Thursday, November 10, 2016

Trump Trauma


Tom Sheppard
11/10/2016

Are you one of those feeling Trump Trauma in the aftermath of the Presidential election of 2016?  If you are, then read on...

#TrumpTrauma has been sweeping the country in the aftermath of the 2016 election.  Many of those who backed Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, or one of the many other candidates whose aspirations were dashed in this election cycle, are taking to the streets to voice their discontent with their new president.

From their statements, "Not my President", they appear to believe that the world as they know it has somehow come to an end.  Other chants of "No KKK.  No fascist state," just reveal their own gullibility to media hype and their lack of understanding of what the word "fascist" actually means.

Many young people today equate the term fascist with the word oppressor.  Some bring in the notion of capitalism and believe the term fascist refers to a capitalist oppressor.  Unfortunately for them, fascist has a very specific meaning, one that is not changed by their opinion.

Fascism, as both a term and a reality, arose in Europe in the days before World War II.  It was attached to both the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany and Benito Mussolini with his Brown Shirts in Italy.  Both Hitler and Mussolini were one-time Communists.  They each broke with the Communist party over the issue of nationalism.

In contrast with the international struggle and triumph envisioned by both Marx, Lenin and Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini wanted to implement a flavor of communism which was focused on the supremacy of their own nation.  With Hitler it narrowed further to focus on the superiority of the Aryan race.

In order to implement their national socialist agendas, they needed to control the levers of power in their countries.  Business was and is a significant source of power in any nation where capitalism prevails.  This fact was not lost on Hitler and Mussolini.  They used the power of their governments to regulate business to the point where it became a tool of government, an arm of the government.

Hitler and Mussolini ruthlessly and relentlessly used all the powers at their command to attempt to subjugate the entire world to their Nationalist Socialist governments.

The transformation of big business into an arm of a socialist government gave birth to a new form of socialism called Fascism.  Among its many admirers in the US were the likes of Henry Ford and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In more recent years, many of those in the US with Socialist leanings have conveniently forgotten the Socialist part of Fascism and instead of being truthful and accurate, use the term Fascist to attempt to paint all capitalists with the oppressive clothing of those socialist collaborators from World War II.

But enough with this history lesson.  I was wanting to address the phenomena I call #TrumpTrauma.

For those who today are despairing because Trump has been elected President, they need to remember a little more recent history.

When Barak Obama was elected President, Republicans and conservatives felt some of the same despair you feel today.  And here, eight years later, they are feeling elated.  The world did not end when Barak Obama was elected President.  It will not end because Donald Trump was elected President.

For those who disagree with the policy inclinations of Mr. Trump, they can do as many conservatives have done for the past eight years, pray for political gridlock in Washington.

As I am given to general pessimism about the value of federal government intervention, I am very much a fan of political gridlock in DC.  Gridlock means that the politicians are unable to screw things up any worse than it is today.

Don't despair those suffering #TrumpTrauma today, the sun will rise and in four to eight years, someone else will take office in the White House.

It is time to behave like mature adults.  Come in off the streets.  Realize the differences between fact and media hype and join the rest of the adults in the country.  There may come a day when your political aspirations of today will come to pass.  You can thank God and the wise men who penned the Constitution of the United States that your political disappointment won't inevitably lead you to a jail cell or to be stood against a wall and shot because the other side won.  Unfortunately, that is what happens today in many other countries around the world, but not in the USA.




Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). 

 The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 


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