Sunday, January 1, 2017

From "I Feel Your Pain" to We Are "The Pain People Feel."



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In less than three weeks Donald Trump will be installed as the 45th President.  He is different in many ways from his predecessors,

He comes from the world of business with no public political experience or prior holding of office, he uses technology in ways that other candidates never have and he ran a campaign that was vulgar at times and certainly raucous.

He ran against a person who the nation collectively did not trust and who was the first woman to seek the office.

Trump enters office with a relatively low approval rating and the country is very divided.

This background should work to Trump's advantage because expectations are low but opposition is high and the mass media  is held in total distrust by the vast majority for being both prejudice and inaccurate in their reporting.

I believe the majority of anti-Trumper's will continue to maintain their posture of distrust and angst but some will soften over time because staying mad is not easy for most who are rational.

Trump has assembled a very interesting and highly qualified, but different, Cabinet and appointees. They are not traditional in terms of their backgrounds and like the man who selected them are generally wealthy and have been less involved in politics and having occupied prior political office.

In their public life some have expressed views that are contrary to that espoused by Trump so that could make for some interesting twists.

I have never met Trump though I know several who have and they do not like him or have favorable opinions of him.

Trump follows a president who leaves office and is personally liked according to polls yet, his accomplishments are pathetic. I suspect this is attributable to three things:

a) He is our first black president and people are reluctant to attack him or his policies for fear of being called racists.

b) The mass media protected him as their anointed and consistently refused to attack or even challenge his failures.

c) Because Obama is a Democrat  and a gifted spin master/monster it is difficult, if not impossible, for Liberals to be objective and turn against one of their own because emotion trumps (there's that word again) intellect.

I remind all again, Trump was not my nomination choice but I willingly voted for him against Hillary and still believe he will prove a good president, what we need under the circumstances and, if given the chance, will serve us well but will also take us on a lot of ups and downs because he is not orthodox.

Finally, I have a lot of general concerns because of the mess the world is in, our own economic weakness and military decline and our enormous debt.  It is no secret, I am a strong supporter of the American-Israel relationship and will go into a little detail about one of my specific concerns.

Netanyahu is a good politician and he is also a true friend of Trump. They like each other, get along with each other and Trump has legitimate positive feelings towards Israel as being the underdog in a kennel of surrounding enemies including The U.N.  There are a lot of anti-Israel sentiment among the new Democrat Party and mass media.

However, if Netahyanu overplays his relationship with Trump it can fly back in his and Israel's face. Why? Because, whether justified or not, there are many who would love to have the opportunity to continue their argument, American foreign policy is too subservient and/or controlled by Israel etc. The rise of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel activity on American college campuses is a sad commentary on how low the Liberal Left have sunk but it is the world we live in and cannot be ignored .  It is also a fact that The Democrat Party has swung far to the left and their attitude about the American-Israeli relationship reflects as much.

All Israel seeks is peace, be given the opportunity to negotiate with the Palestinians and be recognized and not existentially threatened. Obama disagreed with this  in terms of the Iran Deal and his personal animus towards Netanyahu. The settlement issue is an Israeli bargaining chip and has been a manufactured issue the Palestinians have milked.  Settlements are deemed part of any negotiation and Netanyahu and all his predecessors understand that. You cannot, nor should you, negotiate with someone who refuses to meet you unconditionally and/or refuses to give up calling for your total destruction and annihilation.

I have heard the argument about how Obama has voted for increased military support of Israel as a rebuttal but I have answered that is akin to giving bigger boxing gloves to fend off the bigger bully Obama helped create with the Iran Deal.

Lamentably, Democrats have come from Bill Clinton's "I feel Your Pain" to " We are the pain people feel."

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