A True Tipping Point: Events Are Helping Trump

A True Tipping Point:
Events Are Helping Trump

By

Leonard Zwelling

         In 1969, the third Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay
Packers had won Super Bowls I and II before they had Roman numerals attached to
them and it was generally assumed that despite the artificial elevation of the
American Football League to status equal to the NFL, the now AFC representative
had no chance to beat the NFC champion. This year, that was the Baltimore
Colts. Their less than adequate opponents were the New York Jets, led by Joe
Namath.

         The result is history as the Jets and Namath gave birth to
league parity by defeating the Colts in a major upset. This was in the same
decade that Cassius Clay had pulled a monumental upset of his own. Upsets
happen. That’s why you play the game.

         Among the things that can change the ultimate outcome of any
contest are external factors. An apparent winner can become a loser overnight
through a slip of the tongue or events beyond his or her control. We may be
there in this Presidential election.

         For weeks now, without a real plan to do so, Donald Trump
has been chipping away at Hillary Clinton’s lead. While the Electoral College
remains in her favor, the race is clearly tightening and the events of this
last few days are not helping her at all for once again, America seems to be
under attack from young, Muslim males.

         On the streets of New York, in proximate New Jersey and in a
mall in Minnesota, Americans have been injured by radicalized young men using
bombs and knives to terrorize. This has presented Mr. Trump with a golden
opportunity to reiterate his pledge to keep America safe by keeping Muslims out
and denigrating Mrs. Clinton for saying worse things about his followers than she
does about these radicals.

         We are all scared. We have been at war with Islamic
radicalism for 15 years and there is no end in sight. Every time one of these
young people, and the vast majority of the assailants are young men as were the
9/11 hijackers, hurts an American, the pain cuts to the bone of the country’s
psyche. Why can’t the government keep us safe? Why can’t it keep people from
traveling back and forth to countries with populations wishing to do us harm?
If they must go, why let them back in? The answer, of course, is freedom and
what this country stands for and it is not the exclusionary rhetoric of Mr.
Trump that represents the “last best hope of earth.” Unfortunately, Mrs.
Clinton has still failed to make a compelling case for her approach, because we
don’t really know what it would be. Mr. Trump’s pointing to her involvement in
much of the foreign policy mishaps of the past 15 years is a good point.
Neither of the two of them really have an answer to ISIS nor a viable path forward
toward peace in the Middle East.

         So here’s a suggestion. There is no doubt that Mr. Trump is not going to stop hammering away at Mrs. Clinton for her role in Iraq and Libya and
for her reluctance to tar all foreigners with the brush that he is willing to
use. So why not propose a viable alternative that would keep us safe, restrict
our involvement in further wars and lay out a path forward to progress in
Syria, Israel and Iraq, Hillary?

         I am not expert enough to make concrete proposals but I am
expert enough to know that Trump’s are ludicrous and if presented with viable
alternatives, I am sure I could support some sane choices.

         So Hillary? New? How you gonna keep us safe? You better come
up with a good answer because events are getting out ahead of you and are not
under your control and they are beginning to favor your opponent.