"Because you'd be in jail."
Trump's impulsive riposte triggered a roar from the crowd, shock in our news media, and the subtle trace of fear on Hillary Clinton's face. In context, it was a response to Clinton stating that she was "awfully glad that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country." However, to only discuss this immediate context would be akin to saying that Julius Caesar was crossing a river when he said, "the die is cast." It's technically true, but a colossal understatement. Unlike Caesar crossing the Rubicon, Trump likely did not recognize the depths of what he had said, and probably even forgot about it shortly after he said it. Those five words represented a long simmering and righteous anger boiling over in the American Heartland, recognizing that our "Sacred Democracy" had long ago began to resemble a brothel for international special interests. Beyond this immediate story of American decline, the corruption in our societal elite can be traced back centuries earlier, and is just one short story in a lengthy tome of civilizational decline. Contained within the story of the 2016 election is the story of our struggle in the past, present, and future.
After being told by my mother in the summer of 2015 that my brother had become a Trump supporter, my only response was a befuddled "Why?" It was widely believed that Trump was running as a marketing stunt, the idea of this guy going from saying "you're fired" on reality TV to sitting in the oval office sounded like the plot of an absurdist novella, not something that anyone would seriously waste their time supporting. Over time, however, I found myself sucked in, along with millions of others, into a wild and surreal ride that propelled a human meme into the seat of global power. In this article, I will recall and analyze some key moments in what is probably the most bizarre and significant story in modern history.
Jeb!
Like a deer casually strolling towards the highway, Jeb Bush could not have fathomed the danger he was approaching. Having come from political royalty, having spent years governing our 3rd largest state, and having raised a whopping $200 million dollars for his campaign, Jeb likely would've just laughed if told that he'd soon be repeatedly and publicly humiliated by an orange-skinned real estate developer. As a child of the system, Jeb had trained his entire life for the kind of safe, orderly "debating" that politicians had grown used to. Republican or Democrat, they all were controlled by the same people and so had little reason to prepare for anything more than respectful disagreements on tax policy. After the GOP elite successfully blamed Mitt Romney's defeat on an overly strict immigration policy, they migrated over to Jeb, who could be reliably counted on to throw Republican voters under the bus and support de-facto open borders. While Jeb may have prepared himself to be challenged on his loose immigration policies, he was likely not prepared for Trump's accusation that those policies were due to his wife being "a Mexican." Jeb chose his wife for the sake of pandering to Hispanics, and his campaign marketing scheme of selling guacamole bowls was for the same purpose. However, he was also unprepared for a member of Trump's online meme squad to buy one of his guac bowls, defecate in it, and then post it on Jeb's twitter account. After enduring repeated "stumpings" from Trump, and having earned his new moniker "Low Energy Jeb," one of Jeb's advisors came up with an ingenious idea, to beat Trump at his own game. Jeb came out swinging in the December CNN debate, but elicited laughter from the crowd as Trump sarcastically praised his "higher energy" and his new "tough guy” persona. A flustered Jeb again repeated his prepared line that Trump would not “insult his way to the presidency,” before having to witness the public end of his own career as Trump responded that he was polling at 42%, and Jeb at 3. He then had to spend the next year watching from his couch as Trump did, in fact, insult his way to the presidency.
I believe that Trump's enduring popularity began with Jeb, and the fact that Trump represented his antithesis. Like many politicians, Jeb had crafted an entire personality that was a lie, although the contrast was greater with him, as he ran on being a humble, relatable, everyman, despite being the brother and son of presidents. The voter enthusiasm for his ritual humiliation every debate night was the first sign of the popular appetite for an end to the phony politicians that come inherent in a democracy. There is something intrinsically repelling to people about the patricians pretending to be plebeians. While people do not have a problem with being ruled, they do want the dignity of not being treated as a dupe who is unaware of this fact. Trump, living in a gold-plated penthouse at the top of a skyscraper, and boasting about his own wealth and talent, paradoxically provided his downtrodden voters with the dignity so often denied to them in our political system.
"Only Rosie O'Donnell"
Fox News owner Roger Ailes and debate host Megyn Kelly had laid the perfect trap. In the very first question of the very first debate, Kelly sharply brought up Trump referring to women he didn't like as "slobs, dogs, pigs, and disgusting animals..." Any one of these comments resurfacing would've triggered a groveling apology from any other politician, but Trump simply interrupted Kelly with a smirk, raised a finger and stated, "Only Rosie O'Donnell." The hostile debate crowd couldn't help but laugh as they remembered the obnoxious TV host Trump had feuded with. This was simultaneously a genius comeback, and quite stupid, as it totally dodged the question. This represented a continuous pattern of Trump's campaign, his opponents would be left flabbergasted and as he played checkers while they played chess. Voters were sick of the carefully crafted responses, drafted by an army of consultants, that other Republicans would use to respond to controversy, ultimately and inevitably resulting in their surrender to the system. Trump, on the other hand, would respond with a series of verbal middle fingers. Unbeknownst to Trump, his constant scandals ensured his survival, as any threat to the system would've immediately faced much of the same attacks. Trump earned his Teflon reputation because he managed to inoculate the electorate to the point that another Trump scandal became almost a bore.
The War "Hero"
Trump's campaign was expected to quickly flounder after he showed that he didn't know how the game was played. The most obvious example of this was his ignorance of the cardinal rule of politics: Don't piss off the Israel Lobby. Trump noticed the obvious contradictions and failures of our foreign policy, but unlike those in the system, he was unaware that the source of this was and is powerful Zionists, and he made no effort to avoid pointing out many of these "Emperor has no clothes" moments. The first oddity he pointed out was the drooling adoration the system showed to John McCain, the patron saint of gentile Zionism. Trump brought up the obvious fact that John McCain was not a war hero simply because he was captured and tortured, and then said he liked the guys who didn't get captured. The outrage in the media was deafening, but I remember the father of a friend of mine, an everyday conservative, saying "Well, he's right." There was a large hole in the political market for someone willing to point out these glaring inconsistences, but only Trump had the courage to do it and the fortitude to withstand the backlash. Little did Trump know, McCain's crimes stretched far beyond simply not being a war hero. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Sydney Schanberg, wrote an expose on McCain showing that he not only collaborated with the North Vietnamese quicker and to a greater extent than known, but he was also instrumental in the government leaving behind hundreds of POWs in Vietnam, and then covering it up. McCain's usefulness ensured this never received widespread coverage, despite Schanberg's reputation, and the system reacted like an immune system, comically bolstering McCain up to a greater extent than ever before. Due to the complete lack of accountability for Zionists, our system is full of these massive discrepancies. Trump horrified the GOP establishment by calling them out one by one, from the disastrous war in Iraq, to the militant hostility towards Vladimir Putin and Bashar Al-Assad, the only leaders fighting ISIS (The US "fight against ISIS" was actually a pretext for overthrowing Assad). The longer a system continues to be corrupt, the more opportunities arise for those willing to tell the truth.
Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, and Carl the Cuck
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were more capable politicians than Jeb Bush, but they still struggled with one problem. They were slaves, and Trump was not. Devoting your entire career to be being a slave leaves one incapable of being a leader. In most of politics, demonstrations of subservience serve as a career boost, as it signals to special interests that you can be their vessel. Quietly, but rapidly, the Republican voter base turned on the masters. They no longer wanted a slave; they wanted a king. Trump had an instinctual disgust for the pathetic and slavish, and repeatedly hammered this home to his base. Trump mocked Cruz for a sweaty picture he took in front of a butter cow while attempting to pander to rural voters, he imitated Rubio's repeated need of water in a speech, and he railed John Kasich for his sloppy eating habits. Trump did not ask anything of the system, he made demands. "Build the wall!" became his tagline. Trump did not respectfully allow the debate crowds to boo him, instead he called them out as the donors and special interests that they were. Rubio emphasized his background as the son of a dishwasher and a maid, Trump recalled how him father merely gave him a "small loan of a million dollars." On the left, they witnessed a similar phenomenon. Insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders mounted a strong challenge to Hillary Clinton, but every time Sanders got the chance to land an actual blow on Clinton, he balked. After finally being given a chance to discuss the clear incompetence and corruption demonstrated by Clinton in her email scandal, Sanders defended her instead, saying "we're all sick and tired of hearing about her damn emails." The episode represented the modern left in a microcosm, a group of people who desperately want to be rebels, but instead were appropriately branded with the "cuckold" descriptor, best exemplified by "Carl the Cuck" and "AIDS Skrillex," two particularly unhinged Sanders supporters. While Republican voters may have been reacting to immediate circumstances in their backing of Trump, they stumbled upon a far larger truth. A nation that attempts to remove strong leaders to protect individual freedom will soon find itself preyed upon by evil forces.
On March 15th, 2016, Trump crushed Rubio in Rubio's home state of Florida. The RNC had changed the rules before the primary to make Florida a winner-take-all state, hoping to boost Rubio's campaign. Instead, the state served as Trump's capstone and the last nail in the coffin of Rubio's ill-fated campaign.
On May 3rd, 2016, Trump crushed Cruz among Cruz's own support base, Evangelicals in Indiana. Shortly before the primary, frustrated by his impending defeat, Cruz collapsed into an embarrassing meltdown over Trump's suggestion that his father helped kill John F. Kennedy. The Chairman of the RNC, Reince Priebus, sent out a despondent tweet stating that Donald Trump was the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.