Earlier this week, I went to the Pinellas Library where the anti-Trump rally was being held. As I walked by, wearing my “Make America Great Again” hat, I noticed the signs with the Democratic talking points:
• Need 37 Patriots
• Clinton won election by popular vote
• Trump unfit for President
• Russians helped defeat Clinton
I was smiling and reading their signs. Several negative comments were yelled my way, but probably no worse than Republicans would have yelled if the rally had been for Trump and a Clinton supporter had walked past. I’m a Trump fan for many reasons and a numbers kind of guy. I also spent a lot of time during the campaign season studying both sides and am always willing to explain why I support Trump. The approximately 25-30 protesters (at about 10:30 a.m.) continued to voice their sentiment. So I stopped. I was going inside to replace my driver’s license and offered to discuss this with whoever they selected when I returned from obtaining my license.
The group selected a nice lady (forgot her name) who was one of the group leaders and we began to chat. I let her state her platform (same as talking points above) and then | addressed her points one by one:
I stated they would, NEVER have 37 Electors change their support from Trump and Trump would receive at Least 304 electoral votes. Two electors changed their votes leaving Trump with 304 electoral votes. Clinton actually lost five electoral votes. So the margin became even greater than after the original tally. This was just like the recount in Wisconsin when: Trump ended up with more votes after the recount.
I agreed Clinton won the popular vote. The vote was skewed seriously due to California and New York ( very liberal states) going for Clinton and containing such large populations. The election rules state that it is not by popular vote that the election is determined. I pointed out the following:
• It is also not determined by who wins the most states. (Trump won 30 and Clinton only 20).
• lt also does not state that the election is determined by which candidate carries the most counties. Trump carried over 11,600 counties, while Clinton carried less than 500.
I then communicated my thoughts as to why Trump is our new president.
Clinton was a flawed, lousy candidate. Her platform was name-calling and continuing to say Trump was unfit, with no new ideas on turning our country around and making it safer.
Clinton was a lousy campaigner. Shel managed to hide from the press, not bother to take time to visit Wisconsin or Michigan, and not present any ideas contrary to what the country had seen for the previous eight years. Obama has a high personal rating, but has been terrible in maintaining any Democrat majority. Under Obama:
Democrats lost the Senate and even though they gained two seats in this election, they must defend 25 sitting senators in 2018, compared to only eight by the Republicans. The 52-48 margin will undoubtedly be even greater after 2018 election in favor of Republicans.
Democrats had 28 governorships when Obama took office and now only have 13.
Democrats had 27 state legislatures when Obama took office and now only 13. Clinton lost 220 Counties that Obama had won in 2008 and 2012.
The only person responsible for Clinton’s loss is Hillary Clinton. She simply campaigned as an extension of Obama. It is easy to see from the losses, the Democrats received, that she would need more than just being the same old continuance of the Obama platform. That was being rejected in every area. The increase in health care premiums for Obama care came at a very unfortunate time for Hillary. Trump’s promise to repeal it was a big reason he won the election as well as the investigation into Hillary’s personal life.
Trump’s platform promised to make America great again, make America strong again and make America safe again and in his campaign speeches, he outlined the ways he would do that. We will know later whether he was able to accomplish the things he stated.
I should mention the group of protesters got very tired of my facts and reasons I liked Trumps policies better. Once a Democrat realizes that name-calling doesn’t help their cause, they might make some progress. I even had one of the protesters tell me I should just go and die. The group tried to move him away and I give them credit for that. lt did not stop him from shouting “just die,” two more times from a distance. I’m sure Republicans have said nasty things also, but I had given him no reason to take that path. I shook hands with the lady I had been conversing with and we all went about our business.
While attending our neighborhood Christmas party last night, I got involved in a discussion with a very strong Democrat neighbor. He gave me the same talking points and I reminded him the election was over and that it had consequences (As Obama had stated eight years ago when he won). Republicans won and Trump is our United States president. He said “Trump is not my president.” Yes, he is as long as you live in America. With attitudes like this, our country will never be able to be put back together. That is a sad thing. I hope and pray we will be a less divided country four years from now.
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays
Mike Weese is a resident of the Village of Collier.