Voting for Trump: What Did Anyone Really Expect?

If ever there was proof of the idea that insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different outcome, it's what has happened after the voters elected Trump.

But what did you Trump voters really expect?

If you wanted him to pay down the national debt, guess again: it's larger than ever.

If you wanted him to bring back jobs to America, guess again: his tariffs are causing more companies to move overseas or to shut down because they can't afford the imports they need to manufacture their own products.

If you wanted him to deal with illegal immigration, guess again: his enterprises have been busy hiring them.

If you wanted him to protect the border, guess again: his solution, a medieval wall (as he calls it), is being sawed through, climbed over, or tunneled under.

If you wanted him to drain the swamp, guess again: the crocodiles are larger and more greedy than ever.

If you wanted him to get the "best" people and take care of you, guess again: a lot of his "bests" are now in jail or headed there, and he's displayed an almost pathologic fascination with the strong and the mighty.

If you thought he could make global warming go away by voiding environmental policies, guess again: If he made like King Canute, set up a throne on the beach, and commanded the tide to stay out, the waves would still crash on him.

So what did you get?

Maybe some balm for your soul. Maybe a chance to blow off some steam? Maybe a chance to air your (legitimate) complaints about how technology has shifted the focus and money to cities? Maybe a chance to complain about how emigrants, legal or otherwise, have undercut what used to be your decent, American, way of life?

I actually get it. I watched a relative's small auto repair business close because the undocumented didn't have overhead and undercut him.

But how has the Trump solution worked for you?

Did you really get a catharsis watching the Coast Guard gratefully getting food from food banks? Did you really feel overjoyed when children were taken from their parents at the border? Did you jump up and down with glee when farmers couldn't get crop projections so they could order seed? Was it exciting when airports had to shut down terminals for lack of staff? Did you shake your fist in the air and say we'll show them when services in your community started to shut down?

Or did you feel diminished, forgotten, and somehow very grubby? And did you start to realize how much the government does to try to help everyone.

And did you find yourself  wondering why these rich men with the stranglehold on Congress don't do the obvious--like go after the employers of these illegals?

Well, the reason they don't is pretty obvious also.

These pious plunderers are the very ones profiting from the things that have stolen your jobs.

Please, America, stop using politics as a competitive sport. We don't need more than one Super Bowl. We are all losers if that's the game you are trying to play.