Canon Shooter
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- Jan 7, 2020
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Like him or not, agree with him or not, the undeniable truth; that one inarguable fact about Donald Trump is that he has changed everything about our political landscape.
Ross Perot tried it back in 1992 when he ran as an independent, and then in 1996 when he ran on the Reform Party ticket. He garnered almost 19% of the popular vote in 1992, which is the highest for an Independent. Now, in July of 1992 Perot withdrew from the race only five months after announcing his candidacy, but re-entered the race in October, after his name was placed on the ballots of all 50 states. One can only wonder what would have happened had he not temporarily dropped out. Would he have become President? Maybe, maybe not. Could he have? Absolutely.
See, one thing we do know now is that H. Ross Perot showed us that you didn't need to have (D) or (R) after your name to be a threat.
Donald Trump merely took it a step further. Trump stayed in it. He outlasted 16 other Republican candidates, many who possessed a deep well of political experience and savvy. Some would credit Trump's money for his eventual win, but we need to only look at Michael Bloomberg to know that money's not the end all in a campaign, and suggestions that the most money wins are simply not true. Donald Trump has a net worth of, by some estimations, $3.1 billion dollars. Bloomberg enjoys a fortune of over $55 billion.
Money can't buy everything.
Like Perot, Trump was not a politician. It could be argued now that he is or isn't, but when he announced his candidacy, he was a successful businessman, no more, no less. Hell, he entered the political arena as a punchline more than as a candidate. He was all but excommunicated by the GOP. Nobody thought he would win. After all, of his three viable democratic opponents, one of them was someone the sitting President said of "there has never been a man or a woman; not me, not Bill, nobody, more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America." That was some pretty high praise, and spoken by a great orator with an unwavering conviction.
And yet, Clinton lost the election.
Throughout the campaign, all Trump did was be Trump. He was brash, offensive, tactless; any number of negative adjectives you can come up with. But one adjective which also applies is "genuine". Not being a politician, all Trump knew was how to be Trump. He was true to who he was, since that's all he really knew how to do.
And it worked. For all of the good and all of the bad, it worked. Donald Trump outlasted a Republican field of 16 others, all with political experience, poise and acuity, to win the Republican nomination.
And just a little over three months after he accepted the Republican nomination for President, a non-politician became the most powerful person on the planet.
What Trump's campaign, the 2016 election, and the last four years of his Presidency has shown us that the industry of politics is not at all immune to change, and that someone with exactly zero political experience can become President. We can argue the good and the bad about his Presidency, but one thing we've learned is that the American voter has decided that political experience isn't quite that important anymore. The candidate who toes the party line at every turn may no longer be the right choice. The American voter has decided that it's perfectly okay if a non-politician becomes President, and therein lies the staggering change that Trump has brought about. After all, I'm pretty sure the last President we had who wasn't already a politician in some manner was George Washington.
So, like him or not, Donald Trump has forever altered the political landscape of this country, and I think that's a good thing...
Donald Trump Can't Win
Ross Perot tried it back in 1992 when he ran as an independent, and then in 1996 when he ran on the Reform Party ticket. He garnered almost 19% of the popular vote in 1992, which is the highest for an Independent. Now, in July of 1992 Perot withdrew from the race only five months after announcing his candidacy, but re-entered the race in October, after his name was placed on the ballots of all 50 states. One can only wonder what would have happened had he not temporarily dropped out. Would he have become President? Maybe, maybe not. Could he have? Absolutely.
See, one thing we do know now is that H. Ross Perot showed us that you didn't need to have (D) or (R) after your name to be a threat.
Donald Trump merely took it a step further. Trump stayed in it. He outlasted 16 other Republican candidates, many who possessed a deep well of political experience and savvy. Some would credit Trump's money for his eventual win, but we need to only look at Michael Bloomberg to know that money's not the end all in a campaign, and suggestions that the most money wins are simply not true. Donald Trump has a net worth of, by some estimations, $3.1 billion dollars. Bloomberg enjoys a fortune of over $55 billion.
Money can't buy everything.
Like Perot, Trump was not a politician. It could be argued now that he is or isn't, but when he announced his candidacy, he was a successful businessman, no more, no less. Hell, he entered the political arena as a punchline more than as a candidate. He was all but excommunicated by the GOP. Nobody thought he would win. After all, of his three viable democratic opponents, one of them was someone the sitting President said of "there has never been a man or a woman; not me, not Bill, nobody, more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America." That was some pretty high praise, and spoken by a great orator with an unwavering conviction.
And yet, Clinton lost the election.
Throughout the campaign, all Trump did was be Trump. He was brash, offensive, tactless; any number of negative adjectives you can come up with. But one adjective which also applies is "genuine". Not being a politician, all Trump knew was how to be Trump. He was true to who he was, since that's all he really knew how to do.
And it worked. For all of the good and all of the bad, it worked. Donald Trump outlasted a Republican field of 16 others, all with political experience, poise and acuity, to win the Republican nomination.
And just a little over three months after he accepted the Republican nomination for President, a non-politician became the most powerful person on the planet.
What Trump's campaign, the 2016 election, and the last four years of his Presidency has shown us that the industry of politics is not at all immune to change, and that someone with exactly zero political experience can become President. We can argue the good and the bad about his Presidency, but one thing we've learned is that the American voter has decided that political experience isn't quite that important anymore. The candidate who toes the party line at every turn may no longer be the right choice. The American voter has decided that it's perfectly okay if a non-politician becomes President, and therein lies the staggering change that Trump has brought about. After all, I'm pretty sure the last President we had who wasn't already a politician in some manner was George Washington.
So, like him or not, Donald Trump has forever altered the political landscape of this country, and I think that's a good thing...
Donald Trump Can't Win
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