I wrote
this before Trump delivered his inaugural address. His address confirmed what I
say here. I wrote my assessment of his speech within an hour after he delivered
it. Read my assessment here.
Bobby
Fischer at the age of 14 became the youngest U.S. chess champion in history.
A
reporter asked him what he liked most about the game. His answer was classic:
"I love to see them squirm."
I love to
see the establishment squirm. Never in my lifetime have I seen all of them
squirm like this.
I did not
vote for Donald Trump. I voted for Gary Johnson. Johnson vetoed 739 bills when he was governor of New Mexico.
No governor of New Mexico had ever vetoed that many bills, and most of them
were sustained. His opponents in the legislature could not get enough votes to
override his vetoes. He really made them squirm. That had impressed me for many
years, and I figured I might as well say thank you in the only way that matters
for a politician: my vote. Also, when asked his opinions on Aleppo, he answered
"What is Aleppo?" Somebody who had
never heard of Aleppo probably would not get the United States involved more
deeply than it already is in Syria. America would be a lot better off if Barack
Obama had never heard of Aleppo.
Anyway,
back to Trump. He is the victim of the most systematic campaign of media
vitriol that I have ever seen. They didn't like Barry Goldwater, but they did
nothing like this. They didn't like Ronald Reagan, but they did nothing like
this. They will not give Trump any slack at all.
He is
being tried by a court that has the guilty verdict in its pocket. Even more
delightfully, this court has proven itself to be politically impotent. And in
the outlook of this court, there is nothing worse than political impotence.
Political impotence means being cast into the outer darkness. As Trump's parade
begins, they sit on the sidelines shouting, "This just isn't fair."
Yes, it is. It is also delightful.
I call
your attention to the most vicious piece of slander against Trump that I have
seen so far. It was written by somebody in Australia. Now, the fact that
anybody in Australia gives a rat's patootie about Donald Trump is amazing. But
to write something like this is really astounding. I'm not going to quote from
it. I want you to read it. As you read it, think this: this bonehead Aussie has
no political skin in the game. This is in his country. It is in his
political system. He is down under. But he is utterly apoplectic about Donald
Trump. You can read his screed here. It appeared in the most internationally
influential of Australia's newspapers, the Sydney Morning News.
What
impressed me most about his article is its tone. It is not moral outrage. It is
whining. This is crybaby journalism. We do not see it often because they win so
often. Snide comments, yes. Contempt, yes. But not whining. When you see a
journalist whine, you know he is beaten. He is not rallying the troops for one
last stand at the barricades. He is like a three-year-old lying on his back,
kicking his legs wildly, and screaming: "I want it! I want it! I want
it!" Someone ought to dump a glass of ice water on the guy.
This is
happening all over the West. The columnists really have lost their minds. They
have lost all sense of perspective.
Republicans
were upset twice when Obama defeated Republican candidates for President. But
before he came into power in 2009, they pretty much held their peace. I'm not
talking about screwballs on the fringe. I'm talking about conservatives in
newspapers, magazines, and on websites that had Alexa ratings higher than
500,000. I am talking about the equivalent of the Sydney Morning News.
Trump has
really gotten under their skins. I am grudgingly becoming a fan of Trump's.
Anyone who can cause this much pain among the liberal establishment, including
the liberal Republican establishment, can't be all bad.
We are
told that he has low public opinion ratings. First, this is not true. Over half the public is favorable. Second, he
ran against a woman who had the lowest public opinion ratings of any Democratic
candidate for President over the last century. Never has a Democratic candidate
for President been so widely regarded as untrustworthy. Now, let me say that I
don't think there's anything wrong with electing somebody to office who you
think is untrustworthy. If you elect anyone to office, and you don't assume
that this person is untrustworthy, you are living in a fantasy world. But
Hillary Clinton set the record for public skepticism. Yet the liberal media had
a lovefest with her. They seemed astounded when this nagging, shrill, legendary
thrower of plates lost the election. Hillary Clinton was the Bobby
Knight of American politics. Her loss is not the end of the
liberals' world. But liberals think it may be. Liberals who think this are
dumb.
THE MEDIA
The media
have not been able to come to grips with his victory. They think the voters in
Midwestern states have betrayed American democracy. They think that what's good
for California and New York is good for the nation. A lot of us don't think so.
I moved out of both of those states a long time ago. I have never longingly
looked back at either of them. I paid my unfair share of confiscatory state
taxes in both of them. That was 40 years ago, before they both went even more
politically insane than they were then. New York is a state represented in this
century in the Senate by Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. California elected
Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Need I say more?
The media
will be in continual apoplexy for at least the next four years. And in each of
these years, the media will lose market share. In each of these years,
newspaper reporters will be fired unceremoniously. These people are typing
furiously on the Titanic. The public is paying less and less attention
to them, as Trump proved on November 8. One of my favorite websites is www.NewspaperDeathWatch.com. The latest report
on falling ad revenue for the print version of The New York Times is here. I also enjoyed learning of the rout at
Reuters.
Also, in
each of these years, employees in network television, as well as MSNBC and CNN,
will get their well-deserved pink slips.
The more
the media grouse about every aspect of Trump's administration, the more that
Trump's voters will conclude that they did the right thing on November 8.
By the
way, where's Hillary? Talk about a disappearing act! She went from queen of the
media to Greta Garbo in 48 hours. "I vant to be alone!"
It is
going to be business as usual in Washington. It was business as usual for eight
years under Obama. Actually, it was much reduced business in Washington. Obama got less legislation through Congress than any
modern President of the United States. He was heavy on agenda but
light on implementation. Fortunately.
I think
Trump's great contribution has already been made. He utterly humiliated the
liberal media. He humiliated the entire bipartisan establishment. He trounced
his Republican opponents, and then he beat Hillary Clinton when it counted. He
is the only person in American political history with zero background in any area
of government who has been elected President. That is going to get him into the
history textbooks.
WHAT
REALLY COUNTS
The
decisions that make a difference are the decisions made by the Federal Open
Market Committee of the Federal Reserve System. The rest of everything that
goes on in Washington is background noise. When it comes to the votes of the
FOMC, it is not a Punch and Judy show. It is the real deal.
Unless
there is some unexpected scandal that hits Trump, his administration will be
made or broken by the effects of the votes of the FOMC, beginning in late 2008
and extending to 2020. I would have said the same thing about Hillary Clinton.
Much as I am cheered by the fact that she was not elected, I was never
convinced that it would make a serious difference. Most of the groups that she
was ready to sell favors to are the same ones that have been buying
Presidential favors for at least a century. The fact that she was on the take
was neither here nor there as far as I was concerned. It was only a question of
which special-interest groups were going to get the lion's share of the favors
she would have been in a position to bestow.
Those of
us who are really convinced conspiracy historians don't think the action is on
Capitol Hill or in the White House. The action in Washington is in the Eccles
building. The other action that really matters is in New York City: 33 Liberty
St. and Pratt House.
DELIVERANCE
Politics
in the United States, and especially presidential politics, is a Punch and Judy
show that is presented to the voters as an exercise in messianic deliverance.
The deliverance never comes. Politics is Charlie Brown and Lucy.
Yes,
Hillary Clinton was Lucy. What cheered me was that the voters elected Charlie
Brown. Maybe he really will kick a few footballs through the goal posts. I hope
he does with ObamaCare and NAFTA. This will enrage the media. But don't count
on a victory at the end of the game. In the politics of the welfare state,
there is only federal bankruptcy ahead of us. That really will be the end of
the game. Deliverance!
SENSIBLE
POLITICS
Sensible
politics, to coin an oxymoron, is about revenge. It is about inflicting pain on
your political opponents. Any time that the voters think of politics as
anything more uplifting than this, they are playing the role of Charlie Brown.
They should be playing Lucy's role. The correct goal is to pull away the
football at exactly the time that your opponent swings his foot high into the
air. The goal is to see your opponent flat on his back. Then, four years later,
you do it again.
That's
politics according to Bobby Fischer. That's the kind of politics I appreciate.
Politics
is not about saving the nation or the world. Politics is about making your
opponents squirm. If you expect anything more than this out of politics,
especially national politics, you're ready to kick a football through the
goalposts in the last three seconds of the championship game. Here; I'll hold
it for you.