Each action has an equal and opposite reaction!? Yes, I remember something from science other than how to impress the girl beside me. Since the times in which my greatest worry was who I might take to homecoming, I have become much more concerned with the direction of this country. I was in middle school during the Clinton reign where he created over 20 million jobs and revitalized the economy after the first President Bush's anti-progressive policies crushed the economical landscape. Besides President Clinton's continuation of the "War on Drugs" there was no reason to suspect a country flourishing with systemic growth and prosperity sparked by Democratic policy would so quickly vote in a Republican. Then, Monica Lewinsky happened. Eight years of a successful progressive results turned into mush because the Commander and Chief had an affair. The reaction of the American people was disgust and prompted us to want more than results from our president, but also the requirement for at least a perception of great moral purity. As a result our next president is the good old boy from Texas with a southern drawl.
The straight talker that would help you change a flat, then take you out for a beer. That brewing soup of southern hospitality name was George W Bush. Though elected through very sketchy means, one might say the race was too close to ever come down to Florida considering the success of the progressive policy of his Democratic predecessor. Nevertheless, the overreaction to a scandal by an otherwise B+ at worst presidency by a liberal, resulted in a neck breaking shift away from policy that had this country clicking on not all, but most cylinders. Newton's rule displayed its merit once again by showing us that nothing and no one is immune to reacting to an action in history or in science. The Bush years were greater for the 1% than the 99 and greater for big oil, than it was national security. Though President Bush did not have a moral scandal in the form of adultery, the images of Hurricane Katrina's devastation altered the political landscape once again. Young minorities became interested in politics like it hadn't since the Civil Rights Movement. The idea of hope and change filled our spirits and captivated our minds. As a result our next president became the most unlikely of elected officials as democracy spit out its first African American president, Barack Obama. But, the price of making history isn't cheap. Electing a black man to lead a country still healing from the scars of slavery, segregation and the invisible yet very real racial divide was outright racism. Not the closeted racism that came to pass over the past 20 to 30 years, but instead the out in the open, on the campaign trail/on your evening news racism. It gave the new president and our country as a whole an opportunity to talk about race in a more honest and direct context and frequency.
This brings me to why I've connected all of these dots.... "President Trump" Is NOT Inconceivable! The overreaction to a very successful president with a scandal is a less successful Commander and Chief with a southern drawl. The overreaction to that southern slicker leaving a city in the deep south below water in a minority community was those minorities showing up to the poles to vote in one of their own. The result of that minority President's election was a willingness for news channels to call our sitting president "The Welfare President". Finally, the result of our sitting African American president is conservative support for a candidate that calls Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, suggest that a strong woman journalist must have been on her menstrual cycle when asking him tough questions, and a willingness to demand a ban on all Muslims entering the United States of America. Whether that soldier in our army or simply a citizen on vacation. Today Donald Trump has 45% support in the Republican primary. His supporters overreaction to having a black man lead them is to support someone who will openly spew bigotry on the campaign trail. History doesn't just seem to repeat itself, it responds to itself.
I think America needs to stop this cycle in which history seems to be made by an overreaction to its own most recent history. We should build upon what a president did right and make up for what mistakes he (or maybe in the near future, she) has made or will make. Instead of dismantling his or hers hard work and doubling down with an extreme resolution for a very minut shortcoming. Newton's Law is indeed right, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But, for our countries sake let's hope Newton's truth skips a presidential cycle this time around.
Aaron Kershaw Polygraph Politics