Gino is back in the game

After about a year away, our friend Gino is blogging again. And he cuts to the heart of the matter, as he is wont to do, in re his reluctant but steadfast support of the president-in-waiting:

Though it was a choice I had decided to not make in the beginning, Trump was the only one out there actually speaking to the issues that mattered the most to me, and to most people who reside within my socio-economic tribe: the loss of our nation's manufacturing base, the transfer of decent jobs across the border, the unwillingness to defend our borders, and a perceived (if not real) all out assault from the Powers That Be on what being an American was all about.

Standing where I was on the sidelines while in much agreement with those of my Tribe on the issues, it really pissed me off seeing Trump's supporters branded as ignorant, racist, stupid, deplorable, and 'not part of America'. I had to stand with my people. There was nothing else... no other righteous decision left for me to make.

Over the past year, my operating assumptions were different, but since Trump won the election it's become increasingly clear that the Left is essentially unhinged. By training and background, I'm actually part of a different "Tribe" than Gino, but I've come to similar conclusions since the election. Back to Gino:

Something very different and polarizing was happening in my country... Where one side used to try to convince the other side that their cause was better, we had a complete turn around. It came down to "if you are not on our higher moral plain, then you suck!"

He's right about that -- the Left in this country is censorious 24/7. The statements I see now from the port side are not reasoned arguments. Instead, we get denunciations. I've long had the sense that the Left's demands are simply calls for orthodoxy. When someone is more interested in identifying and punishing apostates than in finding converts, it's always a sign of trouble.

I'm almost certain Trump will disappoint his voters, in large ways and small. Politicians all do that. Still, I sense there's at least an opening now for a needed discussion, rather than a listening tour that's really a lecture. We'll see. This much I know -- I'm glad Gino is back in the game.