When I enrolled at San Diego Mesa College in 1980 Political Correctness and Marxist Ideology had not yet taken over Academia in San Diego County. Which is not to say that it had not crept into most of the liberal arts classrooms. It just had not taken over the actual serious academic disciplines yet.
Like most first year students I was pretty hazy with regard to exactly which of the academic disciplines I wanted to advance my studies in. It was pretty much a toss up at that point, music or science. Though, I was rather heavily leaning towards the sciences.
In my first 2 years I studied Physic’s, Chemistry, Oceanography Computer Science, Electronic and Geology (not counting all of the other expected classes like English, History, Literature, Music, German, Sociology and Psychology). I was a full time student carrying 32 units per semester. Which was even then considered a pretty heavy academic load. I maintained a 3.96 GPA and was in class quiet literally 8 hours a day 5 days a week.
Honestly, the 5 years (changed my major 3 times) I attended college the first time (yes, I went back again in 2014 to work on a degree in engineering, which I never finished) was perhaps the most exciting, fulfilling and happiest time of my life. I genuinely loved being a student. And no, I did not go to college to party it up, I actually spent my time studying like a madman.
My time first at San Diego Mesa College and then at the United States International University did pretty much what it does to everyone who attends college or University. It played a major role in shaping how I think and look at the world around me.
As a consequence of the many physical science’s that I studied, I like to think that I have something of an analytical thinking process. A small glimpse of which can be seen in this article I wrote back in February of 2013.
What you cannot do.
This is how my mind works, or as some might argue, fails to work.
Rule number 1.
Never ever become emotionally or intellectually enslaved by any theory that you construct.
This is not just for subjects like Math, Physic’s, Oceanography or Chemistry.
Rule number 2.
No matter how carefully or completely you think you have accounted for all of the possible variables, you absolutely assuredly have missed some, and they are incredibly important.
Unless you are dealing with the most simple and basic of equations like 1 plus 1 equals 2, this is nearly always going to be the case.
Rule number 3.
Your theory, conclusion or hypothesis are never the only explanation for whatever your observations are or were.
There will always be other explanations, theories, conclusions or hypothesis. They may or may not fit all of your data as well as your own, but rest assure they do exist.
So where am I going with all of this? America is currently engaged in a level and degree of navel gazing that is perhaps unprecedented in our history. Much of it revolves around President Donald J Trump. Everyone seems hell bent on asking, “Who is Donald J Trump” and “Why did he win the Presidency in 2016”.
From my unique perspective, these are the wrong questions to be asking to obtain an even remotely meaningful question. Rather than asking who is Donald J Trump and why did he win, the questions that should be being asked are, Who are the people that elected Donald J Trump and how is it that it was impossible for him to have lost?.
America’s liberal Marxist left has in its own mind answered the first of these questions by declaring that anyone who voted for Donald J Trump is a . In translation what the liberal Marxist left has done, is rather than ask the question of who elected Donald J Trump, they dehumanized the multitude of voters who elected Trump in an effort to intimidate and bully them into regretting their electoral choice.
Those on the right have used a similar voodoo magic Jedi hand wave to dismiss the accusations of the left in their own definition of themselves.
Neither actually answers the question.
So, Who elected Donald J Trump to the office of the President of the United States of America?
The political class, whether right or left label pretty much anyone who does not live and breath politics as a “Low Information Voter”. Regardless of which side of the political class you are on, and regardless of what you think or want to believe, it was those very Low Information Voters who elected Donald J Trump.
Sorry guys. It wasn’t your bloviating, pontificating or even your massive get out the vote efforts that elected Donald J Trump. Answer the question of “Who elected Donald J Trump”, and you answer the second question, “Why was Trump’s election inevitable.
Who elected Donald J Trump, was the average American citizen.
Who are they? They are as individual as snowflakes. Yet, they share certain commonalities. They are hard working, basically honest, fair minded people. Their beliefs cross a multitude of spectrum’s. But by and large, they share certain beliefs.
They believe that an individual has the right to the fruits of their own labor.
They believe that everyone should have access to the same opportunities for success, but not the same outcome.
They believe that everyone should be held to the exact same moral, ethical and legal standards.
They believe that most people are basically decent people.
They believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
They believe that taking advantage of, or being oppressive towards anyone because of the skin color, gender, sexuality or age is wrong.
They believe that the concept of fairness, or justice is blind with regard to whom it is applied. What is fair or just for one person must be equally fair or just to anyone else that standard is applied to.
They take great offense at being lied to or manipulated.
And they damned well will no5 shut up sit down and be silent just because they are told to.
That is who elected Donald J Trump.
As I said above, the answer to why his election was inevitable is right there in who it was that elected him. The people who elected Donald J Trump to the office of the Presidency of the United States of America came to believe, that Donald J Trump best represented their hopes that the things they fervently believe in would be upheld and advanced by Donald J Trump.
In other words, the people who elected Donald J Trump did not elected Donald J Trump the man or the candidate, they elected Donald J Trump the symbolic representation of their own self-image as American’s and what they as a collective desired America to be.
To date, Donald J Trump has delivered on his promise to be the American that the American people asked him to be, that they elected him to be. And as long as Donald J Trump continues to deliver on that promise his reelection in 2020 is as inevitable as his election in 2016 was.
In the physical sciences, you simply cannot begin with a premises that is its own conclusion and have your conclusion have any meaningful significance. You must observe, measure, quantify analyze and then draw a conclusion. Your conclusion must be consistent with your data, it must make verifiable predictions based upon the data, and it is only deemed as non falsified when the predictions it makes are proven to be accurate within plus or minus 5 standard deviation points.
If you falsify or ignore your data, or someone elses relevant data, then your theory is proven to be inaccurate needing to be reworked or thrown out altogether.
When it comes to dealing with human beings, there are more variables than can possibly be accounted for. But this does not mean that it is impossible to get a general sense of what they want or are intended to do. Rule number 1 comes into play with a certain brutality when attempting to analyze what our fellow human beings are going to or might do.