Why is Donald Trump so scary?

It seems that everyone who is talking about him is afraid of Donald Trump - of what he says and what they think he'll do.

Why? It's simple: He represents change.

Americans have been crying out for change for years. Every poll about Congressional approval shows that more than half the population thinks Congress sucks. Still, they go out and vote for their same Congressional representatives every election because it's the 'other guy' who's the problem. Every poll about the President's job performance is just as bad but we re-elected Obie-One despite the problems of his first term.

No one who is outside of Washington likes what's going on inside Washington because it is not doing well for us out here, outside the Beltway. But we still don't really want change. Not even when we're not happy.

So here we have a catalyst for change. For big changes if you listen to what the man is talking about.

Renegotiating trade deals. Changing our medical system so that we have real portability and more control over our medical care and decisions. Keeping us safer. Moving control of and decisions about our children's education from Washington back to the neighborhoods, where it belongs.

There are a lot of changes he's talking about and those changes are big and sweeping and it's why many Americans are 'scared' by him. Or offended, but that's a different subject.

Most people don't like or do well with change even though it can be good for us in the long run. We like ruts. We like routine and same-old, same-old and Donald is anything but same-old, same-old.

In him we have a candidate for president who is successful, powerful in his own way, outspoken and absolutely unlike what we're used to. He's full of bluff and bluster, a 'his bark is worse than his bite' kind of guy. But I don't think any of that is who the man really is. I think what we see during his rallies and debates is an outer persona - the bigger-than-life figure. When I watch interviews with him, that bluff and bluster is absent. He's calm and rational and thoughtful. But that doesn't get replayed again and again and again because it's not as exciting as those moments of outrageous behavior.

Personally I suspect (believe) the private man is far less outrageous, far more introspective and contained in private - within a small group with whom he's comfortable. I say that because The Donald reminds me of someone I worked with for many years.

The man I worked with was someone who had to deal with the political realities associated with his position at a northern California water district. During the 1970's drought, he was blamed and vilified for everything from the lack of rainfall to the rationing enforced on the residents. It got so bad he was to appear at a public hearing and the tension was so high in the room that as soon as his name was announced as the next speaker, the crowd became restless and many began to boo. This man walked up to the front of the room, holding both hands in the air, flipping a double-bird. Not exactly a politic moment - but it worked. It defused the situation because it was so unexpected. The crowd relaxed, laughed and the meeting went on. In the end he didn't do anything but what this man did in situations like that - and I see the same kind of thing in Trump.

Still, we are scared because we are used to all the other candidates who parse their words, picking and choosing them in careful manner. Politicians all take great care not to frighten the people whose votes they want. One of the reasons Rubio and Kasich come across as rehearsed is because they are - they have been taught not to make waves, not to stir the pot.

Trump, on the other hand, says what a lot of us think but don't have the courage or platform to say. They're so accustomed to 'vanilla' niceness that they can't get over the presence of someone who says what's on his mind.

Me? I find it refreshing. It's like a quick dip in a cold pool on a blistering day refreshing. Yes, it makes body parts pucker at first but then, once it sinks in, it's validating.

Aside from that bluntness that many find disturbing is the fact that my brain doesn't screech to a halt at the first obstacle. It seems that a lot of people have their mental clutch slip, catch and seize up when he says something outrageous.

What I see is that most of those outrageous declarations are in the heat of the moment when he's gotten carried away by something. As soon as the thunder passes and he realizes that what he said was ridiculous, he'll walk it back.

Is that a good thing? Yes and no.

Yes because I like the intellectual honesty of someone who can admit when they were wrong. No, because it leads to misunderstanding and fear.

What's different is that a lot of (most) politicians occasionally say stupid things but they don't have the courage to do so. They'll dig in their heels and refuse to admit they were wrong.

That is the big difference that I see between Trump and the others. He doesn't fight the tide like most other pols when he's wrong. Instead, he owns it. Perhaps not 100% as in 'I was wrong', but at least he has the courage to back away from, restate or rephrase which is more than can be said of the vast majority of other long term pols.

What outrages people is often not what he's said. It's what has been perceived that he has said. For instance, that declaration he made about banning Muslims and the fact that it has taken root and sprouted among some. They think, because they weren't paying attention, that Trump wants to ban all Muslims from America forever.

That is not what he said, though. What he did say is that he wants a ban until we know what we're doing. It's not about Muslims or anyone else. It is about us - how we screen people who want to come into the country.

The problem is that the left and the media aren't honest. They don't point out that missing phrase that he spoke: 'until we know what we're doing' That is what the man said in the breath after saying 'ban Muslims'.

And it's easy to understand why someone would say that if you look at how we 'screen' visa applicants. Put generously, the questions on the entry application appear to have been written by a backward three year old and I am not even beginning to make fun of this because it is so serious.

Take a look at this screenshot from the website linked below:

http://www.immihelp.com/visitor-visa/visitors-visa-interview-sample-questions-answers.html

Take a close look at the third question in that list - which you can find if you follow the link provided.

Now, I'm sorry but is that a serious question? Is this how we're screening out potential terrorists? By asking them 'Are you coming here to kill us?'

Yeah, sure. I can just see some ISIS dude sitting across the desk from the embassy wonk, all decked out in his terrorist regalia being asked that question and answering, 'Yes'.

With immigration 'background checks' like that one - what is the point? We might as well airlift known ISIS fighters into the country - or fly them into Mexico and they can walk across our wide open border all by themselves.

This is what led Trump to say we need to ban Muslims - not because he doesn't like Muslims, but because there is a known group of them ready, willing and wanting to do us harm.

There are any other number of stupid statements made by the man, but they can't even begin to be taken seriously by anyone with half a brain. Not unless everyone else in this country can stand up and categorically state that they haven't, at some point in their lives, made some insupportable declaration of 'fact'.

Bear in mind, actions speak louder than words. The fact that he is honest enough to walk back stupid statements tells me his heart is in the right place and that the declaration was spur of the moment rather than an intractable position. He is not a practiced politician. He is a newbie in this realm so hasn't had the training the professionals have had - and I still say that's a good thing.

I hope that when the time comes, and when the inevitable is made clear to the knuckleheaded power-brokers inside Washington that The People want The Donald, those knuckleheads and their media minions will STFU and back him. I think, and there seem to be a growing number of smart people who think that he will do just fine for us.

I hope so anyway.

Now, it's a beautiful spring day outside and I think I'll go for a walk.

Best~
Philippa

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What Was

Yesterday was kind of a peculiar day. A normal day in most ways, but it marked an ending. A beginning, too, but as beginnings usually are, that’s cloudy, unfocused. What’s next is unknown. It remains to be seen. The ending, however, is known. It’s a clean cut – an excision.

Most days do that. They begin and they end. Some endings are good, some not so good, some wonderful, some bad. I don’t know what kind of an ending yesterday was. For me, it was pretty ordinary. For others, it was momentous. In all cases, time will tell but, for now, this morning and the foreseeable future, it’s up in the air.

No matter, good or bad, it got me to thinking of my past, my experiences.

Like most people I go through life not really paying attention most of the time. I get from here to there and back but, if I were asked to say what happened, I’d almost always be pretty hard pressed on the details.

‘What did you do between 9:35 and 10:35 yesterday morning?’ Uh… I was a work.

‘What, specifically were you doing at 9:52?’ Blank. I know where I was, but I could not say, with precision, what I was doing. I doubt, unless it was a monumental moment, anyone could.

On the other hand, there are those monumental times. Those easily recalled moments that, when prompted, act like a pop-up book of memory and images. For me, almost always, they’re the bad moments.

Why is that? Why, out of all the life experiences that I have had, are the bad moments the most memorable? Why is it that I can recall those moments with greatest clarity?

It makes me wonder. Am I unusual? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s that, at all. I just think those moments are the Teaching moments. The comeuppance moments that remind us that, no matter what we might think, we are not entirely in control. It is a moment of Grace – an opportunity to accept and stop worrying over what you cannot do anything about.

One of my worst experiences was on an airplane. My daughter, who was four at the time, and I were flying up to Seattle to go see my sister. Even though, for us, it wasn’t common to fly, it was also fairly routine, something I had done occasionally.

At San Francisco the plane was delayed. Rumor circulated through the lounge that it was late on its first leg because of a mechanical issue.

Okay. Something needed fixed but they wouldn’t fly the plane if there was a big problem would they? I went back to trying to keep my four-year old occupied without disturbing those around us.

Ninety minutes after we were supposed to have left, the plane arrived. Deplaning, cleaning, preparing, that all took another hour.

We boarded, listened to the safety spiel and took off.

My daughter was excited, staring out the window at the ground falling away. Asking questions like a typewriter on overdrive. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat until, finally, I diverted her by pointing things out and describing what we could see.

All is well until… boom over Southern Oregon there is a loud explosive sound from outside, muffled, and the plane jerks – hard.

I have never heard a large group of people get so quiet so fast. It wasn’t silent before, but in a nanosecond it was. Pin-drop on carpet silent with everyone looking at their neighbors as if to ask, ‘did you hear it, too?’ A collective ‘oh shit’ moment. The flight crew is suddenly animated, hurrying up and down the aisle, peering out the windows. ‘What was that?’ That was the universal question.

It was an almost breaking news story. We had lost an engine – one of three on the plane.

To a pilot with a multi-engine plane, losing an engine is worrisome but not scary. Most planes, even big ones, can manage to get along on one engine so long as everything else is working. It’s called design redundancy. Give it more than it needs, in case.

The bigger issue is the controls. What happened to the hydraulic lines? Do they still have rudder for steering, flaps for elevation?

So my daughter and I are in a metal tube, tens of thousands of feet in the air. We are at the mercy of the pilots – are they capable, are they competent?

Ours were. After, perhaps, ten minutes, the pilot announced what we already knew. We had lost an engine, one of three. We had descended to lower altitude and would divert to Portland.

Still, the stewardesses were on high alert, peering and hurrying. In the middle of it, not having the first foggiest clue what’s going on, my child decides she’s thirsty. It is a pedestrian thing, nothing big, nothing out of the ordinary – except for the circumstance. I asked her to wait. She said she can’t. It’ll be a little while. But she’s thirsty now.

If you’re a parent, if you have had only one child, you know the drill.

It’s a calm request at first. Then the hint of a whine creeps into the voice, the face tightens and creases. You try again but it escalates and you know that if you don’t do something, that child is going to get louder and more demanding with each round.

The last thing those several hundred people trapped in that tube who don’t have any control over anything but themselves in those minutes need, is to have a screaming four-year old demanding water. I asked for water. The stewardess gave me a glare that should have left me as a pile of ashes on my seat, but she brought a paper cup of water – from the coffee reservoir, so it tasted like coffee.

My daughter sipped, said it tasted funny. I said it was all they had so she could take it or leave it. She left it, but was satisfied to wait. Mini crisis averted and I turned my attention to the fish fry.

Now, in that little scene are three things:

Normalcy – a young child’s lack of awareness outside of themselves.

Irritation – the glare of someone thinking ‘geez, woman! Don’t you know we could all die?’

Acceptance – yes, I perfectly understood the circumstance and the danger. I also recognized that there was not a blessed thing I could do to change the outcome. Why let my daughter, and the others around us if the tea kettle whistle blew because she thought she was being ignored or dismissed, suffer?

Call it selfish, call it a last request fulfilled, call it what you will, but in the overall scheme of things, it was a tiny thing. It probably isn’t something that woman, and certainly none of the other passengers on that flight that day remember – but it’s vivid in my mind.

Why? I don’t know. I wasn’t afraid. I was worried, concerned, but I wasn’t afraid. There was no point in being afraid – I was stuck, trapped, and totally out of any chance of control. So it wasn’t fear that tattooed that memory into my brain.

There are other memories like that. Most are the not so good variety but, for whatever reason, that was yesterday’s strongest memory. The one presented while I drove home thinking of what was.

We survived, obviously. After about forty tense minutes the plane landed safely in Portland. Along the runway, every few dozen yards, was a line of fire engines – all ready to spray the plane with fire retardant, if needed. As we passed, each fell into line behind us, following us to the gate.

We came to a stop and, as soon as the plane stopped moving, the entire cabin exploded in applause for a Job Well Done for the flight crew. Spontaneous and well-deserved and the rest, as they say, is ‘history’.

It was a good ending to what could have been a terrible day.

As we deplaned the stewardess offered each passenger a $25 discount off our next ticket. I kid you not. $25. I don’t know how many people accepted it. I didn’t. I couldn’t believe that after that, that was the best they would do.

I called the family to let them know we were okay – before the news did it for us. We raced around the terminal, from airline to airline to get seats for the next leg and, ultimately, got to our destination safely.

We did make the news that night, but as a passing comment instead of a headline. And that’s what was, in that time.

Yesterday is another What Was for others. I just hope they arrive safely, too.

Best~

Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories