WHAT ARE THE ANSWERS?

     Following years of drought and opportunistic blight, trees on the California coast struggle for life. The battle is set against historically warming trends and other climatic and environmental changes.

      There is symmetry in that and this post election America. A winner has emerged, a loser has conceded and the sitting President offers assistance in transition. The American system proceeds, as it has. This time the campaign ends with a nation wherein more than half of voting Americans lost. That statistic also reveals more people voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump. Add the other candidate's totals and Trump is indeed a minority President. But Trump won the electoral college and so will take the oath of office in January.

       He confronts a divided nation. He promises to govern for all. We will see. 

      Many of those who voted for him did so because they believe, "Washington is broken...Congress does not work...there is a double standard where in elected representatives are part of an elite with special privileges..." I submit the record shows they are correct.

       In exit polls and interviews many of his voters voiced concern about changes in America; immigration changing our complexion and demographic, loss of jobs, trade deals with fall out for working Americans while bankers and investors grow more wealthy, and many believe government did not hear or care about them.

       They found their champion, improbable and unlikely as the Republican party thought and for that matter the majority of voting Americans and they elected him. In this divided and tumultuous time there are truths and questions that will be explored.

questions for history

     Which Trump will emerge? The liberal Democrat power broker or the man who switched to the Republican party in 2012?

       The wild carnival barker style campaigner or the candidate who read a teleprompter and stayed on focus?

       What influence will daughter Ivanka have on his policy formulation and court nominees, especially on justices' attitude about Roe v Wade and other women's health and privacy issues?

       What role will Stephen Bannon the alt-right godfather and Brietbart mogul have? This is important to all America because an ugly truth about the Trump movement is that it was also a place where the worst of America found a home.

The KKK, racists, anti Semites, openly misogynistic and crude men and domestic terrorists are part of his minority base of voters. People of color especially, but all Americans have reason to wonder how this part of the Trump movement will influence the administration.

      How vigorously will the fraud lawsuits and sexual assault cases, allegations and charges be pursued? Will these be his Lewinsky or e-mail server millstones? 

      Will the Democratic leadership serve notice on Trump as Republicans McConnell and Boehner did on Obama, at the start, promising to prevent his re-election and blocking legislation or court nominees?

      What role will the Sanders/Warren wing of the Democratic party play in legislative advances and battle?

      Will we see a major role for Chris Christy and Rudolph Giuliani and what will that do for the idea of "governing for all?"

      How will he "bring jobs" back to America? Let me be flip for a moment and ask, will he start with his own businesses-suits, ties, shirts, etc, now manufactured abroad?

     How will he resolve his considerable debt to Chinese and Russian interests? What role will the Senate or other federal agencies have in monitoring his considerable international business interests. America has never faced this quandary before.

      Will the Fox network pick at the Trump business matters and sexual allegations as they went after Hillary Clinton?

     How will traditional Republicans, including major figures who refused to endorse or vote for him, respond to his ideas?

     Is Donald Trump the new Republican Party?

     How much influence will Mike Pence have? Pence says he is a Christian first and then a conservative and Republican. That attitude had him on the outs in his conservative Indiana. He was on his way to being defeated before Trump plucked him. This is the man who disregarded the advice of college presidents, religious leaders, international corporate ceo's, professional sports franchises and retail executives because his faith came first, though he later back peddled. Will Trump favor reason over Pence's faith?

     Several months ago a conservative Republican friend who emigrated here years ago and established a successful life in America called Donald Trump a "Trojan Horse," not a true conservative, not a real republican. Is he? Who is the real Donald Trump?

     Questions do indeed abound?

   

    I don't often quote Newt Gingrich, but he told someone that to understand Donald Trump you need to look at Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt and PT Barnum.

    Jackson was a founder of the Democratic party, a populist, a controversial figure, he had a notorious temper, he said men needed to "control" their wives, he provoked the "petticoat" affair that dominated much of his early administration, he developed the Indian removal practice, forcing native citizens off their land.

    TR was of course the wealthy Republican and strong individualist who angered his own party when he went after big business and engaged in trust busting that led to business regulations. Roosevelt was a leader in the Progressive movement.

    PT Barnum was of course the politician, showman and hustler who coined the phrase "There is a sucker born every minute."

    Gentle reader please recall this comparison by Gingrich was meant to explain who Donald Trump is.

     Who indeed?

    See you down the trail.

     

         

NOW WHAT-FOR OBAMA-FOR REPUBLICANS

HOW ABOUT THE 2016 RACE?
ARE YOU READY?

     Heaven forbid!!!!

     Before we leave this most expensive presidential campaign in history, a few thoughts from a self avowed political junkie-who got paid to cover politics. (Talk about larceny!)

      WHAT NOW FOR THE GOP?

      Lot of people are saying the GOP needs to "reform" or change, to shift away from being a party dominated by whites, males, conservatives and the wealthy.  I'm not sure I buy those descriptions as being the complete sum total of the party.  But if it is true, the party ran a very close race as it is.  Charles Krauthammer says instead the GOP needs to look to a younger generation of itself, particularly to younger governors or members of the senate.

      Aside from Jon Huntsman the other GOP candidates were extremists, flawed, whackos or unqualified.  Romney won in a court of dunces.  In truth he was a north eastern moderate who had to play to a party that is in the grip of a right wing, some of whom border on zealots.  Old line republicans were not in evidence and frankly some held their heads down in shame.  

      The Republican party needs to do a few things.  Throw off the control of social issue, right wing, moralizing and/or tea party extremists.  It needs to move toward an historic moderate position where it could tolerate candidates as liberal as Nixon, Reagan, Dole and even Eisenhower. Many of the current crop of Republicans would dispute the policies of their own historic leadership. Just as Romney did with his own previous Massachusetts record. The GOP "base" is too far right. Let the right wing go start their own third party movement.  The GOP needs to come to grips with the changing demographic of America.  More about that in a moment.

WHAT NOW FOR THE DEMOCRATS & OBAMA

      The Obama machine and the Democratic leadership has been terribly shortsighted.  Yes re-electing the president was paramount, but should not have been their only interest.  The Democrats, and even the Republicans, should both begin to rebuild national parties.  Today the association is only nominal and temporary. National, grass roots based organizations should exist to hear local needs, respond to those issues, demand accountability, train and vet future candidates for state legislatures and federal office.  Think of how much better off Obama would be if the Democrats controlled the House.  Strong national parties, engaged in finding and funding strong candidates for the House are a lot healthier for this Republic than the big money of Super Pacs and special interests who now control who has the money and ultimately who gets elected.  Those interests are beholden only to themselves.  

     Parties worked historically.  But now if you've got enough money, a good organization and pollster you can declare yourself whatever you say you are and run, and may get elected. To a large extent Obama is a case in point. So, the newly reelected President should preside over helping his party to rebuild a true national party.  

     The President needs to bang Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid on the head, repeatedly, until they are ready to put partisan politics behind national need. (I mean the head banging figuratively, at least for Pelosi)

      The Democrats need to hear what millions of voters think.  People don't like taxes.  Some of us understand that taxes are in fact necessary, but with bullies and simple minded people like Howard Jarvis doing their stupid oath taking, there is a lot of work to be done before Americans understand the relationship between accountability, accounting, needs, revenue and strategic planning. This nation faces critical financial issues that need something more than we've seen in the past 12 years.

      The first trick Obama needs to clear is how to move forward-truly building a structure that will embrace the House Republicans and bring them to cooperation, or to bulldoze over them.  Here again, if his guru David Axlerod had been more forward thinking the campaign would have rolled in a flood of House Democrats. Instead he faces a Republican majority who spent the last two years doing a dance of insanity and obfuscation.  This nation needs genuine problem solving.  That would be problem solving ahead of political advantage.

      So someone needs to take Mitch McConnell to a heavy metal funk bar, dose him on some mind altering elixir and turn him into a roadie for 50 Cent until he cries uncle. The Senate filibuster rule needs to change.  

      John Boehner should be chained to a stake like a dog and spend a week in a Mississippi shack eating gruel and watching how people in poverty struggle to stay alive.

      I don't know how Obama is going to transverse the perils that led us to gridlock, but he is the Chief Executive and he needs to evince a leadership that will lead to a new way of doing the nation's business. But it takes the other side willing to help.

      The 2014 mid term could/should be a Democratic priority. They need to find a way to win the house and hold the Senate.

THE DEMOGRAPHICS QUESTION

       African American, Latino, women  and young voters are the apparent alliance that put Obama back into the White House.  Republicans-how does that picture jive with your party?  Truth is Latino voters will continue to play a powerful role in American politics.  There are pockets of the nation where the Asian voting patterns hold power.

        Many women have made it abundantly clear that their bodies, their health and their well being are theirs and that politicians who don't understand may not get their vote. I am not implying that women vote only on such issues, but some do.

      It is healthy for all Americans that more women will now serve in the Senate.  Again it is matter of perspective.

Don't be surprised to see the 2016 field fill with Latino faces of both parties.  

AND FINALLY VOTER SUPPRESSION IS WRONG

      Voter fraud and cheating is as old as the Republic. Still is wrong and this year we saw evidence of voter suppression.  A political operative pal sent this along to demonstrate. BEWARE-this might make you laugh. But it might also make you think.  Now there's a good start for the next cycle.  Thinking.

                                          

THE NEW AUDIENCE FOR ALL OF THOSE
CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS

   Well done complements to John King of CNN and Chuck Todd of NBC for their masterful work with touch screens that help crunch and illustrate the returns in last night's coverage. It was a great blend of interpretative journalism and technology.  

    See you down the trail.