Tom Evslin: I hope Trump fades away — but he had some good points we can’t ignore

/ November 23, 2022

This commentary is by Tom Evslin of Stowe, an entrepreneur, author and former Douglas administration official. It is republished from the Fractals of Change blog.

The Trumpenfinger to the elite wasn’t meant to be pretty.

Tom Evslin

I’m being optimistic in using the past tense about the former president. I do hope he’s fading from the political scene. However, there are important reasons why almost half the voters supported him in 2016 and 2020 and why so many remain loyal to him today. We ignore those reasons and those votes democratically cast at our own peril and, yes, at the peril of democracy.

Start with the Trump policies which have carried on into the Biden administration.

Trump said immigration was out of control; I thought that was xenophobia. Didn’t think we needed a wall. But immigration is out of control. Border towns have been given the impossible burden of millions of people pouring in. Liberal “sanctuary cities” whine when a few busloads are sent their way. Biden triedT to continue Trump’s COVID-prevention excuse to turn migrants away at the border; but a federal judge has just ruled that out. Hispanic voters increasingly support Republican efforts to stop illegal immigration. Yes, there should be a better path to citizenship. Yes, we need workers. But part of the signal sent with the Trumpenfinger was that elites were, perhaps deliberately, ignoring the problem of a broken border and the effect on real people.

Trump said the US had struck bad trade deals in the interest of globalization. He pointed to China as an example of a country taking advantage of our liberal trade rules. Again he was accused of xenophobia and racism. Biden has doubled down on a hostile China policy. Apparently the people pointing the Trumpenfinger were right.

This is not just a left-right thing at all. Corruption in the “bipartisan” middle is what enraged both the left-wing Occupy Wall Street and the right-wing Tea Party movements when not only banks but also bank investors and over-compensated bank officers were bailed out during the great recession. Lately the only bipartisan bill which passed was the Chips Act, a subsidy for some of the most successful corporations in the world which make computer chips – and whose executives and investors can be counted on to remember their friends with campaign contributions. Neither Republicans nor Democrats, who each had a turn at controlling the presidency and both houses of congress, have managed to repeal the outrageous carried-interest tax loophole for venture capitalists. Trumpenfinger! But Trump didn’t get rid of it either. Lately President Biden decided that the Americans most in need of relief are those who attended over-priced colleges on credit

Hilary Clinton called the people who didn’t agree with her “deplorables”. Understandably, they gave her the Trumpenfinger. “Liberals” say that those who don’t agree with them on abortion are in favor of enslaving women; those who don’t agree that the US is and always has been a fundamentally racist society are extreme racists; those who don’t want sexuality discussed in school until at least fourth grade are irremediably homophobic; those who are openly patriotic are fascists; police should be abolished in the interest of reducing crime (this from people living in buildings with doormen and enclaves with private security). The Trumpenfinger is an understandable response.

January 6th was inexcusable. Trump egging on people and then claiming the secret service wouldn’t “let” him join them is deplorable — and cowardly. Trump, the messenger, decided that he was the indispensable messiah. That doesn’t work either.

Trump should, and hopefully will, fade away. He is no longer a useful vehicle for other politican’s ambition. Some of the message he was elected to bring has been absorbed. We endanger democracy, however, if we ignore the rest of the message or denigrate our fellow citizens who delivered the Trumpenfinger to shatter our complacency.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore

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20 thoughts on “Tom Evslin: I hope Trump fades away — but he had some good points we can’t ignore”

  2. So tired of the President Trump haters. Why didn’t he mention the best economy in 40 years, lowest unemployment, the lowest illegal border crossings in 20 years. The list goes on but Biden comes in destroys the economy, shuts down our county’s life blood Oil and gas. He pushes solar and wind which is mostly made in China who already owns us. But Biden will not even condemn China for slave laborand human rights violations. Remember under President Trump no war in Ukraine and rockets in North Korea and the world respected us.

  3. I can’t add onto my post but here is an update:
    This is the latest Emerson College poll that has Donald Trump in a 30 point lead.
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/22/poll-donald-trump-holds-30-point-lead-over-2024-gop-primary-field/amp/

    Anyone that is thinking that Donald Trump is going to fade away, or that they are going to manipulate us into thinking this, (can you see this Paul Dame?) this is not going to happen at all.
    And we also totally get what the plan is with DeSantis too, by the way, we are not falling for that either.

    If Emerson and Harvard are actually using these favorable Trump results, I can imagine these numbers are far greater out here in the real world- not the land of academia.

      • If not Trump, who else would get a tsunami of votes to offset the cheating/pseudo ballots of Dem/Progs, who count and stuff, count and stuff, until their candidates are safely ahead, a la Arizona?

        • Yup, Willem….look at the difference between AZ and FLA…one frauds the vote, the other cannot. Great quote:

          “DeSantis made sure no one can rig, cheat or steal elections in Florida. There are no universal mail-in ballots allowed…no ballot drop boxes…no ballot harvesting…no counting ballots for days after Election Day…the strictest laws against voter fraud in the nation…and Florida has Voter ID. Because of that, you can’t cheat in Florida.

          Result? The GOP won a red wave landslide in Florida. DeSantis and Rubio won in landslides. The GOP won everything up and down the ticket. Proving if there’s no cheating, Democrats have no chance.
          If every state in America had the same rules preventing voter fraud as Florida, Republicans would control the White House, Senate and House by a landslide.”

  4. Rewatch the video of Trumps ignoration speech as a reminder of why we sent him there. Observe the scornful looks and grimaces on the faces of the Democrat and Republican politicians as they sat together whispering and shaking their heads.

    Trump 2024.
    End the party for the Uniparty!

  5. President Trump represents the PEOPLE not the swamp of politically corrupt.
    He agitates the elitist to show their true self and most often it isn’t pretty. He gave the country financial gains and stability, no wars and ended the terrorist plague in the middle east. He allowed us to have energy independence for the fist time in decades. Employment and home ownership was up dramatically for all races.. Why in hell do you want that gone? To be stuck in the one world crap we’re dealing with now, wars inflation, fiat by pen, energy dependence on the whim of other countries. You are off your rocker Tom..

  6. What drives me nuts is low info writers (low info because they exist in a bubble) attempting to brainwash the people.

    I can’t dig through miles of Tweets from The Donald, but people sure are.
    There is an old one now making the rounds through the internet of President Trump explaining that he wanted more help and security just days before J6 and Nancy said NO.
    So how would he be ‘egging them on” when he was trying to get more security in there because he sensed trouble?
    Nancy said no to the President Tom and look at what happened.
    So where is your anger towards her?

    People that can’t stand Donald Trump can’t stand him because they don’t understand him !!
    And you know why they can’t understand him? because they’ve spent their whole lives living among the beautiful people and not the people that work for a living with their hands and their backs..
    They don’t get Donald and they don’t get us.. but they sure do get that they want to rob us and control us..
    This writer needs to fade away because darn near every single thing he’s telling us is wrong.

    Next up:
    Here is a recent Harvard Poll that says Donald is up 18 points in a hypothetical GOP Primary for 2024..
    Now if this is the results coming from HARVARD, can you just imagine what they really are?
    I saw one that Emerson did recently that was similar.
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/18/harvard-poll-donald-trump-up-18-points-over-ron-desantis-in-hypothetical-gop-2024-primary/

    Donald Trump is easily bringing in piles of money and filling arenas.. it’s stunningly naive to think he’s fading away, in fact, all that we are seeing with Ron DeSantis is happening *because* they know he’s not going to fade away!

    • Evslin has faded away?

      That is why he is spouting nonsense, just as in the basement, open borders, high inflation, low growth, woke-go-broke, touchy-freely, clueless Biden?

      It is Biden, and his socialist/communist posse ruining the U.S., that need to fade away

  8. With respect, Sir…your facts are often pulled out of thin air, and usually a largely liberal type attitue…you reference the supposed “bank bailouts”? :

    “…the right-wing Tea Party movements when not only banks but also bank investors and over-compensated bank officers were bailed out during the great recession.”

    I hate to inform you, buy you and EVERY LIBERAL is 100% wrong (nothing new there). As of August 2022 the Federal Government has REALIZED a NET PROFIT of $109 BILLION DOLLARS…from what YOU call a “bail out”. The Gov’t got paid back with interest. The Gov’t took equity stakes….The Gov’t took warrants. I’m sick to death the last decade of every Liberal (which you really seem to be)…..screaming “bail outs” to justify their up to trillions in Socialist. Like giving $450 BILLION to college kids who got conned by LIBERAL UNIVERSITIES to take “WOKE” type degree’s in areas that are worthless in the real world – but fit teh “agenda”

    So here are real “bail out” facts Mr. Eveslin….Enjoy & please quote this for your next opinion piece mentioning bad Wall Street or bail-out-Bad-Banks…

    “We’re tracking where taxpayer money has gone in the ongoing bailout of the financial system. Our database accounts for both the broader $700 billion bill and the separate bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Altogether, accounting for both the TARP and the Fannie and Freddie bailout, $635B has gone out the door. Money has been coming back in two ways: $390B of principal has been repaid, and the Treasury has collected revenue from its investments of $353B.

    In total, the government has realized a $109B profit as of August 18, 2022.”

    https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/

  9. So let’s go back to the dull ineffective rinos. Back to the status quo of the last 50 years, and the insane present becoming the foreseeable future, until the bitter end.
    Trump is one of a kind, nobody is going to replace him. Oh, but the mean tweets.
    Onwards to oblivion!

  12. Trump the man who gave up a billionaire lifestyle only humiliated, ridiculed and slandered. Called a Nazi and a traitor. Impeached for phony Russian collusion and a phone call to a head of state. Investigated for his taxes, a phony insurrection by the January Unselect Committee with no regards to his Due Process rights. Trump did all this to save our American Republic. LET TRUMP BE TRUMP!

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