a big year for Trump and his allies.
In 2018, only genuine antiestablishment revolutionary leaders like Trump and those who join him in passing immigration reform, tax reform and infrastructure spending bills will receive the political stamp of approval by impatient American voters with “excessive expectations.”
Today’s voters could care less about what line of work you are in or what party you belong to or how important you think you are. They want results. Trump is all about results. That’s why the establishment leaders of all institutions everywhere, at every level, are making a big mistake underestimating the ability of President Donald J. Trump to get what he wants.
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John N. Davis
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