Of course you’ve met Trump.

Bigot. Racist. Misogynist. You’ve met Trump through interminable talking heads on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and MSNBC as well as on radio with hosts such as Thom Hartman and in editorial comments in liberal media such as the New York Times. You’ve met him through certain establishment members of his own party. You’ve met him through tens of millions of dollars of demonizing campaign ads.  If that were not enough, you’ve heard directly from Trump’s own mouth statements that confirm every suspicion you might have. How can he even be a viable candidate?

Perhaps we should ask how either candidate can be viable. Never before have I seen two such overtly flawed candidates for the highest office.  If you do not believe your own candidate has serious flaws, then you are part of the electorate on each side that hopefully will not determine the outcome of the election. Both candidates have said things that I do not believe, made promises they do not have the ability to keep, and have flaws that would render them un-electable in a normal year. Each candidate is easy to hate or to discount or to demonize if you look only to the multitude of flaws of that candidate and not to the serious flaws of whomever you happen to support.

This is an unusual time, a time when “outsider” is no longer a pejorative. I have personally reached the saturation point.  I am fed up with: Distorted agenda-driven “news”. Labeling. Name calling.  Political correctness. Focus-group-tested speeches, regardless how well read from a teleprompter. The establishment, on both sides of the isle. Politicians. So…. now I look nearly exclusively at what someone has done in the real world rather than at their perceived political ideology or their promises or their “Pants on Fire” ratings or even at what they say.

Misogynist. Currently Trump’s combined businesses are 57% men and 43% women, but there are more female executives than male executives.(https://www.yahoo.com/news/whats-up-with-donald-trump-and-the-women-not-090043983.html). That would seem to illustrate real world equal opportunity without regard to gender, often in businesses that are typically male dominated.  The women have comparable pay rates to men at the same level. As noted in the article, Trump put a woman in charge of a huge construction project when that simply was inconceivable. Does Trump make horrid statements that seem to support the misogynist label? Of course. He seems to be be equal opportunity at hurling insults. But if actions speak louder than words, his actions seem to shout “No” to the misogynist charge. 

Racist and bigot. You won’t hear about this in the media unless it can somehow be distorted or minimized. But Trump, the supposed racist and bigot, bought a club in Florida, opened it to Jews and African-Americans, and ultimately forced the competition to do the same. Trump fought real racists through real action, not through politically correct lip service. (http://spectator.org/64643_when-trump-fought-racists/). One of his weapons for change was having his lawyer send to the town council members a copy of the very controversial (at the time) movie “Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner”.  When that was not enough to sway the council, Trump sued. And prevailed. Trump’s actions changed an entire community back when what he did risked making him a pariah and when the national media was not paying attention. The current politically correct commentators who are so quick to assign and hurl labels and who feel so good about themselves for their self-perceived lack of bias are not likely to have done anything in the real world that has actually made a difference.  Trump has.  Doing the right thing while frequently saying the wrong thing  may contribute to a flawed package, but I place more credibility on action.

The Hahn issue.  Attacking a gold star family is disgusting, appalling, inexcusable. The ultimate sacrifice made by Captain Kahn should render his parents above recrimination. But when I actually saw the “attack”, my disdain and revulsion turned from Trump to the agenda-driven news media.  That was an attack?????  Trump commented that Mrs. Hahn stood silently and was possibly not even allowed to speak. In-artful, certainly.  But, as seems to often be the case, “in-artful” was contorted into “attack” by the exaggerated political hyperbole of those with a “news” agenda to push.

Tump has demonstrated an incredible knack for saying exactly the wrong thing, which makes him controversial, easy to demonize, and for many of us hard to openly support, sometimes hard to support at all. He seems to often make outrageous statements before he has carefully thought through an issue and then be reluctant to publicly back away from a position that may be preposterous. Not attractive.  Not desirable. But also not terminal. Trump is a negotiator. His opening position is just that and not where he has any intention of ending up. Build a giant wall?  No way that will happen. But stopping or at least nearly eliminating illegal immigration will. Deport ten million illegal Hispanics? No way that will happen either. But the criminals will go.  And those who remain will never become voting citizens without following the law and standing in the existing line to come back into the country legally. Ban Muslims? Certainly not.  But we DO need to carefully vet anyone entering the country. The politically correct media does not seem to have noticed that the danger comes primarily from those who leverage violence through their interpretation of the Muslim religion.

We see highlighted by the news the bombastic Trump, which I personally do not like.  But there is a quiet Trump, the businessman Trump, who actually listens thoughtfully before making a decision. That quiet, respectful, note-taking Trump is not the one we see at political rallies or on the nightly news, but it is the Trump who just successfully met with a potential adversary, the President of Mexico, someone who previously had likened Trump to Hitler and Mussolini. What Trump has demonstrated is a skill for bringing important issues to the forefront and for selecting the right people, not based on race or gender or ideology but rather on sheer ability.  He has a skill for wading through bureaucracy and for getting the job done.  In the process, he has created tens of thousands of actual jobs. We don’t need liberal solutions or conservative solutions or ideological solutions.  We need solutions.We need jobs from the private sector that contribute to rather than rob from taxpayers.  Most of our existing politicians do not have a clue as to how to create those jobs, steadfastly supporting regulations and government bureaucracy that actually block job creation. (e.g., http://www.rightsidesd.com/?p=27441)

Many of the African-American areas in our Democrat-run big cities are a disgrace. So are many of the American Indian areas in states controlled by Republicans. I don’t care who they vote for now or will vote for in the future, but all U.S. citizens deserve better.  What we currently have from our establishment politicians is simply not acceptable. For our country to move forward requires an emphasis on training, education and jobs, the ultimate keys to attaining the American dream. Lip service alone is not enough. We’ve had that for years. We need change, real change. Education requires school choice with every child having access to the best schools, jobs require enterprise zones and available capital. It is past time for the establishment to make way for someone with an approach that can actually work. Even with, and perhaps only with, a flawed, far from perfect candidate, do we have the possibility to make America great again.  Great again for many of our citizens, but great for the first time for many others who have for years been conveniently ignored once their vote has been tabulated.

It may be time to play the Trump card.

***Gary A. Howie MSc, PhD*** is a business owner/rancher and a Life & Liberty News contributor