(My 2016 Presidential Election Forecast Map based on polling data adjusted for guestimated polling source bias.)

by Randall Nozick

Part 3 – In Support of a Deranged, Bungling, Monster

(If you missed it, see Part 1 – I Dare You to Try to Understand or Part 2 – What a Weirdo.)

A little over a year ago, I found myself at the center of a grassroots effort among my social networking circle more or less campaigning for Donald Trump. My social reach at the time was distributed slightly to the right, but even on the right, the establishment-loving segment (Never Trumpers) put Trump supporters in the minority.

The “news” was full of shoddily crafted cut-downs targeting a man I’d met in person on a few occasions in the mid-1990’s while working in New York City. The picture being painted was not representative of that man or the man New England Democrats often hailed as a role model and perhaps even someday-savior of their political party. A brand new Trump had been invented who was a deranged, bungling, monster who was ready to hand our great nation over to the worst possible elements and ensure a new dark age for America.

The federal government had become a malignant tumor, consuming every available resource to grow its mass and metastasize to every corner of American life with no regard to the host it was killing, the American People. The killing of the American People was figurative on a national and cultural level, but had become questionably more specific in incidents like the very suspicious death of LaVoy Finicum. (Remember the Bundy Ranch/Bereau of Land Management/Harry Reid scandal that just keeps getting deeper?)

The flagship “accomplishment” of the last two Presidential terms had been the Affordable Care Act, a program so invasive and so mathematically impossible, I was certain the real point of the program was bankrupting America at both federal and state levels rather than anything to do with health care. Supporters of the ACA could not see past its name to understand the underlying impossibility of living up to that name. On a personal level, as someone with real and constant health care needs, all the ACA managed to do for me was make healthcare even more inaccessible.

On the Left, I saw massive corruption and a death spiral for our country. On the Right, I saw the exact same thing. The DNC/RNC dynamic had become a closed system with every action by either side seeming to row the same boat, the only difference being whether the oar was port or starboard. The boat was merrily navigating towards a waterfall of national insolvency and the political elite were the only ones with life vests.

So this is how it came to pass that I campaigned for Trump within my own reach. My goal was meager, but realistic enough to be achievable: I wanted the people I knew to see past the old Left versus Right scam and move forward with a candidate for whom I had objective evidence of being outside the Left/Right boat. Even a bad Trump Presidency would be better than going over the waterfall.

(Please stay tuned for the next part. It’s a long story, so I broke it down into life-sized bites.)