Two examples from today.
Liz Peek of FOX reassured Steve Gruber this morning on his radio program in Michigan that Trump won in 2016 primarily because the voters were most concerned to ensure we had a Supreme Court seat filled by a Scalia clone.
And then Josh Brown assures his readers in the line up at Real Clear Markets that the most important reason was class warfare: a tax cut for the middle class and a big tax increase on rich speculators.
It's been five months since the election and we still can't agree about the political state of the country. Hint: libertarians don't agree about very much.
One could go on. Ann Coulter would tell you it was the promise of The Wall and an end to indiscriminate invasion by illegal aliens. Independent small business owners and self-employed people would tell you it was the promise of repeal of Obamacare. Veterans . . . veterans' affairs. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
These various opinions tell us more about the values of the individual coalitions Trump cobbled together to win, not why he won.
Meanwhile the narrow character of Trump's victory in key states, the result of former Democrat voters boycotting Hillary by the millions, goes underestimated by the winners . . . and the losers.
That's fairly typical, even for otherwise prudent presidents.
George Herbert Walker Bush thought victory in Kuwait made him golden, promptly raised taxes after we read his lips, and was shown the door.
The same will happen to Trump if he doesn't deliver on his program.
And because his program is a Duodetrigintapus, the question is really "How many of my twenty-eight legs can I get away with chopping off and still have enough left to strangle my opponent with in 2020"?
He's already cut off three. Repeal of Obamacare has failed. DACA has not been reversed (what, did they run out of pens in the White House?), and suddenly we have to burn $100 million worth of cruise missiles because someone used a politically incorrect weapon.
What's next, an assault weapon ban?
There's still plenty of time for Trump to prove that he isn't some suicidal sea monster.
But at the rate he's going he'll be a legless jellyfish by Christmas.
But at the rate he's going he'll be a legless jellyfish by Christmas.
