Epic Fail: Three Strikes and You're OUT

Seven-Year Campaign Promise Dashed on the Shores of Reality

"Repeal and Replace" until recently, became "Repeal First" in a tweet, then "Skinny Repeal." Failed, failed, and, failed. Great mantra for 7 years, dubious fallback try 1, laughable sham fallback try 2, last night in the Senate. Three strikes and you're OUT! It turns out that governing is "really hard," even if you control the Congress and have a tweeting lunatic 'business/deal making genius' in the White House.

So, maybe "crazy" is not a viable negotiating strategy. There goes the one-trick-pony's only trick. Well, frankly, more like a small barking lap dog [rich women carry in their large purses] than a pony. What now, idiot Donald Trump and my dear [LinkedIn, Facebook, other social media, and a few actual] Trumpian friends? 0 for 1. Hey, try slashing taxes on Corporations and the Rich. That should have broad appeal in Trumplandia among struggling Trump voters in the Heartland. Go for it!

A Flashback from My Past

This debacle--the so-called "Era of Trump"--reminds me of my 12-year marriage to Patricia (1973-1985). She really wanted get married. Our close friends at Purdue University had or soon would. I arrogantly assumed I could take a millennia-old institution and with written marriage vows about equality and an open relationship, appropriate it for our purposes--google my nemesis, Hubris.] It turned out she wanted to get married, but didn't really want to be married--at least not to me; a young, highly physical and demonstrative, sensual, and sexual second-generation Italian American guy. I think she refereed to me as a "wild animal" to our young, inexperienced, and recently married Jewish marriage counselor, a few days before we separated. Louise looked at me approvingly and almost had an organism.

The Campaign

So, Donald Trump, bored, privileged, above the law, filthy rich White guy--not really rich, leveraged up to his ass with no real assets, decided to run for President in 2015. Against all odds, reason, everyone else's, and his expectations, he defeats a fractured crowed field of rivals in the Republican primaries in 2016, with a stubborn, persistent, and lunatic 35% base. With that same base, expanded just a bit by White racists enraged by 8 years of a somewhat Black man in the White House, and disaffected "forgotten" Americans, again against all odds, he "wins" the general election. 

Actually he lost the popular election by almost 3,000,000 votes, but with an antiquated Electoral College system that gives Red[neck] States disproportionate representation, and a small non-majority plurality in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, he won the only vote that counts. Of course, he had help from his friend, Putin, and the Russian government, but we'll have to wait for Mueller's Final Report to confirm that.

During the Fall campaign, his enablers and apologists insisted the crazy would stop, he'd pivot and become Presidential once he won. The crazy instead escalated, from the Election until his inauguration. An insane address ensued, followed by even more outrageous crazy behavior. At least after six months in office, they've stopped saying he will pivot. There will be no pivot; the only change Trump is capable of is to get more crazy, as mental health professionals had warned from the start--he is profoundly mentally ill. Now they say he is "different," "Unconventional," "Refreshing," and a "bold new kind of Leader." He is none of these. He is just like every demagogue who came before him.

The Fraud of Donald Trump Exposed

Like them, once in power, all the promised and lies Trump deceptively and cynically offered, as red meat to his lunatic supporters, are gone. The people--like the Republicans in Congress--who knew better but got on board in the hopes of a fat tax cut or the satisfying repeal of all things Obama, now realize they and we all are screwed. Trump and his lunatic base of 35%, occasionally plus or minus a few approval points in mainstream national polls by reputable pollsters, cannot govern. Fake populist rhetoric--no matter how satisfying to the ears of his hateful, fearful, willfully ignorant, authoritarian-loving, and Great White Hope strong man yearning for, supporters--does not translate seamlessly into legislation. Fascistic rallies do not make a governing majority. Trump is a fraud. He is a con man. He is no more a leader than that big kid on the playground when you were in 8th grade who bullied everyone until someone like me came along and knocked him out with one blow to the head.

The Solution, in a Functional Republic Like America

There will be no  universal, cheap, and awesome replacement for Obama Care. There will be no across the board [that is, mostly for the Rich and Corporations] tax cuts. There will only be chaos, inaction, escalating crazy, and eventual removal from Office. In a Republic, that is the fate of tyrants. We The People withhold our support. Our elected representatives, timid until forced by The People act, rise up and Impeach, Convict, and remove from Office in disgrace, the clear and present threat to our Way of Life...

CNN: "GOP Obamacare repeal bill fails in dramatic late-night vote"

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/27/politics/health-care-debate-thursday/index.html