Ayn Rand Wins

It comes out somehow that the reason Donald Trump likes Rex Tillerson is they are both fans of Ayn Rand.  So is Paul Ryan.  And when you look at the mix of Billionaire and ex-Military men in the nominated Cabinet members it is easy to discern Trump's philosophy of he only likes people around him who project strength and a willingness to use the rules and power they have to enrich themselves and protect themselves from any attack.  This of course has led to abuse of power and contracts in many cases in history.

I have not read Ayn Rand, I tried once but it was too dense for what I like to read.  The synopsis of what she stands for is "own Happiness is the primary goal of each individual" and anything that encourages that should be allowed by the government.

But in our corporate America, with the premise in place by the Supreme Court that corporations are individuals, that can lead to a principle that corporations should have the power to maximize shareholders wealth over all other interested parties including society at large.

While it is certainly true that individual's rights are greater than society in some or many cases, there are other cases where society's need is greater than the individual's rights.  Freedom of speech and the right to not be discriminated against are in the 1st category, while the need to pay for national defense, protect the environment and provide a social safety net are in the latter category.  Where you draw the line on this is the basic difference between the parties and the campaign was not run in a manner where these lines were clearly delineated because the campaign was run in the gutter.

So while Trump did not get a mandate, he is preparing to govern like he did get a mandate.  Lord help the balance that we have seen in the past between Republican and Democratic Presidents has been tossed out the door and right now I can only imagine the worst as "individual pursuit of happiness" becomes the governing mantra.

As this becomes clearer, I get madder and madder at the Clinton campaign.  They believed they had an electoral college strategy, but they lost the 12 swing states by 800,000 votes.  I truly believe they were so full of themselves and convinced they had the right strategy that they never operated below 30,000 feet and got trampled in rural America because they ignored rural America.

Democrats have to find a set of policies and communication strategies that appeal to rural America.

Meanwhile, the Senate Democrats are going to have to find a balance between obstruction and getting things passed that can help Democrats campaign in rural America.