July 25, 2016

Trump: My candidate for America!

by Steve Dana

Where do I begin?

I’m getting tired of the right wing pundits pounding Trump as hard as the predictable left wingers will.  Folks I know who have been good Republicans for many years are now crazy NEVER TRUMPERS.  They suddenly become voters with a conscience with Trump when they were silent before with Romney and McCain before him.  Talk about do nothing candidates.

Last year before the primaries started, there were sixteen other candidates running for president ranging from private sector smart guys Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina to very experienced politicians with leanings from fairly middle of the road to very conservative; governors, senators and representatives in the congress.  There has never been a more experienced and highly regarded gang of presidential wannabees.

So when the Republican primaries are over and Donald Trump is the winner of the election process, some of these pundits and party insiders are outraged because the voters chose a guy they don’t like.  A guy whose persona offends them.  A guy who is characterized as unqualified to serve because he lacks political experience.  A guy they didn’t pick.

Let me tell you, the current president was elected enthusiastically twice without a lick of experience at anything besides “smooth talking”.  Frankly, the candidates MY PARTY put out there mostly had a very common characteristic, that of being a lawyer.  Remind me what lawyer you can remember who has a résumé with any accomplishments of note.  Being a professional elected official with a lawyer background is not a case for accomplishment or qualification.

If you listen to some of our most respected inventors and innovators and they will tell you that their success was not the product of a single try, but a lengthy list of failures leading up to a winner.  Jeff Bezos is a champion of trying and failing.  Then we get a look at the characterization of Trump and he’s branded a loser because of his failures.  Remember the smart guys tell you the only people not making mistakes are people not trying.

The right wing pundits are not happy with Trump even though he was the last man standing after a very lengthy, bloody primary process.  Even after a campaign lacking decorum and a seeming lack of reverence and respect for the job he aspires to, the voters still chose Trump and rejected the field.

Now the never Trumpers are willing to vote for Clinton so there is a clear path for a “REAL REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE” to run in 2020.  Talk about major stupid!  What about what happens during the next four years?  How about those SCOTUS appointments?  How about border security?  How about family wage jobs fleeing our country to the beneficiaries of NAFTA, WTO and now TPP?

Let’s be clear, I was not a Trump supporter when this process started.  I would love to have a Constitutional Conservative in the White House to help restore the Constitution in it’s original form as the guiding document for our government.  I believe in States Rights.  The corruption of the Constitution through crazy Supreme Court rulings that justify ignoring the words clearly outlined in the Bill of Rights and the Amendments distresses me to no end.

I have no illusions about Trumps conservativism.  He’s not a conservative.  But, he is an American patriot who recognizes the perils of GLOBALISM.  The movement trying to diminish the sovereignty of countries in an effort to improve international trade to the benefit of who?  Clearly not American workers.  Where I would like to see opportunities for farmers and manufacturers in my state to sell their products overseas, it cannot be after we sell our working class down the river.  The boardroom characters who see international borders as an impediment to profits can take a flying leap.  If the folks running for office don’t put America and American interests first, then where will that leave Ameria?  We are being reduced down to a supposed educated elite segment, public employee unions and a service sector economy riding roughshod over the remaining small business owners and middle American taxpayers.  None of these groups contributes a thing to GDP.  The measure of our economic health is GDP and growth of GDP.

Which of those reliable Republican candidates who lost to Trump were the ones the pundits and conservatives thought should have been the nominee?  My first choice candidate was Ted Cruz since he was a Constitutional Conservative, but like Trump, those party elitists couldn’t stand Ted because he actually had principles and honored his promise to the voters in his state to fight for better government.  Absolutely vilified by his colleagues in the Senate, by the members of the Republican caucus in the House and by the right wing media.  Ted had balls and stood up for principles and he was torched.

Yet, the two candidates who were standing at the end of the election process were Trump and Ted.  The darlings of the party were dispatched one after the other.  What does that tell you about the sense of the traditional party insiders in measuring their voters?

It had to be very painful to the party insiders to have to hold their noses when they tried to get on the Ted Train to derail the Trump Train.  They had to support one guy they hated to hopefully squash a guy they hated more.  And, where are the darlings of the Party?  Up the trail, whining in their beer!

What I hope to see from Trump is the side his family members tell us exists that will give me confidence that he can be a level headed leader who can appeal to American unity more than Obama.  If he is a champion of women and minorities in his business empire, he needs to bring those folks out for the rest of us to see and hear from.  I know that if I ask Clinton or Sanders or even Obama how many jobs they have personally created they won’t have an answer for me.  Or, how many contracts or treaties they have negotiated personally that might demonstrate their negotiating skills and they won’t have any examples.  How about listing any accomplishments in their working life that might suggest they have the skills or life experiences remotely qualifying them to run for anything, let alone President of the United States.

If the only qualification for the job based upon the pundits and the elitists is years in government and nothing else, we are in serious trouble.  That is why the people are rising up today.  The people are sick of the party elite picking lawyers and Goldman Sachs finance guys as the leadership since they will reliably kiss the ring of the industrialists.  Surprise, surprise!

Donald Trump is the candidate that reflects the will of the Republican Party voters so the party elite better get used to the idea.  What is troubling to me is the failure of our elected official to honor their voters in favor of the lobbyists and contributors.  They need our votes but sell out for the money.  A Donald Trump sends the message that our votes are not for sale and where we would have liked to support a traditional Republican candidate, there weren’t any out there we could trust.  I’ll take my chances with Trump.  He may not be a proper politician, but proper politicians are proven losers.

Vote for America this November by voting for Donald Trump!

May 10, 2016

Trump is the Candidate for THIS FIGHT!

by Steve Dana

I find it interesting that Republican Senators and Representatives in the Congress known for being moderates are withholding their support for Donald Trump because he isn’t a proven Conservative.

Isn’t that laughable!

In my mind, the only proven Conservative in the primary process is/was Ted Cruz and the same critics that hate Trump hate Ted Cruz’s guts and wouldn’t support a Proven Conservative to save their lives.

Just the other day, President Obama was talking about how Presidential candidates should be qualified in X number of ways.  Ironically, none of the qualifications he ascribes to ideal candidates actually described Barack Obama.  Truth be told, Obama the candidate was probably the least qualified candidate for President in our country’s history.  Talk about an empty resume.

Obama the candidate had zero accomplishments of note at any point in his career from the early days in the private sector as a Community Organizer to the Illinois State Legislature and then to the US Senate.  No accomplishments, even minor; No legislation sponsored or passed at any point in his public service history…including 8 years as President.  Talk about a ZERO.  And this guy is criticizing the slate of Republican candidates and giving us advice on who we should elect next?

When you think about it, career politicians rarely have a record of real accomplishment and even rarer, a record of failure.  Most career politicians thrive on NO ACCOUNTABILITY so voters have no real measure of their actual worth.  Many career politicians are lawyers with few management experiences or skills.  But boy, are they good talkers.

Thomas Edison always said that he is proud of his successes, but he’s most proud of some of his failures since they ultimately led him to the success.  Reminds me of a Will Rogers type quip.  “Show me a man with no failures in his resume and I will show you a man who never tried anything.”

The fact that Donald Trump is not a member of the “In Crowd, The Club, The Congressional Mafia” makes him an Untouchable.  If all he has is business experience with his successes and failures, he isn’t qualified for the job.  Give me a break.

Most of us voters know that Donald Trump isn’t a Conservative but like he said, it’s not the Conservative Party, it’s the Republican Party.  The fact that his stance on some social issues isn’t as conservative as I would like doesn’t mean that he won’t uphold the Constitution better than Obama has or better than Clinton or Sanders would.

Neither McCain nor Romney were ever characterized as Conservatives.  They were moderate Republicans who failed miserably as candidates because they had no back bone.  I guess you could call them Classy Losers.

Recently I heard Dinesh DeSouza speak at the Snohomish County Lincoln Day Dinner and he characterized Democrats as scrappy fighters who came with guns ablazing and Republicans obsessed with fighting by the rules.  Which camp do you think is committed to winning the contest?

I want a candidate fighting for my country like he would if his spouse was held captive by the Taliban.  The heroes we root for are the ones that think and act “outside the box”.  I think most of working class America will see that Trump is the candidate for this fight and ultimately for saving traditional American life.

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September 7, 2015

Is POLITICAL Experience Essential in a Presidential Candidate?

by Steve Dana

I continue to be amazed at how many pundits suggest that all the OUTSIDER candidates including Trump, Carson and Fiorina lack the EXPERIENCE to be our President.  They all think that being a politician is the training necessary to be a leader.  I wonder about that.

None of the guys that have served as professional elected officials have the experience necessary to be our President either.  Realistically, no person elected to the Presidency has come to the job with Presidential experience.  They all have to learn on the job.  The question is how fast and how well do they learn?  I’ll take a smart guy who can learn fast every time.

Senators without experience managing a bureaucracy of any kind have demonstrated that their background is no recommendation.  I suspect that all the OUTSIDER Candidates have more experience managing a bureaucracy that they do.

Governors certainly have been in a position to manage large bureaucracies, but that experience by itself is no recommendation either.

And the pundits suggest that experience at the legislative process is a necessity.  I would only suggest we look at the success of the Democrat’s current president and their leading candidates and their legislative accomplishments.  Zip.  Then I would look at the legislative accomplishments of the Republican candidates.  Let’s look at the Senators first.  Senator Rand Paul…nada.  Senator Marco Rubio….nada.  Senator Ted Cruz….nada.  Senator Lindsey Graham and former Senator Rick Santorum.. …ditto.  Then let’s look at the Governors.  We have either active governors or former governors of Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, Arkansas, New York, Louisiana and Virginia.  Depending upon whether they had the luxury of working with legislative majorities from their own party or had to struggle with majorities of the other party, their records vary.  Rick Perry makes a case for his own candidacy if a Republican Governor in a Republican state (the size of Texas) touts the collective accomplishments.  Scott Walker’s battles in Wisconsin are legend but his legislature is also from his own party.  Chris Christy, John Kasich and Bobby Jindal all have some success working with majorities from the other party and they speak to that struggle of working in a bi-partisan manner to make deals but none are so wildly successful that their record speaks for them.  Bush, Huckabee, Pataki and Gilmore have been out of office quite a while and their records are not stellar.  So where does that leave us?

Each of the candidates in this race bring experiences to the table.  Trump’s bravado diminishes his record of building a substantial business empire, but he has indeed amassed a fortune measured in the billions of dollars.  That’s no small accomplishment.  He has an MBA from Wharton so he’s no dummy. Does that make him more or less capable than Jeb Bush or Chris Christy?  I don’t know.

Dr. Carson and Carly Fiorina have very respectable résumés with lots of experience managing a bureaucracy and negotiating with a board of directors.  They are both very well educated along with being bright.  I think they have both learned to adapt to the changes within their fields.  They don’t have experience caving in to partisan string pullers.  Does that disqualify them from serving as President?

As the campaign season unfolds, the three non-politician candidates seem to be saying things that appeal to non-political citizens and annoying the hell out of the partisans.  That has some appeal to me too.

For me, I need to be convinced that one of those other MORE EXPERIENCED candidates has my interests at heart rather than the interests of a political party or special interest group.  In the last couple election cycles we elected folks to the Congress with the expectation that a Republican majority was all we needed to enact a conservative agenda and we got absolutely nothing from The House or The Senate.  Guys like Boehner and McConnell are likely to vote with the Democrats if the Conservatives in Congress get stronger.  Leadership positions are primarily determined by seniority rather than actual leadership so I’m not sure what legislative experience has to do with a candidates’ qualification to run for President.  It does suggest that they have learned to kowtow to the money.

I encourage all voters from both parties to listen to what the candidates are saying and tell me if Jeb Bush is any more specific with his proposed future for our country than is Trump, Carson or Fiorina.  Or for that matter any of the others.  Few of them have gotten too specific so far.

And finally, when Hugh Hewitt asked Trump about some General named Soleimani who is the military leader of the terrorist Quds, he did it with the expectation that Trump wouldn’t be knowledgeable about the guy and he would make him appear ignorant… I mean stupid and unfit for the job of President.  My expectation is that all of the candidates running for President will get to know the significant leaders and many of the insignificant leaders of other countries.  Whether it’s terrorist leaders or some other less known facts, guys like Hewitt have their special candidates and often will do whatever they can to belittle the ones that threaten their guy.

The pundits seem to think that when Perry, Pataki, Gilmore, Jindal, Huckabee, Graham, Santorum, Christie, Kasich and Walker fade, their supporters will all flock to Bush or Rubio leaving Trump, Carson or Fiorina out in the cold.  I guess time will tell.

December 24, 2014

Koster, You’re Outa Here!

by Steve Dana

The Snohomish County Council decided this week to not retain John Koster as the County Ombudsman after Executive John Lovick recommended that Koster be canned because of his political views pertaining to a campaign document Koster put his name to that was characterized as anti-union.

In what I would view as a bit strange, the vote of the council was two votes FOR and two votes AGAINST with one ABSTENTION. The abstention being the strange part. As predicted, Stephanie Wright and Brian Sullivan opposed Koster’s appointment. That left Dave Somers, Ken Klein and Terry Ryan to likely vote FOR. The mystery is the decision by Terry Ryan to abstain from voting. I didn’t see that coming. I think of Ryan as being a moderate like his predecessor Dave Gossett. Typically the left leaners who depend on unions for campaign support do whatever they have to to support their patrons. There must be some other issue at play between Koster and Ryan I am unaware of. (Which shouldn’t be too surprising)

On the whole, I was more surprised that Koster was appointed in the first place. With a predictably liberal Lovick as the appointer, it didn’t seem likely that a predictably conservative Koster would even be in the zone of consideration. There is no question that Lovick knew the politics of Koster prior to the appointment and still spoke in glowing terms about him at the time. That alone signified to me that Lovick had confidence in Koster’s ability to be impartial as he advocated for the clientele. So what changed?

In all the years that I’ve been involved in public service and the politics of Snohomish County John Koster has been in some capacity as well. We haven’t crossed paths too often, but often enough to know that people of both political persuasions respected Koster for his fairness and integrity.

I suspect that the rub with Lovick was Koster’s willingness to aggressively advocate for citizens in disputes with the county that may well have their basis in the Executive’s own administration. Not Good for the Administration. That might sour Lovick’s perception of Koster.

The bigger question in all this affair is the reason for Ryan’s abstention.

This is where the politics of Snohomish County might come into play. An abstention is a NO vote when you need three YES votes to make the appointment. A NO vote without saying NO. Was it a political favor? John Lovick is a former Mill Creek city council member as is Ryan. Did Lovick go to his old council colleague and make a deal for an Executive consideration down the road? Since he didn’t vote, he’s not hung with the record of a NO while he still accomplished Lovick’s goal.

The other consideration is the interaction between Lovick and Somers. I get the feeling that Somers is working up to a run for the executive’s job and he needs Lovick to look as bad as possible. If he can create turmoil in the Lovick administration by stirring up the Mark Ericks controversy, lead the budget fight and now oppose the firing of Koster along with a few other happenings that point toward Somers’ efforts to “bad mouth” Lovick and create a continuing tension between the executive’s office and the council suggesting a carry-over of the Reardon style of heavy handed government. I suspect that Somers’ goal is to depict Lovick as just another Aaron Reardon to diminish his attractiveness in the next election cycle enabling him to step forward as the conciliator ready to carry the party banner.

And while I’m touching on possible Executive candidates, John Koster might decide to throw his hat into the ring as well.  The turmoil might paint Koster as a victim to the point where he appeals to county voters as an alternative to the fighting Democrats.

At the end of the day, Koster may well have been a great Ombudsman but was a casualty of a political system he was a player in for so many years.

As far as the Ombudsman’s job is concerned, let’s see if Lovick appoints someone who is non-partisan if that is possible anymore or more accurately, someone who doesn’t have political biases.

I guess time will tell.

Merry Christmas!