Donald Trump is not a Social Scientist

I have been reading The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark, and because of my inescapable and gaseous addiction to the the presidential election, my brain flames quickly from the sparks of flint applied to steel. Due to the short length of a blog the flint and steel analogy regarding Donald Trump, conservative ideals, and sentiments of the citizens will be greatly simplified. Trump is the flint and all else is the steel. The flint arrived on the scene a year ago after 25 years of transportation and political lip gloss. The steel has been formed over those same 25 years, residing in the likes of every age group, every nationality, and every race and creed.

Stark’s initial chapter outlines the rise of Christianity from a group of only a hundred folks in Jerusalem in the year 40 A.D. into a quasi calculable 33 million by 350 A.D. Mental gymnastics exercised by everyone from Eusebius to MacMillan have noted that the rise exceeds mathematical possibility, suggesting that miracles were involved. Stark proves that an increase of 30% in Christians per year over 300 years exactly turns out to be the amount calculated at 33 million. In addition, the 30% growth rate of a new religion takes place among family and friends rather than marketing. This growth rate is common to almost every religion’s beginnings.

Christianity naturally grew from family member to friend at a pace common to all movements in history. When Rome realized that nearly half its population of 66 million folks were Christians, the religion’s movement took it’s place as a reality.

The rise of the Trumpian movement seemingly looks like a miracle, or calamity, depending upon your account of the surfeits of applause for The Donald. Incredibly, the growth of Trump’s support parlays nicely into the results before us. In essence, give any solid idea (explained in a moment) time to multiply and the country will be expressly in agreement.

Pundits, consultants, pollsters, and politicos all pronounce the demise of Trump as of late. His non-traditional charism, political sensibility, non-grease palming style, and self funding capabilities have both everything and nothing to do with the Rise of Trumps.

They have nothing to do with him in the sense that he does not invite and attract the regal, the intellectual (not meant nicely), the bureaucrat, the news huffs (modern day reporters), and the traditionalists. These odd groups of folks, not coincidentally, align with the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Elders of the Jewish nation of 30 A.D. They are unabashedly committed to their hold on power, thought, and wisdom.

Trump’s character of charism, politics, pitch, and finances have everything to do with the freeman character he presents without shame. Trump is beholden to no one but the Evangelical, the angst of the population, the constitutionalists, and the morally exhausted. His message, though not reported within a cycle of repetition that he constantly professes, already lies in the avid listener. Because Trump hears the cries of the poor, so to speak, the legions of increasingly dissatisfied citizens have had someone where they can pin their hopes.

Alas, Trump has turned into the donkey at the party where the blindfolded reach out to find the tail. Nonetheless, the poor are still crying. He is no social scientist after all. He’s just what we’ve always thought he was.

The poor, of course, are the Evangelicals, constitutionalists, and morally aligned citizenry who have been set aside as idiots, pawns, fear-mongered fools, and the archaic elderly (not to be confused with the Elders).

Most interesting, though, are the primary issues which gather the poor together. These are the very issues the Trump so boldly projects and so ruinously detracts from the news. He has help, of course, because his bold proclamations about himself and his ebullient turned bombastic asides feed the troughs of the news huffs. 

The list of concerned citizenry has climbed beyond the confines of the fences put up by the relativists in power in our country. The tolerant have become suffering servant. Whether black, white or brown, the population has been told to put their religious belief systems, their constitution, and their capitalist ideals on the back burner in favor of some other ideals. There are no more burners available on the stove top for the tolerant. We have been set aside.

Over time, we have been relegated to our pews with pats on our heads. But the pews seats have allowed us to rest. We’ve had no fight in the political hunt. Now, with absurdity of choice before us in Hillary and Donald, we are apt to choose with surprising clarity. It’s the list of issues which emanates from the choices.

No matter which issue list you review regarding Trump versus Clinton, the same things show up. Every one of the Trumpians, and almost all of the conservatives, Republicans, and Libertarians of voting age, find huge agreement with the Trumpian topics:

• Legal Immigration
  
• Stopping radical Islamic terrorism 
  
• Fostering a sound economy which creates jobs 
  
• Fair trade 
  
• American energy independence 
  
• Protecting the life of the unborn 
  
• Assuring religious liberties 
  
• Upholding the Constitution 
  
• Preserving a conservative Supreme Court
  

The miracle of the Trump movement is no miracle. It’s simple math. These issue have mounted into a crescendo of concerned citizenry. The miracle of a Trump presidency will be the Trump bear will be taken with the Trumpian honey list. We ridiculous conservatives, Christians of Holy Spirit intervention, constitutionalists of loyal fervor, and moral worriers are weighing our options.

No sane person of math would calculate the odds in Trumpian favor. Yet, every single voter who wants even half of the list above realizes that not one of these issues is on the Clinton list. No matter what anyone tells us, we know this to be true.

Consequently, when faced with the reality that Donald Trump is not a Social Scientist clothed in the wolfskin of a pitchman, can the cry of the poor reject the same old same old political degeneration of the Clinton machinations in favor of a bombastic verbal bombardier? Donald Trump will not engender godlike visions of a clear-eyed leader. He will, however, be driven by the above list. 

Eisenhower, Howard Hughes, and John F. Kennedy he is not. He isn’t Louis B. Mayer or Barnum, or Bailey, either. He is more like a mix of Gordon Ramsey, Billy Mayes, Evil Knievel, and William Taft. He’s become a moral champion, a celebrity, and a business man through trail and error. He’s following that same path in his political ambitions.

The flint against the steel has sparked many gaseous flames in much better brains than mine. While we can’t root for him without cringing, we heartily agree with the issue list. We’re pretty sure, though, that the gas-fired flames will probably flame out quickly this time.

God has set us all in a field where evil grows alongside good. The noxious weeds may actually be Cherry Blossoms in the next age, so we must carefully give them some range. When they bite us, though, we’ll choke them out, regardless of the consequences. Hillary has a grip on too many of us, and though we may look like Noxious weeds to the thistle thorn, our tolerance only goes so far. 

We will be putting a noxious looking weed into office that the cry of the poor has no choice but to select. Who is listening to the cry of the poor, though? Who’s list will win out? I dare say that the poor of whom I speak are quite used to living among the noxious. One giant noxious Trump may in fact fit nicely into the D.C. wasteland where noxious weeds already thrive. It’s our necks that are being choked, and sending a bombardier into the D.C. field, who cannot be bought, and attacks political correctness with a machete, may be what we’re all prepared to do.