BUY GOLD AND VOTE

In August of last year, I wrote a blog which I labeled “Trumped Up.”

It was the first time I commented in writing about the man who is now the presumptive Republican nominee for the office of President of the United States.

My perception of Donald Trump at that moment in time was less than favorable. It was nothing personal. I didn’t know a whole lot about Donald Trump. What I did know was that his candidacy was launched with a vigorous diatribe against the status quo.

Trump was clearly an outsider and one who harbored some very stark opinions about politics and politicians. I compared him to the infamous Howard Beale, that fictional television personality who went berserk and called upon all his listeners to throw open the window and shout “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any longer.”

In many respects the Tea Party has been a Beale-esque phenomenon. So was the Occupy Movement. So is Black Lives Matter.

These are all the kinds of things people do when they feel put upon and powerless. It is what I call shaking your fist at the sky. It’s a dangerous disposition.  It’s is just inches away from throwing the dishes, kicking the dog and surrendering to a complete emotional melt down.

Still there is something to be said for getting up off of the couch and doing something. A single footstep can launch a journey of a thousand miles. Adlai Stevenson  chided the Republican attachment to the status quo with his quip, “Don’t just do something, stand there.”

What seems to be emerging in this Presidential Year is a kind of public exasperation with politics and politicians. If not outrage, it is at least disbelief and disgust with a government that seems more intent on co-mingling the sexes in the loo than in eradicating the Muslim criminals who behead and crucify Christians.

Donald Trump has emerged on the political landscape as a no nonsense business executive, accustomed to giving orders to the people who work for him and making deals with those who don’t.

In a later Trump centered blog, I suggested that The Donald is not very likable.

His campaign is now working hard at building his likability quotient.  Being liked is important for someone who wants to get elected to public office. I well remember the slogan that elected Dwight D. Eisenhower to the White House in 1952. It was on countless Chevy, Ford and Chrysler bumpers: “I like Ike” said it all.

We are beginning to hear personal stories about Donald Trump that portray him as a decent human being rather than a heartless deal-making profit monger.

His children seem to have their heads screwed on right. His employees exhibit loyalty beyond attachment to a paycheck, and there seem to be a goodly number of examples of personal largess that belie the image of a ruthless captain of business and finance.

Whether Trump will emerge by November as a man who can set the nation on a path to prosperity and felicity only time will tell. 

Is the man egotistical? Most assuredly. But then, who aspires to be the President of the United States without being convinced of his or her special competence and leadership?

If the election comes down to Trump v Clinton, as most folks believe will be the case, we will no doubt hear the oft repeated complaint that our choice is to elect the lesser of two evils.

Many Democrats will pull the lever for Hillary and sigh that it is better to choose the devil we know than the devil we don’t know. Republicans, on the other hand, may be heard to say, “What have we got to lose?”

William Devane keeps telling us on TV to buy gold and vote; and warns that we had better stock up on gold and silver because our paper Federal Reserve notes are going to be as worthless as a wet score card. Hard times are coming.

Never Trump? I dunno. Nobody liked Ty Cobb either, but he was a winner.