In a Broken Democratic System, Donald Trump, An American Billionaire Clown, Is Bidding for the Presidential Crown!!

Here is a buffoon with billions of dollars.  Running on his riches with 25% approval rating.  Talking like a thug, yet aiming at the U.S. presidency on a Republican ticket.  Calling his other 15 contenders all kinds of nasty names.  With none of them standing up to him.  Including Jeb Bush about whom he said: "He cannot negotiate himself out of a paper bag!!"

On Donald Trump's head, a cap reads: "Make America Great Again."  Now none of his crowded field of opponents can use this phrase in their campaigns.  He has copyrighted it.  How?!  It is difficult in the law of patents (intellectual property) to protect such a common phrase.  You cannot patent "Hello!!"  But he did.

Trump, a real estate developer, is riding the wave of discontent of the general public.  People are weary of Washington, D.C.; of sluggish economic recovery; of partisan feuding between the Democrats and the Republicans; of economic inequality; of illegal immigration; and of the rise of China whose economy is today's second only to America's.  The words "establishment politics," evoke mistrust and anger across party lines.  On the scale of political respect, local measures are at the top; federal measures are well below them.

Several years ago, I read Trump's book "The Art of the Deal."  There is nothing exciting about that book.  With this publication, Donald Trump makes it sound as if it were the yellow brick road to richness.  And in the age of super commitment to riches, Trump peddles his persona along the line: "I can make you rich too.  I know how to make deals."

So what deals is he promising America if ever he became president -a very doubtful proposition?

• He will vanquish ISIS!  How?!  He says: "I can't tell you;"
• He will stop Mexican and other illegal immigrants from coming to America!  How: By building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.  Then insanely he adds: "I shall have Mexico pay for it;"
• As to China, Trump claims that he, if president, will force China to open up its markets to US products.  "They buy my condos!!"
• How about Russia?!  Trump will rebuild American military might that would scare off Putin from challenging the U.S.; no specifics;
• Thousands gather to hear him.  After insulting a woman anchor on Fox News, his popularity with women jumped in numbers.  His being foul-mouthed makes the public like him.  "He talks like any one of us," they say.  

"Make America Great Again" is repeated by that man who has never before run for any public office.  Through sneers, bombast, vulgar sound bites, Trump has shaken the system.  On both the Republican side (especially Jeb Bush), and the Democratic side (especially Hillary Clinton).  Diagnosing American  democracy, one spots cancer.  Money has subverted this great constitutional system, primarily through one fateful decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the case of "Citizens United," the Court, by 5 to 4, made a bad judgment.  Decided that spending money on electioneering is constitutionally valid.  Why?  A form of Free Speech!!  We know that "money talks."  But that is a saying applicable to transactions.  Not applicable to controlling the outcome of elections -the expression by the citizen of his or her choice as to who represent them in the enactment of legislation.

To American democracy, Citizens United is a cancer whose diagnosis is not hard to find.  That diagnosis is learnt from its impact whose best illustration is the Koch brothers.

• Charles and David Koch, the famous private billionaire brothers are, in the words of Time Magazine of August 17, 2015, "Power Brokers Recharging To Elect a Republican in 2016."  In a brilliant article by Philip Elliott, the brothers, through their unlimited funding of conservative candidates to Congress, "have retooled with more money, better strategy and a new plan for victory."
• How do they subvert the free will of the American people through their massive wealth?  One recent example: They convened for dinner a seaside summit for 450 like-minded conservative donors.  And Charles Koch welcomed his guests by triumphantly declaring: "we grew up with every advantage."
• Their institutional mechanisms include: The Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce; Americans for Prosperity; Generation Opportunity; and Concerned Women for America.  Their philosophy is limited government; their biggest focus for the next two years is on four States (Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia).  Without winning these States, no Republican nominee can win the White House.
• Transparency is not required of this conservative enclave which plans to spend $889 million before Election Day in 2016.  Obama is their political adversary.  While conservative Republican nominees like Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, and Ted Cruz are their favorites.  Said one of the loyal Koch donors, a lawyer by the name of Tim Busch: "These guys are using business principles to create political solutions."

So you can shout "one person one vote" all you want.  But the high dam of dollars lets through the sleuths (openings) selective publicity for or against candidates whose backgrounds may not be widely known.  TV ads are very expensive; massive mailings add to the cost, and the average citizen is caught in the web of hearsay that an enlighted decision on election day is quite difficult.  For this is an electorate as culturally diverse as the American pool of voters.  That is not democracy, but plutocracy -the rule of the wealthy.

Juxtaposing Trump with the Koch brothers yield the same undemocratic results.  For Trump prides himself on being his own funder to accomplish the defeat of the Democrats in 2016.  Thus trying to bring all three branches of government under the low stifling ceiling of conservatism.  Congress, the Executive, and a right-leaning U.S. Supreme Court.  Mixing extreme language with rudeness, he, in a search for "Make America Great Again," yells:

• "I am rich;" and he brags about his prior donations to his very Republican opponents; for the purpose of embarrassing them into silence; 
• On the wings of his private Boeing 757 plane, and his $7 million Sikorsky helicopter, he swaggers like a prize fighter wading into adoring crowds;
• Trump vulgarly mocks the modesty of Jimmy Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  He spreads his hands, curls sneeringly his lips as he says: "Carter had it wrong when he would walk off Air Force One carrying his own suit bag in a show of solidarity with regular folk...  They don't want that.  They want someone who's going to beat China, beat Japan;"
• With untethered megalomania, he looks upon dealing with the world as if he is selling condos.  In his words: "Trump gets things done.  I know how to get things done."  "Jeb Bush (one of his 15 opponents) shall be unable to get things done with China, with Mexico;"
• He claims that other world leaders are "more cunning" than American leaders.  Proof: "The U.S. cannot get its products in China."  And Trump blames American indebtedness to China in the amount of $1.4 trillion, on the claim that "Our people are babies."
• "When was the last time that you saw this country have a victory?  We don't have victories.  What things am I going to do different?  Almost everything."
• Regarding ISIS, Trump has a solution: "We are going to have to do something very strong... One of the elements of what I said is that we go and take over that oil.  We just go in there and we blast the hell out of them, we take over that oil."
• On the Iran deal, he denigrates the expertise of Secretary of State John Kerry, plus that of the foreign ministers of the US other five partners.  "There are things in the deal that I'm sure (Kerry) doesn't even know about that I will find.  And if they make a mistake they've got big problems."

In the present broken democratic system in America, Trump flaunts his billions as a sure way of aspiring to the U.S. presidency.  On the unregulated campaign funding, he dismisses his need for outside donations.  "I'll take your money, if you insist.  But I shall spend a billion dollars of my own money to fund my campaign."

Unfortunately, the present system has availed idiots like Trump a hospitable environment.  His approval rating stands at 25%.  That of Congress is a miserable 9%.  In a recent survey, participants were asked to provide the first word that comes to their minds upon hearing specific names.  The result: "Liar," for Hillary Clinton; "Killer," for Jeb Bush; and "Arrogant," for Trump.

No wonder, David Duke, head of the Ku Klux Klan (anti-blacks), has supported Trump.  Trump's racism has been glaringly manifest.  Calling Mexican immigrants "rapists, criminals, and drug users."  White supremacist feelings are back.  People are, as per the description of The New Yorker magazine dated August 31, 2015 "fearful and frustrated."  By 2030, the Latino population shall be a full one-third of all Americans.  And by 2050, the whites in America are expected to be a minority.

Again to money as a determinant of electoral victory.  With Jeb Bush having raised $140 million, and Hillary Clinton $100 million, for their respective campaigns, the public sees in these figures, an early indication of pre-eminence.  Add to the mix what another Republican contestant, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the darling of The Tea Party, proclaims.  "All politicians are liars and thieves."

In support of that perception, a former political consultant for Trump, Roger Stone, adds his voice.  "There are two things going on.  One is the total revulsion of American voters with politicians and the entire political system.  And secondarily, just the belief that he (Trump) can't be bought."

As a decisive judgment by the Supreme Court, Citizens United has enhanced the cracks in the facade of the representativeness of the American system.  The power of that Court to impact the presidential election system was manifest in putting George Bush II ahead of Albert Gore in 2000.  A disastrous presidency in both birth and war-like approach to foreign policy.  Especially in warring on Afghanistan (2001) and on Iraq (2003).  Both losing wars.

In his new book on the need to amend the Constitution, retired Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, put in perspective the central issue of the dangerous absence of regulating campaign financing.  Said that venerable Justice: "I shall explain why it is unwise to allow persons who are not qualified to vote -whether they be corporations or nonresident individuals -to have a potentially greater power to affect the outcome of elections than eligible voters have."

Centuries before Justice Stevens, the Romans defined the primary motivation for good governance.  In two words: "Liberum arbitrium" (Free will, free choice).  So with the present enfeebled democratic system in America, where clowns like Trump is now bidding for the presidential crown, we should ask ourselves: "Is America entitled to advise other nations on how to practise democracy?"

To me, the answer is No.  Why?  When your own door is broken and left un-repaired, you have no credibility telling someone else to fix their broken windows.