2016 – The Battle for the Presidency

Amidst all the chaos, Mr. Trump’s ability to stir controversies in the public opinion arena, comes as a shining beam of hope at the end of the tunnel

2016 – The Battle for the Presidency

Over the past few weeks I have had many close friends gently ask me when was I going to do a write-up on my outlook of the forthcoming presidential elections.  Who was I endorsing or supporting as our next presidential candidate, many keep asking me. As I probed myself on my friends’ entreaty, it dawned on me that, regardless of who I supported or not, what really mattered, instead, was the fact that the 2016 presidential elections could very well turn out to be one of [the] most crucial elections, ever in the history of the nation.  Matter of fact, I personally believe that there is so much at stake both for the nation as well as for the world, that the 2016 elections could, in fact, turn out to be a milestone for mankind in more ways than one – in ways that many of us cannot even envisage.  And…if for any reason whatsoever you dare doubt my assertion, I say, think again friends.  It is all as relevant as where we are as a nation.

Just put it this way, Barack Hussein Obama’s ends his post as POTUS, leaving our nation in shambles. Obama or Barry Soetoro, or whoever this man really is, his legacy will be one of shame, indignity and disgrace, like never before. In the seven years since he became president, this obscure character of dubious provenance, has managed to add $7 trillion dollars to the national debt – an increase of 56%; has polarized Americans and has fostered racial and class divide like no other president before him.  Obama has governed the nation much in the same fashion as would a head of state from a third-world “banana-republic”, daringly attempting to challenge the law of the land, by sidestepping and circumventing Congress at will with Executive Orders and diktats, much in the same spirit and tradition as a dictator would in a totalitarian state.

Obama has managed to treat Americans as a nation of sheep, shoving down their throats reforms such as the ObamaCare bill, which all but short-changed the peoples’ expectations in their fleeting hopes of an improved healthcare system, while miserably failing to come through in any of the promises made by his administration to that end.

Obama’s worse damage yet, comes not by way of his domestic doomsday failures, though, but by way of his unspeakable record of political faux pas in foreign and international politics – a debauched record of ill-advised blunders which have earned us the unenviable reputation as a weakened Republic, plagued by ignominy and irrelevancy amongst our most reknown enemies.  Obama’s unending doctrine of appeasement towards our most stringent adversaries has earned us a depraved image of frailty. This lamed president’s propensity to retreat amidst shows of strength by our rivals has all but told an international community of U.S. haters, bound by their mutual desire to destroy us, of our long-lost might and prowess - an open invitation for the enemy to prevail in their craving wishes to destroy us, thus the resurgence of radical Islamic terrorism, paving the way for carnages such as those seen in San Bernardino and Orlando, leaving a combined death toll of 63 innocent Americans.

Obama: A well-organized agenda of destruction of our core values gifted to us by the Founding Fathers

My most generous assessment of the unmitigated aberrations of this president and his foreign policies is a complete and total lack of understanding of what our role is and should have been in a geopolitical arena fully energized with hatred towards our core values and our historical supremacy.  Vis-à-vis, from a more contentious perspective, on the other hand, my assessment of the aberrations, needs to invoke a darker side of this Obama scoundrel – one inexorably linked to a conscious and well-organized agenda of destruction of our core values gifted to us by the Founding Fathers and reservedly defended by the blood of all Americans who offered their lives fighting for these freedoms only to unearth our newfound Republic tauntingly in the hands of an unknown hybrid readily willing to immolate our predecessors’ sacrifices in his crusade of placatory bromides that have served only but to embolden our adversaries in their prescience vision of a nation now irretrievably shattered of its might and supremacy.

It is only through understanding the impending bedlam left behind by this shady president and his administration, that we can even attempt to comprehend the nature and make-up of the ongoing presidential race – a race ubiquitously marked by unprecedented happenings, all of which come as ‘first-ever’ in the history of this heralded tradition such as is electing the nation’s president.  Matter of fact, I personally think of the 2016 presidential race as the nation’s testimonial of yet all that is wrong with our government and our politicians - a telltale account, if you will, attesting to the aforementioned legacy of failures and destruction left behind by this Obama character.

You have asked me what my outlook is on these presidential elections and here it is friends.  What I personally have seen so far is but a microcosmic model which clones, if you will, our shattered State-of-the-Union. My opening parallel has to do, as I said earlier, with ‘first-ever’ events prevalent both in Obama’s reign of authoritarianism, as well as in the presidential race itself.  Just think about it for a moment, we have a ‘first’ in the history of the nation, in terms of: 1) a candidate running for president while he or she is being investigated for a possible violation of criminal law, and 2) a full-blown communist making a run for the highest post in the world.  When, I ask you, have we, as nation built on principles and ethics, ever before seen two rats, such as this Clinton and Bernie Sanders be the prime nominees for one of the leading political parties in the nation?

But, wait, wait, not to say, that their arch-rival Republican Party, does not have its own set of skeletons in the closet also. Matter of fact, Republicans have as much to be blamed for as Democrats do, maybe even more.  Think of it this way, back in the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican Party won a majority leadership in the House of Representatives, -the first Congress in 13 years were the House and Senate were controlled by different parties, then again in 2012 Republicans had a landslide victory which allowed them to gain a majority control in both chambers of Congress, the House and the Senate, giving the party reasons to rejoice in what all conservatives hoped to be a fair chance of challenging Obama’s anarchical administration.  After all, with Pelosi and Reed out of the way, it should have been clear sailing for a Republicans to give liberals a run for their money, as far as disenfranchising the nation of the partisan politics of years past.

Trump-Phenomenon, comes courtesy of the corrupt establishment

But just as soon, however, the rejoice turned into a bitter disappointment of things that were not to be, as time and time again, we watched Speaker Boehner and his brigade of brownnose Republican congressmen surrender and capitulate to their Democratic counterparts – paving the way for what we have all come to know as the “establishment” – a term that bodes ill for all embodying an image which we all loathe; an image which has now comes to acquiesce as the profile of your quintessential self-serving politician, a coterie of corrupt office-bearers who could not care less about the electorate, but are, instead, responsive only to Washington’s notorious, lobbying eagles,  Super PACs, or otherwise special interest groups – all said, corrupt politicians from both sides of the aisle.

And then you wonder still about the so-called “Trump-Phenomenon”, and you really believe it, don’t you?  Hello.  Wake up and smell the coffee,  friends.  There is no such thing as a Trump-Phenomenon, per se, which many in the mainstream media would want us to believe. Matter of fact, this so-called Trump-Phenomenon, comes courtesy of the corrupt establishment I was just talking to you about.  Donald Trump, for all his flaws, for all that you may find wrong with the man, all the way from his hair to his flares of arrogance, to his braggadocio personality; for all that is so terribly wrong, comes as a fresh breath of ‘anti-establishment’ antidote.  It is not a phenomenon friends. It is, instead, a loud and clear message being sent by millions of voters from a wide cross-section of mainstream Americans, telling the world how completely and totally fed up they are with the way our country has been run, albeit by both parties.  It is a clear message that Americans want true and radical changes in the way that all Washington insiders have managed our destinies.

Notably, the proof is in the pudding.  If my memory serves me right, a total of 17 Republican candidates entered the presidential race which officially started on March 23rd, 2015, when Ted Cruz first announced his candidacy.  The Republican ensemble, we must admit was composed of an immensely qualified team of candidates – the cream of the crop you may say -  a wide-ranging cross-section or otherwise varied assortment of individuals with varied qualifications, backgrounds, etc.  As you all remember, the field had it all, to wit, black, white, men, women, Hispanic, Anglo-Americans, seasoned politicians, laymen.  All of the 17 candidates, I thought, were highly-talented individuals, each in his or her own right, deserving to be a part of the contending cadre.  At the beginning of the race, I thought, there was plenty from which to choose, so… electing [the] candidate, I thought, would be an easy task at that, would it not?  Among the 17 hopeful, there was this outspoken, self-made billionaire by the name of Donald Trump – a man willing to finance his own presidential race; an outsider with an aura of arrogance about him, willing to cross lines by redefining all boundaries of ‘political correctness’, with true and true carelessness for whatever consequences could ensue from his gaffs or blunders.  Right from the get-go, many of us, myself included simply wrote-off Mr. Trump giving him no chance whatsoever of becoming the presidential nominee for the NRP, that included, of course, pundits, party leaders, and political insiders as well.

But then again, in the weeks and months that followed, most of us, if not all, were proven wrong, weren’t we?  With each new poll that came out, nonetheless, the skeptical universe of disbelievers and plain Trump haters, were slowly swayed to part, if only reluctantly, with the “denial” syndrome that afflicted us all.  I remember some of the most renown media outlets in the nation, newspapers, T.V., radio hosts, all, were kind of just waiting for Mr. Trump’s political doomsday.  To most everyone in the nation, it was not a question of “if”, but a question of “when” would Mr. Trump meet with his demise as a presidential candidate, all the while, as the darling field of contenders, insiders, and seasoned politicians, including Trump’s closest contender Ted Cruz, all savored Trump’s eminent downfall –the one that never came, while each candidate, instead, met with his or her own demise - some never even knowing what really what hit them.

The denial syndrome in America reached unheard of plateaus of obstinacy and wrong-headedness.  The entire Trump happening made so little sense to so many that there was only one way for all of it to be palatable, understandable, or comprehensible, and that was to label it a “phenomenon”, when, in reality, it was precisely the opposite.  Mr. Trump, himself, was not the phenomenon.  Mr. Trump was, if at all, a very logical, tangential and unfettered response to everything that is wrong in America today.  In fact, if you really think about it, the only true phenomenon in all of this, was, the nation’s willingness to elect this Obama character as our president, not once but twice.  So, if you think about it, we should really label it the ‘Obama Phenomenon’ instead of the ‘The Trump Phenomenon’ – should we not?

In summary, my dear friends, the nation has spoken, and so that we get it right this time around, Americans may or may not want Donald Trump, the man, as their prime choice for their Republican presidential nominee and possibly our next president, although, I must say, many in the last few months, have, in fact, changed their mind and have been swayed to liking the man after all, but, what Americans are really telling the world, however, is about their yearning for change – an outreach for radical changes in all that is so very wrong with the nation today.  Of all 17 candidates that first began this race, it seems to me, the only one who was able to seal that image of righteous expectations for change was Donald Trump, wasn’t it? It is obvious to me, then, that the other 16 candidates lacked, in part or in whole, whatever voters wanted or expected from the next president of the United States of America, don’t you agree?

Whether or not Mr. Trump will deliver on his promises and on American’s expectations of him, is still an unknown, something we will not know until it happens.  Only time will tell.  For now, however, it is what it is.  And, again, whether or not we like the man, he does come through as a refreshed glimpse of hope to end the political nightmare we have endured for so long.  As for me, well, suffice it say that, for the longest time, I was a Marco Rubio fanatic, only because he was of my same Cuban background, as well as being a home-bred Miami, Florida extract, from the same neck of the woods where I have lived all of my life.  Wrong reasons for choosing a candidate, I know, but all the same, Rubio was my man.  No sooner had the debates started, I got the notion that Marco, notwithstanding his intellectual capacity and/or otherwise his many other talents, evidenced by his past successes and accomplishments, continued to come through as a rehearsed act of rhetorical repetitiveness, not much different than that of Ted Cruz; not much different than that of many of the other candidates, and, for that matter, not much different than even Barack Obama himself with his teleprompting acts of political grandiloquence.  Therein ended my initial partiality for Rubio.

Slowly but surely, Donald Trump’s appeal grew on me as if by a mystical embrace of sorts.  Throughout the time since it all started, the more I listened to Trump, the more his messages resonated with all I wanted from a president.  Yes, there were times when I was not altogether in agreement and/or approving of some of the comments he had made in the campaign trail, but, then again, what this told me was that the man was not just ready to tell people precisely what they wanted to hear - he wasn’t one of your career-trained demagogues– a trait akin to virtually all politicians nowadays, bar none. Despite some of my differences with candidate Trump, and there were not really many of them, I should say, the positives, I thought, far outweighed the negatives, so for me…it was a no-brainer.

Finally, what helped me to complete making up my mind on Trump was really another no-brainer.  I am talking, specifically about the alternatives.  As we all know, once Trump had gained the 1,237 delegates needed for the party’s nomination, that was it, we were left but with only two alternatives. It was either Trump or Clinton – that simple.  Well, guess what? As far as I am concerned, a vote for Hillary Clinton, would be a vote for ‘more-of-the-same’ if not worse.  Barack Obama, as bad as he is, is still, an ideologue of sorts; Obama, let’s face it, has stood his grounds as a communist, a Muslim booster,  a totalitarian autocrat, and a U.S. hater all along. He has made no apologies for being who he is, and he did foretell Americans about his commitment to fundamentally transforming the United States – a promise he made on election eve on November 4th, 2008. It was through no fault of his [Obama’s] that some of us decided to elect him twice, wasn’t it? Clinton, on the other hand, together with husband Bill, are two of the most despicable and hypocritical characters in the political history of the nation.


Hillary’s legendary scandals date back to the 1990s, starting with Whitewater - a real estate deal gone bad back in the day, whereby, allegedly, the Clintons used their political clout to coerce someone in a failing Savings and Loan Association into making an illegal loan.  More recently the Benghazi embassy scandal, and her latest and most recent e-mail controversy, where Clinton allegedly used a private server for her own personal use while in her role as Secretary of State, possibly violating the government’s secrecy laws and a potential threat to the nation’s homeland security; all kind of telling the story of the woman’s brushes with breaking the laws -surely not what the nation deserves as its president.

A self-serving rat, the woman’s ambitious road to wealth and power have her using politics as an idyllic tool used in her social-climbing ladder. Her ostensible stance as a champion for “women” in America is one of Clinton’s greatest fallacies and most hypocritical crusades yet. Matter of fact, her purported ‘stand-by-her-man’ soap-opera back in 1998, while husband Bill, then president of the United States, was impeached for perjuring himself in his sexual scandal involving a 22-year-old White House employee by the name of Monica Lewinsky, was, as far as I am concerned, Clinton’s ultimate personal degradation to women in America.  Her apparent support for husband Bill during the infamous scandal, one of the worst ever in the history of the presidency, was no more, no less than a well-planned strategy, in her unending battle to reach the presidency at whatever price.  Her womanly honor was repulsively compromised and discarded, as otherwise her political ambitions could have potentially succumbed in the wake of her husband’s scandal.  And, that is as far as the woman would go.  Putting up with the embarrassment was, as far as she was concerned, worthy of it all for the sake of continuing on her climb to amass money and power, which, they [the Clintons] eventually did.  This is, dear friends, what the woman is really made of.

Another of Clinton’s ‘double-standard’ myths as champion of women, one of her most stalwart claims in a platform of virtual deceit, comes in the form of contributions made by four oil-rich Arab nations to the Clintons’ controversial philanthropic, non-profit foundation.  Since 2001, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have given as much as $40 million to the Clinton Foundation; only problem, mind you, is that these are the same nations which have been criticized by the State Department for a rash of controversial issues, beginning with their mistreatment of women.  Simply put, there are no limits to the woman’s greed and ambition.  I would not be surprised at all, were she to be elected president, that, for the right price, this woman would probably let jihadist terrorists enter the U.S. – a nice contribution to the Clinton Foundation, I say, would probably do the trick, what does she care?

In ending, whether or not Mr. Trump is indeed elected to be our next president or he is not, is beside the fact. Regardless, I believe we all owe Mr. Trump at least some sense of gratitude, appreciation and thankfulness for what he was able to do for us.  In a nutshell, Trump, singlehandedly almost, was able to awaken a sleeping giant. Over the past eight years, Americans for the most part had been hopelessly detached from politics.  When it came to current events Americans, for the most part many have been living in la la land – in a world of fantasy where even Bozo-the-Clown, if he were to run for president could have a true shot at being elected.  Illiteracy and apathy, have been running rampant, giving Obama a writ of passage in the way our nation’s affairs were overtly mishandled both at home and abroad.  Got to tell you, there were times I felt like giving up, it was so bad.  For some time there, I let myself be overtaken with grief and disappointment over the conduct of this administration and the apparent ennui of many of my fellow-Americans, over what I considered complete mayhem.

Amidst all the chaos, Mr. Trump’s ability to stir controversies in the public opinion arena, comes as a shining beam of hope at the end of the tunnel – the light which many of us have longed for, yet felt it dimming to dismayingly dark and shadowy lows, all ensuing from our shattered expectations.  Yes, I am vibrantly encouraged by the fact many Americans seem to have come back from their distant voyages and have, once again, awoken to the virtual realities now facing the nation.  I am obliged to Mr. Trump for their return,  which at least gives us hope that he will, in fact, be elected to be our next president, albeit with the same predictable margin of error – the same with which he has been written off all along in the presidential race so far.  May God bless us all, may .may God bless America.

Obie Usategui runs AFCV-Americans For Conservative Values.  Obie is also the author of The Beginning of the End—“The transition to Communism in our own United states has come peacefully, ironically, via democratically-sanctioned elections”