I'll speak with proper respect for other nations and their peoples' right to choose their own leaders. So this is not an out of order comment on the U.S. and its people. It's an observation about politics in the Western world, which some of us dare to call the 'free' world.
One of our columnists in Australia wrote recently that 'the left made Donald Trump'. Her reasoning seems quite sound to me, and what she wrote worth considering. It's a fabulous irony, spiced with poetic justice, if it's true. If anyone reads this, I'd be glad to know what you think.
The argument goes that the left movement, collectively, has set itself up as some kind of thought police, out to squash any commentary or movement they do not approve of; and in their determination NOT to be gagged, the usually silent majority go to the other extreme and support whatever the left hates most, whatever it really is trying to suppress. Donald Trump says the things a lot of people try to stop anyone saying. He proposes things that make the politically correct flinch and gasp with pretentious displays of horror. He dares. He will not be intimidated. And I am happy to say that I admire it. Someone who can't be gagged by the self appointed umpires of the debate, the wanna be mind controllers who think they can mess with other peoples' heads and tell them what to think. We had a phenomenon in Australia something like it when Pauline Hanson launched the One Nation Party. She rejected multiculturalism and all the other pet projects of the self proclaimed progressives. She gained a huge vote, more than the Greens and one other small party put together, and rattled a few cages in the process. She said what people are not supposed to, such as that too much migration might be bad for Australia, especially when it came from cultures unlike our own. Mr Trump dares speak critically about migration from non English speaking places, and as with Hanson, he provokes howls of sanctimonious condemnation from people who claim the right to tell us what we can and cannot say. Someone I know well who is living in the U.S. at the moment said that if he was voting he would vote for Trump. The first reason: no one owns him. He is self financing, so he's beholden to none and can take whatever position he chooses. Myself, I love seeing the loud mouth, self righteous left getting told, the rest of us do not have to think what you want us to. We do not have to accept your standards of political correctness. We do not have to agree with you about how a country should be governed or its people should live. We can think what we think and if you don't agree you will be reminded that freedom of belief goes for everybody, not just whoever the left approve of.
Where does the Western world go from here? Those who called themselves free thinkers did all they could to eliminate the influence of Christianity but did not have something better to replace it with. They told us they did, and let the show down badly. Will the people of the free world return to what gave them so much good in their society? Christianity teaches respect for all, altruism and peace among people, and that is where we get individual rights from and civic sense in communities. Will we go back to it or keep following the braggarts and jackals in sheep's clothing who tell us their political ideas are better. I look at some people who think they know how we should all live and recall the teaching, "Believing themselves wise they made themselves into fools." (Parapharasing).
God be with us. Jesus forbear with us. Perhaps the Second Coming is near. Only He knows.
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2 comments:
Hi, Andrew!
Trump had indeed attracted attention to himself for his bold talk. But I'd say some of it isn't so much bold as it is simply an uncouth dude talking without thinking about how it sounds. As for myself, I also was intrigued, to put it one way, due to the things he said. He isn't necessarily wrong on his basic philosophies regarding immigration. Illegals from south of the border do have a greater representation in our prisons, percentage-wise. And we don't have anything close to a foolproof method of weeding out the jihadists who mingle with refugees. But beyond that, he needs to talk less and study the issues more. He's basically an idiot who has attracted a following from the right similar to those of the left who were attracted by Obama.
But brash talk certainly isn't enough to qualify one for the presidency. And what's worse, he speaks more like a leftist on most other issues than he does an actual conservative...which his history indicates well that he is not.
And as for that brash talk itself, it would be far more impressive if he didn't have the wealth to fall back upon should it cost him supporters. He shoots his mouth off because he's protected by his wealth. Not in spite of it.
Basically, Trump's a pig, and a bully. He's very thin-skinned and narcissistic. He attacks personally those who oppose him without really dealing with the positions and ideas of his opponents. He's simply worthy because he thinks he is, very much like Obama.
I don't like him at all, and I pray that it doesn't come down to choosing between him and whomever wins the Democratic nomination. To me, it would be a choice between one leftist chuckle-head or another.
I'm glad to get your opinion here, Art, because it's impossible to see Trump from my perspective outside the U.S. the way the people of your nation can. As you say, having too much money could make him dangerous because money brings power and he is not subject to remonstration or restraint the way he might be if he needed financial support.
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