Former President Donald Trump swept the Iowa caucuses last Monday night by historic margins. He won 98 out of 99 counties with one county too close to call. This means his appeal was equally dominant in rural and urban areas. President Trump is leading in the polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina. If he wins in both states, he is likely to clinch the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday March 5th.
Leading progressive national news outlets are apoplectic that Donald Trump continues to not only maintain support for reelection, but his base continues to grow in enthusiasm. Debate synopses among liberal intellects today actually center on the question, why doesn’t the fact that he is facing multiple charges in court deter voters from considering him as a viable candidate? They come to no direct conclusion other than to imbue obliquely into the discussion their biased opinion that the public just doesn’t know any better.
They are asking the wrong question.
Progressives would have us believe that democracy, as a process, is sick. They are beyond themselves to understand why the American public won’t adhere to their dictates for policy to standardize solutions for society. They either ignore or are absolutely phlegmatic to the average citizen’s desire to maintain authority over their own individual lives. A better word to describe elites’ indifference to the will of the people is actually callousness. They know the average citizen doesn’t agree with their policy positions, but they don’t care. They determine they are right and that the end will justify their policy means.
The public is pushing back.
When a person catches a cold, the symptoms of the virus are often coughing, sneezing, and a sore throat. One treats the symptoms until the cold runs its course. Everyone knows that the cause of the symptoms is the common cold.
It is not that democracy is sick. The trust relationship between people and government is broken. Metaphorically, the symptoms of a cold for a dysfunctional government-democratic relationship are the an uncertain economy, unsecured borders, poor education, and lack of healthcare. Pundits want to compare the candidates on these issues when, in fact, what voters want is a candidate who will cure the cause of the symptoms. The average citizen is convinced that government is the problem and must be reformed.
Attacking former President Trump on his character, his demeanor, or his brashness misses the compendium of the political discussion. The people want the cause of the illness cured, not just the symptoms addressed. Why? Continuing with the cold virus metaphor, a cold runs its course and a healthy body returns to a normal equilibrium. Government does not run its course. It must be course-corrected by the will of the people. Left unchecked, government on the wrong course will destroy a healthy body. The American public looks into the mirror of government and sees no reflection of themselves. Citizens feel that government, as an institution, acts collectively only in the best interest of elected officials.
Trump has positioned himself as the warrior who will defeat the deep state, the greatest threat to what is perceived by the people as the decline of American culture and influence in the world. More and more Americans are coming to the conclusion that correcting the cause of the symptoms of U.S. societal problems requires harsh medicine. If one believes that an illness will not run its course, and the only option is to take an extreme remedy, regardless of how bad it tastes, one takes that option.
Citizens have therefore come to the conclusion that government is the cause of society’s illness. They have lost trust in government’s respect for democracy. Without a cure for government’s self-serving obstinacy, the illness will not run its course. An extreme prescription is necessary. The question the public demands to be answered is how to take back a government out of control which sees the will of the people as an existential threat to its own authority.
Like it or not, former President Donald Trump is answering this call.
National leaders should be asking the question, what is wrong with a government that allows 1.5 million migrants to walk across the border unchecked and lists them simply as “Got-Aways?” Common sense would dictate that even if application for asylum is guaranteed for process by all who seek it, the government should at least be able to document them. It’s as if the government expects the public to tolerate a runny nose and a cough without hope that the cause of the symptoms will ever be resolved.
The New York Times reporting on the Iowa caucuses claims that Iowa is not representative of the general U.S. population. It is, they say, “too white, too red, and too rural.” The New Hampshire primary looms on the horizon next Tuesday, January 23rd. New Hampshire is almost the opposite of Iowa in its demographic political and cultural profile. It is less conservative, less evangelical, less rural, and more diversified. Yet recent polling as of last night had Donald Trump leading Nikki Haley 48.5% to 34.5% with Governor Ron DeSantis at 5%.
New Hampshire is a crossover state. This means that Independents and even Democrats can vote for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. Current polling is tempered to take this into consideration. Yet Independent urban women could turnout in greater numbers and close the gap between Haley and Trump. Voter participation will be higher in New Hampshire because it is a ballot state rather than a caucus state. If Trump wins New Hampshire, then the New York Times questions about Iowa are irrelevant. If Haley wins, then a two-person race could extend the contest beyond Super Tuesday.
The South Carolina primary is February 23rd. That state is representative of a more cosmopolitan population. It is both urban and rural with strong evangelical and minority influences. Nikki Haley is the former governor of South Carolina. If Donald Trump wins South Carolina, he will have proven that he is supported by a representation of the entire population of the United States of America.
To further understand why the emotions of the American public leads so many to enthusiastically support former President Trump, one only has to recognize the following findings. Sixty-five percent of the American public does not want either President Biden or President Trump to be elected in 2024. However, 75% believe the country is on the wrong track, government is dysfunctional, and even worse, is corrupt. By corrupt they mean it acts only in its own self-interest and manipulates the public with half-truths, misinformation, denial, and possibly outright lies.
Seventy-two percent of Americans believe in traditional family authority to govern their values. This is a majority among both conservatives and liberals. Americans do not want government to dictate national standards that they must adhere to, impacting their own personal family values. They want options, not ultimatums in their pursuit of the American Dream.
Conservatives are for limited government. They see Trump as a viable candidate because dismantling government power is copacetic to their overriding objective of smaller government. As the national press continues to exhibit contempt for the true issue in the forefront of people’s minds that government is the problem, their enthusiasm to defy elites increases. To these voters, Trump’s character is not the issue, it is the elites’ arrogance to support the cause of the symptoms.
Progressives are for more government services and programs. However, to their credit, they want government that works efficiently. They, too, know that the relationship between government and citizens is disjointed. Liberals have lost confidence in President Biden. His approval ratings among all Americans have dropped below 26%. The unaddressed elephant in the room for Democrats today is the unspoken concern for the President’s mental stamina. Therefore, they are not for Trump, but they can’t bring themselves to be enthusiastic for President Biden who is overseeing failed government policy.
For progressives, supporting the Biden ticket does not engender hope that the next administration will become a government that works efficiently and ceases to be the cause of the symptoms. This is why a majority of Democrats want the Democratic party to nominate someone other than Joe Biden.
Rest assured, we are in the beginning of a Great Reset globally and domestically in reference to political agendas, economic systems, geopolitical alliances, and government reform. The strength of the American Constitutional structure as a Democratic Republic is that states do have delegated authority and local communities are the unit of implementation for state policy.
As America prepares for the national elections of 2024, whether you are progressive or conservative, whether you are religious or atheistic, your only hope for curing the cause of the symptoms is supporting candidates who will commit to local control of government authority.
For it is the cities in which we live where families will rally to defend the hope that is the American Dream.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?