A Political Opinion

I am very reluctant to write a political opinion for this blog. My thinking is that political opinions are just a little too controversial for it. I do not want to ruffle feathers. Then I stopped and realized that no one reads this blog so why not just write anything I want. So what follows is a political opinion.

I actually believe that I am a good person to write about America's current political landscape. I'm a good person to do this because I am non partisan; a real rarity. I have no allegiance to any candidate or any political party. However I'm not a great person to write a political opinion because I am not immersed in the political scene. I have some degree of knowledge, but I am not all-knowing.

Anyway, we are a little more than fourteen months from electing a new American president. One of the candidates is tycoon businessman Donald Trump. I find his candidacy curious, curious enough to be the subject of this blog entry. Right now, if the election were this afternoon, he would lose to Hillary Clinton by a relatively small margin. He would defeat all the other Republican candidates. His early success seems to come from making statements that make a lot of traditional Americans nod their heads in agreement. He speaks of curbing illegal immigration (with a wall along the Mexican border), reducing the national debt, a better national health care system, and many more improvements. He claims that the national government is "broken".

So far I have not heard much in the way of specific plans or strategies to combat these problems. Trump has proclaimed that Mexico will pay for the construction of the wall along the Mexican border. I heard him say that myself in an interview. He says that if Mexico doesn't fund it voluntarily, they will be tariffed into paying for it. The notion made me chuckle but I am not all-knowing so maybe it could work. Still, it made me chuckle, which is not a good sign.

Donald stated that he would repeal Obamacare and "replace it with something better". I am at best lukewarm on Obamacare. If I wanted to be elected president, I would probably say something like "I will repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better". I would add the last six words as a vague disclaimer because as unpopular as Obamacare may be, I would not have anything better to offer. I have this feeling that Trump has the same problem.

I once saw a candidate who reminded me a lot of Donald Trump. His name was Ross Perot and for a time he was a leading candidate for the U.S. Presidency. That was 1992. Then his popularity began to wane, he got cold feet, and abruptly dropped out of the race. But maybe Trump will be different. Maybe he'll stay in it to the end. Heck, maybe he'll be our next president. I doubt it, but maybe. If we do have a President Trump in 2016, I hope he not only knows what needs fixing, but also knows exactly how to make the repairs. So far I've heard only of what needs fixing. That's not enough to get my vote. If it were, I'd vote for myself.