Make America Sane Again

Make America Sane Again has been a call to arms for many of us during this 2016 election cycle. After watching the near decimation of our Constitution over the past 8 years, this was supposed to be a time of resurgence, a time for America to return to her roots, to her founding principles and guiding beliefs.

Instead, this election cycle has become a reality T.V. show. Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy in mid-2015, he has had his run of the field, nearly unlimited press coverage, and an unmistakable ability to take any story no matter how negative and turn it to his advantage. In fact, a long-standing joke in regards to his campaign was that he could shoot someone and still would lead in the polls. The question is why?

It is said that the political will of the people ebbs and flows similar to the tide. This seems to be true today. The American people are angry and they feel betrayed by those they send to Washington. This was first evident in 2008 when a relatively unknown quantity came on to the scene: a junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. Despite no one knowing who he was and what he stood for, he was able to sway the American people, to make them believe he alone was their best chance to make real change in DC. Despite his rhetoric, there has been little change and what has changed has not been for the better according to public opinion. With the Tea Party movement bursting onto the scene in 2010, the momentum seemed to be shifting. In that midterm election cycle, the Republican Party retook the house but were unable to take the Senate. Still with these changes, those of us of conservative leanings assumed 2012 was our year to retake The White House. In fact, that was around the time that I began speaking out against this administration first on a political Facebook page and then eventually on an Internet-based radio talk show. For over five years, I have lent my voice to trying to show the American public clear differences between the new brand of liberalism and political conservatism. Again, we thought 2012 was our time to shine and we were told Mitt Romney was the man to get it done. Now while Romney embodied many of the qualities we were looking for in a candidate, he was practically no one’s first choice. Many of us did what we felt was our duty and rallied behind the nominee however. We picked up our banner and marched off to do battle in the name of saving the republic. The Romney camp, however, seemed to not hold the same fire in their belly. Despite clear advantages after the first debate and catching President Obama in a flat out lie in the second debate, Candidate Romney refused to press the advantage and went on to lose the 2012 election, despite the terrible state of the nation from 2008-2012.

Now fast forward to 2014. Public sentiment is even more downtrodden when it comes to the state of affairs in DC. Congress as a whole has an abysmal approval rating, and Obama’s isn’t much better. Couple this with the fact that the President has decided by this point to do an end run around Congress using his pen and his phone to pass down edicts, and the American way of life seems more near extinction than ever. The founding fathers in their infinite wisdom, however, divined a completely bloodless way to change regimes through elections and 2014 was an opportunity to do just that. In what could only be grudgingly deemed a mandate by the press, the Republican Party increased their hold in The House of Representatives and even managed to wrest the majority back in The Senate. Despite very clearly defined promises made during this last election cycle, the new Republican majority in both houses seems to have accomplished very little. This lack of action has managed to continue to fuel the anger of the American people on both sides of the aisle, but does seem to be focused more within the Republican ranks.

Take the anger of every day Republicans, add one overly verbose businessman with a devil-may- care attitude, mix in nearly unlimited press coverage, and you have the birth of a movement within America. With his tag line Make America Great Again, The Donald has mesmerized an entire segment of the American people.

Now I have to be completely honest. When Trump first came onto the scene, I was a supporter. I enjoyed the way he basically told everyone exactly what he thought and couldn't care less about the consequences. Let us not forget however that I am a talk show host, research is my lifeblood. So I did what I always do and started taking really long hard looks at the candidates. One of the ones who always seemed to come up short was Trump. Having two special needs children of my own, one of the first times I noticed a side to The Donald I didn’t much care for was when he attacked a reporter with a congenital disability while on the campaign trail. This behavior led me to begin to look more closely at the things he was saying during debates and press coverage. What I found was contradictory information on almost every stance he was now taking publicly. I realized with some serious trepidation that it seemed candidate Trump was simply doing what any good salesman does and telling a potential customer whatever they needed to hear to close the deal.

I know what you’re thinking because I hear it every time I begin to chink away at the Donald’s armor: Rick where’s your proof? Rather than outline the myriad of proof here, I would encourage you to visit Stitcher, I Heart Radio, or FM player and search “America off the Rails” This is my syndicated talk show that began on the Internet and is expanding into terrestrial markets as well. I have weeks of material outlining Trump’s contradictions using sound bites of his own words. Couple this research with his open and blatant threats against people who choose not to support him, and the rival candidates, and we have a serious problem. Add in his blatant threat against the press to loosen liability laws if he becomes President and you begin to see what many of us have been saying for months. Conservatives, who have ridiculed the overly emotional Obama supporters for blindly following a man based on rhetoric and not actions, are now doing the same thing. When given the chance to show a clear difference between the parties and shine a beacon back to the founding principles of this great nation, they instead embraced what they ridiculed for the past eight years: a candidate spinning rhetoric rather than showing principles.

This has led to a schism in the Republican Party and one I am not sure it will be able to survive. We have had a lot of the bigger names in talk radio blatantly supporting Trump while claiming the opposite. We have seen a rise in the “Alt Right” movement, which in plain terms is the new label for the White Power and KKK movements, also staunchly supporting Trump. We have seen a rise in the very tactics the right used to lambaste when used by the left now becoming common practice during this primary season. This has been nowhere as prevalent as within the Trump camp but I am sad to say has been happening across the right. This is one of the things that led to the Make America Sane Again movement. Hitting the scene a few weeks before the Never Trump movement and remaining markedly less prevalent, it has still in its own way made a small contribution to the slowly turning tide when it comes to Donald Trump. So as we inch closer and closer to the November election and what looks to be more and more a contested convention this summer, those of us that still embrace the constitution and love what it stands for can only hope that in some way Cruz makes it to the general election. Make no mistake, Cruz was not my first choice and not even my second, but in my honest opinion he is the last true conservative in the race. He is also most likely our last hope to “Make America Sane Again.”

About The Author: Rick Robinson is the host of America off the Rails, a production of The Spark Radio Network. It airs live every M-F at 1Opm EDT on K98TALK. The show's terrestrial flagship is WNJC 1360 AM in Philadelphia. It is also available on many Internet outlets, such as Red State Talk Radio, SHR Media, and AMFM2447.com. Coming soon to iCRN and the Dallas TX market.

Source: AAN