DONALD TRUMP, THE MEDIA, AND THE REST OF US

They just can't figure him out, can they? 

The conservative punditocracy is completely mystified about the phenomenon that Donald Trump has become. They were so in the beginning of the campaign, and they still are. Discombobulated, utterly at sea about why Donald Trump has the following he has amassed, the scribes and talkers continue to daily demonstrate their frustration, at both Donald Trump, and his legion proponents within ''their" party.

For sure, his campaign is unorthodox, not subject to the normal parameters involved in evaluating a candidate for President. They can't look at how much money his campaign raises, because he's using his own money, and very little of his own money at that. For the same reason, they can't read him by noting who his donors are, as they have been able to with all other current and previous candidates. 

Their frustration is turning into abject fear.

Because of Donald Trump's emergence, we now we see a divide within the party we didn't see before. Now there are "establishment Republicans", the GOP "e".  And the rest of us.  He exposed them, and for this revelation we are thankful.

Perhaps what the pundits are mystified about is not so much Donald Trump, but us.

For the record, I got caught up in the Donald Trump emergence too. It excited me to hear him fight back against the media. Hallelujah! He had the good sense to criticize the premises of inane questioning, to point out the bias. But Donald wasn't the first to do this, Newt Gingrich was masterful at putting the media on the defensive, and for this reason scored some points with all conservatives during the 2012 primary. 

Donald Trump was not the first to say we need to build the wall. Ted Cruz was a proponent of building a wall on our southern border for years. 

Donald Trump did, however, blaze new territory when he spoke out against political correctness during the first Fox debate. This was a cathartic, welcome moment for most of us. Finally! Many don't realize what a significant emotional event it was for long-frustrated conservatives. At least, some of us.. A huge ox was gored, a tremendous liberation occurred here, make no mistake, and goes a long way toward explaining the Donald Trump phenomenon.

For me, there's a lot wrong with Donald Trump. I don't believe for a minute his ability to "make deals" is necessarily a quality we want in the executive branch. The implication within the phrase "making deals" is compromise, and compromise is what got us into this mess to begin with.

Though the sentiment behind Donald's penchant for blaming American business for out-sourcing jobs is becoming and alluring to many independents, it shouldn't be for fiscal conservatives. His solutions are dead-on wrong. We do not need to put tariffs on Fords made in Mexico. This is precisely the Federal Government meddling we as conservatives have come to abhor. There are other ways to attack this problem.

I don't like the fact that Donald Trump, unlike Ted Cruz, chickened out in Iowa and refused to condemn ethanol subsidies. 

But then there are more pressing issues, existential ones- immigration, and Islam-and Donald Trump has these issues right.  

He obviously shares the utter disdain conservatives have come to harbor for political correctness-run-amok, and the media. Immigration and Islam are visceral issues for us, and political correctness ties so directly to them both.

We're tired of watered-down candidates, Dole, McCain, and Mitt Romney. Political correctness and the media perfidy are the dragons we conservatives instinctively know must be slain, in order to position our country to change course. 

The immigration issue causes anger, and deep frustration within us, and we couldn't even talk about it until Donald gave us permission to let the emotions surface. We sense that political correctness is part of the reason we have been stymied, and when Donald said PC was the problem, he freed us from emotional chains.

Then there is Islam. And this is where Donald separates himself from the crowd. Donald Trump, in announcing that mass immigration from Islamic countries should be temporarily halted, struck a nerve within conservatives who consider Islam to be an existential threat. 

Donald is the first and only national speaker to suggest that there may be no solution to the Islam problem that doesn't involve consequences that by necessity must accrue to all Muslims. We no longer have the luxury to distinguish between "radical" Muslims, and those who claim to be benign. We have not the ability to read minds. We are frustrated that our leaders tell us we must be careful that we not fault all Muslims because of the actions of a few. 

How do we cease to think the thoughts we think when lined up at the airline queue, or entering a local shopping mall, and encounter burqa-clad women and Arab-looking males? Where are the "radical" Muslims, turned over to the authorities by the "moderate" ones in their midst? Yes, we are Islamophobic, it's a survival instinct to be afraid, and Donald helps us feel it's ok not to be ashamed of it.

Donald Trump seems to be uniquely tapped into these emotions- the frustrations, the anger, the fear. He's pinpointed what has to occur before solutions can be contemplated, and this is what the media pundits and talkers are missing.

We'll see what happens. One senses Ted Cruz is capable of allaying our anger and our fears, but he let Donald take the lead, and is playing catch-up. 

The fact is Donald succeeded in freeing us a bit, allowed us to vent these seething emotions that have been beneath the surface for some time, so we're willing to put up with a lot of shortcomings in his candidacy. The establishment of course, thinks we're shortsighted,  irrational, oblivious to "electability". We are indeed guided by our emotions at this point in time,  Donald Trump has become the salve for our angers , the balm for our fears, he frees us, and it's intoxicating. 

After all, we tried their version of electable candidates thrice before, and we're no longer interested in what those who gave us those candidates have to say. 

Not this time.

WHY SAN BERNARDINO MAY BE PEARL HARBOR II

On September 11, 2001, America was attacked. Brutally. Unlike the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor  on December 7, 1941,  this particular massacre was perpetrated not on soldiers on ships, but against normal, innocent American citizens at work in buildings.

New York's World Trade Center was attacked by Muslims, this much was clear, but answers to the question as to why were not as clear-cut as those involving the Japanese attack.

We were told the WTC attack occurred because certain "radical" elements within Islamic countries wanted to send a message. It was clear they didn't want to conquer us like the Japanese, wasn't it?

The reaction on the part of the American people in 1941 was one of anger, and fear. The reaction was swift, and made no apologies for being possessed of a punitive, retaliatory flavor. Within weeks we were mobilized and our planes were above the city of Tokyo bombing factories with no thought of "collateral damage". The response was disproportionate, because it needed to be, and everyone knew it. The anger never subsided until the Enola Gay flew over Hiroshima with a single purpose.

For 75 years now, the Japanese have been among the most peaceful people in recorded history.

In the aftermath of the New York attack in 2001, there was also anger and fear. In a matter of days it became apparent that our country was not united as to what the response should be, and the anger and the fear subsided. Our response not only had to be sold to the world-not surprising this-but also some convincing had to be done to the American people in order to respond "properly".  In the end, our response was deliberately crafted to have the character of a "measured", "targeted", and "limited" one with an obsessive aversion to "collateral damage".

So it failed. It is an understatement to say that at this time Muslims have not been converted into the peace loving citizens the Japanese have become.

On the home front, in the years following the 2001 attacks, it can be said that Muslims were given the benefit of the doubt, if not a second chance. Americans are very forgiving, especially when they are made to believe things that aren't true.

America bent over backwards to refrain from profiling, we accepted Muslims and accommodated them in ways we never accommodated other similar immigrant populations before. To our detriment, we accepted the meme that only a few Muslims were actually bad ones, and went about our day.  It must be acknowledged that this took effort on the part of leery Americans. We couldn't help what we were thinking when we saw burkas in airports, but we never acted on our misgivings. It took a degree of restraint, restraint that ran contrary to our instincts, but we did it anyway. Suffice it to say that over time, Americans have made an investment in Muslims who live among us.

Which brings us to December 2, 2015. San Bernardino California. Our return on this investment? Fourteen dead Americans. Fourteen dead Americans who worked with colleagues who had given a baby shower to the two Muslims who subsequently shot them down in cold blood.

Syed Farook was born in America. He had American friends. He worked for the State of California. He had every reason to assimilate, and he did. Then he met Tashfeen Malik online, flew to Saudi Arabia, and brought her back as his wife. We now know that the two had been plotting terror events like this one for years. This says a lot. The child they had now looks like merely a prop to maintain their cover.

So this is a betrayal.

It is not only a betrayal, it was a deadly one. It was also a ruse, a deliberate con perpetrated on people who had not only been accepting, but coddling.

With San Bernardino there also is anger and fear. But this time the anger is different. The anger is everywhere in America, not just California, because we all believed our leaders, we did what they told us to do, and we worked hard to go against our instincts to give these people a second chance. We've been betrayed, and we've been lied to.

This is what makes San Bernardino different from 9-11, perhaps more similar to the Pearl Harbor attack. Our anger is seething, palpable, and, as with all betrayals, we will go through a few stages before the anger actually surfaces.

Politicians are grossly under-estimating the anger the American people feel. It is a different anger, it is the intense anger that always follows betrayal. This is the sort of anger that will increase with time.

San Bernardino will be looked upon as a seminal moment, a catharsis. The American people will no longer accept that they have to have the ability to read Muslims' minds in order to feel safe. Americans will clamor for measures that work.

The paradigm has changed. No more Mr. Nice Guy.  No solution to the Muslim problem can be contemplated that doesn't involve consequences that may accrue to all Muslims. Americans will accept this now. No more buying that only "radical" Islam is the problem. Islam is the problem. Americans instinctively know this now.