At Least Trump’s Authentic.

Yesterday morning I was sitting at Panera having my $3.85 cup of coffee and listening to two business guys having a discussion at the next table. They were both in their 40’s, dressed in standard business outfits — suit and tie — which told me they weren’t working on any assembly line.

One guy was telling the other guy that he didn’t agree with a lot of what Trump said, but he liked the fact that when Trump talked, he ‘says it like it is.’ No bullshit, no phoniness, no pretending something when he really believes something else.

“You might not like Trump,” said one guy to the other guy, “but he’s giving it to you straight.”

This whole idea that Republic(an) politicians are straight shooters and Democrat(ic) politicians just tell you what they think you want to hear, has been a standard narrative which defines and separates the two parties since I first heard the word ‘authentic’ being used to describe Sarah Palin’s performance back in 2008.

So, she was an idiot — so what? So, she couldn’t name a single newspaper that she ever read — so what? So, she knew how to analyze the federal budget because she put together a family budget on the kitchen table each week — so what? And she could handle the Russians because on a clear day she could see all the way across the Bereng Strait — so what?