Political Junkie

“It’s nothing personal. It’s just business.” This phrase appeared at the end of the opening titles to President Trump’s long-running, successful reality TV show “The Apprentice.” Because Donald Trump and the contestants on both the regular and celebrity versions of the show understood this, he maintained good relationships with most of the participants even after he fired them.  Erin Elmore , Herschel Walker, Stephen Baldwin, Gary Busey, and Trace Adkins, to  name a few  former “Apprentice” cast members, have all jumped on the Trump Train even after he directed his infamous phrase “you’re fired” at them. The guiding principle of “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business” carried over into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Throughout his campaign, Trump made several business decisions designed to strengthen his hand as he sought to accumulate the number of delegates necessary to clinch the Republican nomination. One such decision involved  replacing  hi...

Just hours before the filing deadline to secure a place on the primary ballot for both presidential and local races in Alabama, two well-known figures decided to throw their hats into the ring.   Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg filed to run in the state’s Democratic presidential primary while the state’s longtime former Senator Jeff Sessions decided to run for his old seat after all. High-profile political figures waiting until the last minute to announce runs for office appears to have become commonplace in American politics. Following the failure of his presidential campaign, Florida Senator Marco Rubio swore up and down that he would not run for re-election and that he would become a “private citizen” in January.   However, the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in his home state appeared to convince Rubio to change his mind and he decided to run for re-election.   As soon as Rubio entered the race, most of the other declared candidates jumped ship; inc...

With 2018 almost completely in the rearview mirror, the first full year of the Trump Presidency has provided Republicans with many lessons that they ultimately learned the hard way.  1. The Moderate Democrat has gone extinct.  When it comes to building a wall on the southern border with Mexico , nearly  100 percent of Democrats in both Houses of Congress find themselves siding with big business; something that yesterday’s Democrats, who thought the party represented the interests of the working class, would find unimaginable.  While several Senate Democrats pitched themselves as moderates as they fought uphill battles attempting to win re-election in ruby red states, their voting record tells a different story.  Only one Senate Democrat , Doug Jones of Alabama , voted to end debate on a House-passed stopgap spending bill that included money for the wall. Joe Manchin of West Virginia , who ran an ad highlighting his support for the wall...

During an appearance in Missouri at the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention, President Trump touted the confirmation of his new Veterans’ Affairs Secretary, Robert Wilkie, whom the Senate confirmed earlier this week by an 86-9 vote.   He told the crowd to take a look at the “no” votes, referring to them as “super-lefts, who are running against me in two years.” All of the “no” votes for Wilkie came from Democrats.   At least five of the nine candidates have established themselves as 2020 Presidential hopefuls.   Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts all voted against Wilkie, as did Senator Dianne Feinstein of Califiornia, Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon; none of whom seem to have presidential ambitions.   Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon , who also voted against the nomination, may emerge as a dark...

While Ann Coulter and maybe even President Trump could probably write a whole piece on the consequences of not putting America first, I will instead choose to write about the consequences the Trump Administration has faced for putting America first, or in some cases, simply trying to. For many years, politicians in both parties have effectively worked to put America last; whether it’s by propping up China on the world stage, which only accelerated the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs overseas, supporting an immigration policy that does not take the country’s national interest into consideration but pleases big business, or signing onto international agreements that undermine our national sovereignty.   Hoping to set a different course for the nation, President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, which required the United States to start implementing “greener” energy sources in the very near future while letting the world’s biggest ...