Sunday, September 3, 2017

Trump Brings His Kool-Aid to Springfield

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald John Trump and I were both in Springfield, Missouri, this past Wednesday.  I drove through shortly before noon on my way home from Kansas City, and Air Force One dropped Donnie and his entourage off in the early afternoon.  Neither of us spent any more time in "The Queen City" than we had to.

Trump spoke to an invited and seated crowd at a plant that manufactures industrial fans.  The owners of the factory are well known in Missouri Republican circles and have donated over $200,000 to various state GOP candidates.  Trump said he chose Springfield for his important policy address because, being located on historic Route 66, it represents America's Main Street.  (Of course, by that standard Chicago, Amarillo, and Los Angeles are also symbolic of America's Main Street - and some would argue that those cities are far more representative of American diversity and enterprise than the cow town sitting on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks.  But that is grist for the blog posting of another day.)

It was Springfield where Trump chose to dump his major policy address - an appeal for tax reform.  The speech, like all policy spouted by the Trump administration, was light on specifics, but one thing he did touch on was the need to lower corporate taxes, something that one must assume would help Trump personally, though that is impossible to know for sure because he still refuses to release his own tax returns.

And the crowd cheered as though Trump was proposing something that would benefit them.

Missouri's Republican governor and most Republican state officeholders were there, along with the state's sole Republican senator, Ol' Roy Blunt, and six Republican congressmen - all angling to be captured in news photos with their twitterpated idol. 

Noticeably absent from the Trump love fest was the state's attorney general, Josh Hawley, who is being pressured by party leaders to run against incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill in next year's senate election.   One of Hawley's endorsers is former senator (and Ralston Purina heir) John Danforth, an Episcopalian minister who gave the sermon at Ronald Reagan's funeral.  In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post Danforth cut loose on Trump and declared that he was doing serious damage to the Republican Party.  The minister declared:  "Our party has been corrupted by this hateful man, and it is now in peril."

Hawley has yet to disavow Danforth or his controversial remarks - and he has yet to declare his candidacy for McCaskill's senate seat.  Trump did, of course, use his Missouri podium to take a few tweet-worthy potshots at McCaskill, telling the small crowd essentially that if tax reform did not pass it would be her fault.

Those present were reportedly well sated with the vast quantities of baloney and kool-aid.

Do the honorable thing for once, Donald John, and show us your taxes!

1 comment:

Xobekim said...

Certainly Ol' Roy must be pondering if he can run against McCaskill in order to have two seats in the Senate which he can sell to the highest bidder. It would double his money and double his fun as he has never missed an opportunity to whore his legislative votes.