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<\/p>\nby Mike Krieger
\nLiberty Blitzkrieg<\/p>\n
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Unless something dramatic happens (certainly possible in this election), I believe Donald Trump will win the 2016 election quite easily, and I believe this victory will be driven by the resentment vote. Forget card-carrying Democrats and Republicans, they will vote along party lines. The key to this election is, and always has been, independent voters. I believe the following chart from Gallup tells you all you need to know about who will decide this thing:<\/p>\n
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By definition, most of the\u00a043% of Americans who identify as independents have serious misgivings about the two-party system and its so-called \u201cluminaries.\u201d As such, both Trump and Clinton should be battling aggressively for this key voting bloc. Unfortunately for Hillary supporters, only one of them is. The other candidate is rallying the status quo from both parties under one large, oligarch-funded tend of cronyism, militarism and business as usual. Earlier this week, I highlighted how the\u00a0resentment vote against mainstream media would play a key role in tipping the scales to a Trump victory (see:\u00a0The Death of Mainstream Media<\/a><\/strong>). Today, I want to look at how the\u00a0resentment vote also targets\u00a0the two-party political oligarchy.<\/p>\n Taking a step back, it\u2019s become clear to me that many members from\u00a0the corrupt status quo of both useless political parties are making a huge\u00a0calculated error by coming together so publicly against Trump. By rallying so aggressively and passionately around Hillary Clinton, the worst of the worst from\u00a0America\u2019s oligarchy\u00a0have succeeded in the impossible. They have made a billionaire reality tv star look like a counter culture iconoclast.<\/strong><\/p>\n When Trump first ran for President, I looked on incredulously as he attempted to portray himself as an anti-status quo stalwart. As someone raised\u00a0in New York City, I literally grew up with this man\u2019s face plastered all over the papers. In my particular corner of the planet, he\u00a0was more ubiquitous in the media than the President. Yet\u00a0as we stand here in September 2016, less than two months away from this momentous national election, the man has remarkably\u00a0morphed into an anti-status quo symbol in real life.\u00a0How did this happen?<\/p>\n The incredible irony of the situation is that in its failed attempts to make him unacceptable, mainstream Republicans have made him palatable. Trump couldn\u2019t convincingly turn himself into \u201coutsider\u201d\u00a0on his own. He needed help, and he has received it\u00a0in droves from the GOP establishment. Meanwhile, the\u00a0most\u00a0pathetic part of it all is the fact that these so-called \u201cconservative thought leaders\u201d and politicians still don\u2019t understand how absolutely despised they are by the general public.They think their \u201cstand against Trump\u201d hurts him, when in reality it just makes him grow stronger and gives him the street cred he never had before.<\/strong><\/p>\n As\u00a0an example of what I mean, let\u2019s take a look at some excerpts from yesterday\u2019s Politico<\/em>article:\u00a0Clinton\u2019s GOP Supporters Expect Something in Return<\/a>:<\/p>\n Republicans backing Hillary Clinton want history to reflect they didn\u2019t help Donald Trump win the White House. But that\u2019s not the only reason they\u2019re bucking their party\u2019s line.<\/em><\/p>\n Access, appointments and influence over a Clinton administration\u2019s policies is the just dessert that a growing slate of conservative policy wonks, Capitol Hill veterans and former GOP administration officials say they expect for endorsing and in some cases raising money for the Democratic presidential nominee.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n And they\u2019re already getting it. From messaging help delivered by Clinton\u2019s communications team to direct and regular access to senior staffers and in-person meetings to discuss policy and strategy, Republicans who have abandoned Trump say the Democrat has given every indication that the GOP view will be reflected in her administration.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n After she is sworn in, these Republicans say, they expect positions in a Clinton administration that go beyond the one or two seats that are typically reserved for opposition party experts in any White House that aims to win bipartisan support and cast itself as a solutions-oriented bridge-building operation. Indeed, while Barack Obama hired Robert Gates and Ray LaHood to run his first-term Defense and Transportation departments and George W. Bush tapped Norman Mineta to lead the DOT, many Republicans this cycle envision GOP voices sprinkled throughout the upper echelon of a Democratic administration.<\/em><\/p>\n Still, Clinton\u2019s team\u00a0isn\u2019t shy<\/a>\u00a0about its efforts to win over some of the very same people responsible for policies that their party has run against in previous presidential election cycles, including former George H.W. Bush White House aide Brent Scowcroft and former George W. Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.<\/em><\/p>\n John Podesta, Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman, and Leslie Dach, a former Walmart executive who worked for both the Clinton and Obama administrations, have taken the lead on the GOP recruitment effort by tapping more than two decades of contacts the two men developed in moving back and forth through Washington\u2019s revolving doors.<\/strong> They\u2019ve been identifying and wooing potential Clinton supporters from different GOP policy, political and business circles, and several Republican defectors who have gone public with their endorsements say the campaign has been quick to swoop in and help them publish and distribute statements and op-eds declaring support, to coordinate media interviews and assisting in wider Republican networking efforts.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As you can see, a\u00a0Clinton Presidency will be a grotesque amalgamation of the worst revolving door crooks in the Republican\u00a0and Democratic parties. Oh, and John Podesta\u2019s brother gets paid $140,000 a month<\/a><\/strong> by the Saudis.<\/p>\n By embracing Clinton, these Republicans say they\u2019ve also gained an easy entry point to communicate with the campaign\u2019s senior brass on both policy and political tactics. Come 2017, they hope their campaign access translates to a new Clinton administration.<\/em><\/p>\n Some of the Republicans backing Clinton say the bar isn\u2019t exactly that high for the Democrat when it comes to their specific policy issues too. Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House who\u00a0endorsed<\/a>\u00a0Clinton last month, said he\u2019d like a promise from the Democrat that she wouldn\u2019t increase taxes. But most important, he said, was for Clinton to keep pushing on Obama\u2019s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, and not to pick someone with a more liberal track record.<\/em><\/p>\n Clinton\u2019s left flank is paying close attention to the Republicans\u2019 rising stock too, and they are threatening to blast the Democrat should she win and then govern with anything less than a progressive mind-set.<\/strong> An early warning of just how close they\u2019re watching: Critics of free trade and fracking\u00a0ripped<\/a>\u00a0Clinton earlier this summer after she put a Democrat \u2014 former senator and Obama Interior Secretary Ken Salazar \u2014 into a job leading her transition efforts.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ooooh, they\u2019re \u201cthreatening\u201d her once she\u2019s already in there. Could Democrats be more pathetic?<\/p>\n