Predicting the Future

This is a political post. That means that 96% of you will stop reading.

Okay, now it is just a few of you left. The ones who probably agree with me that President Trump is…probably not the ideal person to be leading our country. I need to get something off my chest: I am scared. Not scared that DT will do something crazy, like nuke New Zealand or something. Nor am I scared that he will enact any crazy policies (at least more crazy than what he keeps trying). And before you decide to get all bent out of shape and say something like “okay Josh, it is easy not to be scared when you are a white guy.” Yeah, I get that and I do worry about the damage our president could do to groups of people who are in some way not the same as me (I hope that covers every group that has complaints about Trump).

What scares me is the future. You see, I read and listen to a bunch of political stuff nowadays. Not unlike many people out there. I love the fivethirtyeight political podcast; I have read more NYT, WP articles in the past six months than I have in the last ten years; and I frequently watch the different news shows. One thing I keep hearing/reading is that the more the Russia stuff comes out, the more Trump screws up with different groups, the more the GOP fails with legislation…the more likely it will be for the Democrats to win in 2018 and 2020.

First of all, the Democrats need to offer up something better than “at least we ain’t Trump.” My big fear is that come 2018, the GOP & Trump will point a finger at the Dems and say “hey, we tried to fix things, but they would not work with us.” And all of those people who voted for Trump will say “oh yeah, it was all those evil democrats fault!” They do not care that the GOP did the same thing to Obama. They do not care that the Republican party controls all parts of government. None of that will matter to those voters. Just like it did not matter if he bragged about grabbing pussy, mocked the handicapped, or acted openly racist.

I think the smart thing would be for Democrats to use the infrastructure spending as a way to bridge the divide. I have a feeling that Trump’s infrastructure bill will probably be similar to the one Obama wanted, that the GOP shot down. Instead of thinking about revenge, Dems need to own it. Make sure to point out that it is similar to Obama’s bill and that you know what? You will vote for it. Give Trump a win, but make sure you brag about how you gave it to him. You do not want to go into 2020 as the group that held up everything.

My other prediction is that the 2018 midterm elections will have some of the worst voter turnout of all time. Everyone is doing a really great job of getting outraged over everything Trump does, but I can almost guarantee that in November, they will forget to vote because it is not for president and that is the only election that matters to most people. Just allow the Republicans to keep winning those state government seats, allow them to be the ones who get to gerrymander districts in their favor. In fact, be outraged, organize a huge march, but then don’t actually have people run for office to oppose those Republicans.

This is a bit of a rambling mess. I apologize. I am frustrated. I keep hearing people underestimate Trump and his chances for reelection and I keep thinking to myself “when will people stop counting this guy out?” He wasn’t supposed to win the nomination, he did not have a chance to win the presidency, and now it is “there is no way he will be reelected.” History is doomed to repeat itself.

Author: Ngewo