I think this depends on whether you view Trump as the action, or the reaction. I think Trump was the reaction to the Democrats leftward acceleration over the course of the last decade. Because Obama did move the country left in a lot of ways, but more importantly, I believe he created a mindset among the left that they "owned" the tide of political debate in this country. That they are entitled to power simply because of their virtue. And I believe that was evident before Trump took office. Trump won because other Republicans failed to respond to that aggressively enough to satisfy voters.
Bernie Sanders was the canary in the coal mine. He's a guy who would have been laughed out of the race a decade ago because he was an avowed socialist. And yet, he had all the enthusiasm in the Democrat party, and would have won the nomination if black voters had not gone overwhelmingly for Hillary. And he did that not by running against Trump, but by running against the "moderates" in the Democrat Party itself. And even Bernie's success was just the logical continuation of Occupy Wall Street, the overnight shift in gay marriage, and Obama reversing himself and moving hard left on immigration with DACA.
Those things all preceded Trump as the lightning rod, and reflect a remarkable degree of leftward movement in the country over a short period of time.
@Maj. Bill Martin I don't really care about the impetus, the reasons, whatever. What matters is what he has done since he attained the office.
He likes pissing people off.
He likes publicly stepping on folks.
He likes grinding their faces in it.
No purpose about it, unless it is centered on himself - he's the martyr, and they did it to him... that sort of thing.
Well, hold on, because it's gonna get rough. You ain't going to have a rift in the Democrats, with a bunch of butthurt Berinie-ites staying home. You are not going to have anything cropping up that will matter. They are so very pissed off by now that they will very eagerly vote en-bloc against the Tumpy one.
Like I said, I ain't saying it's so, but it is very possible that Tump is the author of a mighty blue wave.
And all that, for basically nothing. Judges, a corporate tax cut, and a whole helluva lot of spending... all the rest are executive orders that will pass like bad mexican food in the middle of the night.
