On the appeal of Donald Trump, and the angst of American voters...

The GOP primaries are coming up shortly, and I find pretty good entertainment from its primary season. On top of having a real entertainer (Donald Trump) in their line-up, the GOP has every other man (and woman, in the form of Carly Fiorina) seeing themselves as the next US president when they look themselves in the mirror every time, never mind whether they are up to it or not. While a few losers (hello, Bobby Jindal) admitted defeat, there are still some ten of them refused to admit to the fact that they're just wasting their own as well as everybody else's time. Early on, I have thought Jeb Bush might be the one, given the name stake, the money machine and establishment solidly behind him, and the relatively moderate tone in his rare speeches at the time; but no more. Now Bush is just decidedly an also-ran, giving way to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Who would have thought, even just a few months ago. No matter, Trump is still sitting at the top, seemingly unfazed by any attacks to him about his outrageous acts, speeches and positions; in fact, the more outrageous he sounds, the more support he seems to get, perhaps even from the disillusioned Tea Party voters.

I would be the first one to admit, I'm totally turned off by Trump the entertainer, what with his very fake hairdo, very artificial tan on his face, and the very outrageous speeches. Oddly though, I find certain part of my inner self saying, there is certain appeal in what the guy is saying, or at least what he represents. No, I'm not saying at all that Trump represents the little guys completely, but he's willing to go out there, and say the politically incorrect things that most people have on their mind but are unwilling to say it due to etiquette, or politically correctness. Even Trump's manner and tone, the crassness that this guy has come across, the decidedly low-classness (billionaire notwithstanding) would mirror a lot of little guys whose voice has long been ignored by establishments from both the left- and the right-side of the aisles in Washington. Remember the 1960s movie Network? Trump has succeeded in channeling that famous quote "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." That's what all the Trump supporters have wanted to say.

I have no doubt that there's sufficient disillusionment from the left, of Obama's Audacity of Hope campaign slogan that has fallen way short of the false hope that Obama has sold to the voters. While he might be the first black president to take the White House, his impact is really largely symbolic. He is not really that different from any other Democrat's president (say, Hillary Clinton). Under his watch, the livelihood of the blacks hasn't changed much; in fact, given all the incidents underlying the Black Lives Matter campaign (if you can call it a "campaign"), it's really just same old, same old. Yes, he pushes through Affordable Care Act (dubbed as his namesake ObamaCare), but it's nothing about healthcare reform that it's claimed to be, which at its core, is simply a health insurance change, rather than healthcare coverage change. While ACA doesn't affect me at all personally, I can certainly appreciate the anger from those people who are forced to seek and buy insurance coverage, or risk paying penalty, particularly in those states where the plans available from the so-called health exchange are getting pricier due to insurers exiting poorer states.

There has been much talk about the explosive growth of student debts in just the past decade and a half, and Washington failed to act on it to ease the load. Why? Because politicians in both parties are all in the pockets of lobbyists whose interests are in protecting the investors' interest (hello, Wall St) rather than the voters.

And then there is widening gap in income and wealth. To be sure, government policy shouldn't be about redistribution of income and wealth, but there is nothing that helps in leveling the playing fields. All everyone wants is quick fixes. GOP wants school vouchers, rather than fixing broken/failing public schools. Democrats wants to give more money to teachers unions, but no guarantee of results. Nobody wants to test the students, saying they alone can't fix failing student performance. So, what do we do? Instead of testing every students to find out where they're at (as demanded by No Child Left Behind Act), Obama is throwing the baby out with the bath water by repealing NCLB and rebranding it as Every Student Succeeds Act. And what does it do? You can still test the students but no one will be held accountable to the test results, hence why would anyone care? Yes yes, education is hard to fix, education requires long term vision and investments, precisely the kind of things that US seems totally incapable to do these days. Is that why every other voters get angry? I know I would.

Same goes with issues in affordable housing. Democrats and liberals in general want us to believe that in order to lift the lives of poor, the quickest way to fix it is to let them live side by side with the wealthy. The thinking goes, that would be an immediate resolution to allow poor families and children to have immediate access to better schools and facilities. No one wants to do the tough job of fixing poor neighborhood. What ends up happening is, the well-to-do feels squeezed and the poor feels envious. Is there any wonder why no one loves the "poor door" arrangement in New York City, even though the poor fight over each other's bodies to get their hands on it like it's a lottery won already? It's only going to benefit a small handful of families while the rest of the dilapidated neighborhoods continue to flatter, yet politicians can claim they are doing something to help the poor without even trying.

And don't get anyone started on the economy which is picking up speed, so much so that the Fed feels prudent and comfortable to raise the rate, the first hike in eight years. As impressive as it may sound, in this two-speed economy when the well-off class has been doing quite well already and can surely handle a 0.25% hike, everybody is still waiting to see their green shoots, particularly in states that are not on either coast.

While US and Europe have been wallowing under the weight of the Great Recession, China has been flying high. Even with the slowing growth in China in the past couple of years, its economy has come a long way so fast that it's been the World No. 2 and is set to overtake the No. 1 position by US as the world's biggest economy in coming years faster than anyone might think. While the Chinese in general feel a sense of hope in their future (matched by the aply named China Dream slogan), with the diminishing world dominance, the American Dream looks decidedly broken. The stature of being an American doesn't count for much anymore in the world stage, even as a tourist these days. Who are we to lecture others about human rights (or abuse), civic society, government structure, ideology and more? When you're going downhill, you lose the rights to gloat about how good you are, because others have shown that their alternate form of government and society can do just as well, maybe even more so.

This is on top of all the disastrous major military undertakings overseas, in the form of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the heedless foreign policy that aims high and shoots low. George W Bush would say democracy to be the cure of all evils, Obama openly praises Arab Spring to give powers to the people, all these are but ideological talks without understanding what that would really do to a society. So, one by one, stable (authoritarian and oppressive, notwithstanding) governments were toppled, the aftermath of which US has not prepared for. In their stead, power vacuum is created in every other country in the Middle East, allowing radical terrorist groups like ISIS (even worse than AQAP) to spring up, displacing residents with civil wars. Is there any wonder millions are rushing the shore of Europe in the refugee crisis this year? The Paris attacks were horrific, but it's just a matter of time that it happens. No one wants to imagine that to happen in US, but the San Bernardino shooting should be another wake-up call to show how easy this is to be carried up, planned by just a few nutjobs.

The list goes on.

It's in the news, day in day out. Is there any wonder why voters are anxious, angry, and feel vulnerable? It can be just as upsetting when average Americans are told we're just fine, that things are really alright, that economy is good (even though you don't feel it), that our kids can really compete in the global marketplace (even though more jobs are being shipped overseas), that we are all over-reacting, that we should open our borders even more (even though a lot of voters are already feeling overwhelmed by competing for jobs locally), that we should pay for more refugees to come in to show our goodwill (even though a lot of classroot voters can't even put food on their table or pay their bills).

These are messages that Donald Trump is saying out loud that no one wants to say it and his anti-establishment message personifies, because to do so is to admit defeat (that our economy is bad, that we're losing the No. 1 position, that we're too poor to tell others what to do or listen to us, that some developing countries are living a better life than we do, free speech be damned because politically correctness is killing the "free speech" in this country anyways).

It is thus that I'm not surprised to see that, as anecdotal as it is, even a Democrat voter is going for Trump. While I don't think Trump has what it takes to govern a country, he would have no trouble attracting sufficient protest votes to tell both GOP and Democrats that voters don't want either of them anymore. And while die-hard libertarians and Tea Party voters might not warm to Trump, he would appeal to their contrarian spirit to, heck, upset the status quo, for a change.