So it was the taxes after all

What has Donald Trump managed to accomplish after 4 years as POTUS? Nothing, of course. Except lowering the taxes, which may win him reelection, thereby ironically proving the point of his most bland and colorless opponents: "What we need to be discussing is the taxe rates, not immigration, foreign policy and such distractions". 

Why, oh, why didn´t you listen? Not to basic bitch libertarian Ron Paul in 2012, but to his fellow Texan Ross Perot in 1992. Ross had some *really* interesting ideas. Of course, they didn´t sound very constitutional, libertarian or even American, let alone Texan.

They sounded...French. 

So I say the good New World barbars of Murica have two choices in the next decade. Either go full Fifth Republic. Or continue sperging about the tax levels. If you pardon my French. 

Ross Perot's town hall

This is Henry Ross Perot's campaign statement from the 1992 presidential election. Perot ran as an independent against Bill Clinton (who won) and incumbent George Bush. Despite a somewhat chaotic campaign, Perot received 19% of the popular vote, making him the most successful third party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

I admit I was somewhat surprised by “United We Stand”. The book gives a moderate/centrist impression, and is essentially a potpourri of more or less reasonable demands in no particular order of importance. The main issue is the skyrocketing federal debt and various proposals to bring it under control. Immigration is hardly mentioned, and the usual right-wing conspiracy theories about the Federal Reserve and the New World Order are also absent.

This is not how I remember Ross Perot, and judging by Wikipedia, it's not how Americans remember him either. Rather, the Texas billionaire was seen as a dangerous populist demagogue with authoritarian tendencies. Proto-fascist? Perot's peculiar ideas about “Electronic Town Halls” was interpreted as the usual way for a strongman to get his proposals accepted by plebiscite, circumventing the usual checks and balances of the constitution (any constitution). Wiki quotes Perot saying that the Founders would have devised a very different constitution if alive today, due to the impact of technological changes on society. Perot was also interpreted as an economic nationalist and isolationist. After the elections, Perot did become a prominent opponent of NAFTA, warning that it would destroy American jobs.

If read carefully, the centralizing tendency can be seen even in “United We Stand”. Perot is obviously opposed to state rights, and wants the president to be directly elected by the people. He comes close to proposing single payer health care, and seems to support the idea of an Annual Guaranteed Income. Perot also calls for a federally centralized war on drugs, and half-jokingly refers to the official responsible as “federal Drug Czar”!

In my view, Ross Perot represented a budding opposition to economic and political globalization, which was still in its early stages when he ran for president. Under President Bush, the United States had been hit by a recession similar to the 2008 “finance crisis”, and Perot appealed to sections of the White middle and working classes suffering the consequences. He seems to have draw support in equal measure from Democrats, Republicans and independents. What made Perot sound ominous was, I suppose, his thinly veiled calls for strongman rule and open disrespect for the Constitution in its present form. A benign interpretation is that Ross Perot was a De Gaulle or Berlusconi, a more malign one is that the computer wizard from Texarkana was the American Caesar trying to cross the Rubicon (or Potomac).

H Ross Perot eventually failed, and instead we got BAU under several Democratic and Republican administrations. However, it seems history is about to repeat itself. The new Perot on the block is, of course, Donald Trump…

The plain truth about Ross Perot

When I searched for “Ross Perot”, all kinds of peculiar stuff showed up. This was the most peculiar. It's an old issue of The Plain Truth, the magazine of the Worldwide Church of God (WCOG), led by Herbert W Armstrong! It turns out that the magazine interviewed H Ross Perot back in 1974.

The interview is short, and so it the accompanying article written by the editors. Perot, originally from the small town of Texarkana at the Texas-Arkansas border, claims to be a Christian in good standing and defends traditional family values. His company, EBS, turns out to have strict standards for its employees. Unfaithful husbands or drunkards are unceremoniously fired. Perot says that he made so much money as a salesman working for IBM that the company stopped him from continuing – he was just too successful. That's when he decided to quit and start a computer business of his own. The Plain Truth argues that making money isn't un-Biblical, as long as you don't love them and endeavor to give back to your community and your country, something Perot has done by starting schools and scouting clubs for disadvantaged children.

Other articles in this issue of The Plain Truth deal with Satanism and Anton LaVey, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and the importance of family and marriage. Armstrong himself has written an article in his usual grandiose style, “I visited Egypt, met with Kissinger and Sadat”, blah blah. Sure you did, Herb. The strange doctrines of the WCOG are hardly even mentioned, the magazine giving a Christian-in-general impression. In reality, Armstrong preached a message blending Adventism, Mormonism, British Israelism and the power of positive thinking.

As for Ross Perot (who has no known connection to the WCOG), he eventually ran for president as an independent, but that's another story…

Hey, I´m sorry too, Rick

This movie is about a Reagan Democrat who votes Ross Perot only to end up with Bill Clinton. Naturally, he snaps. You know the rest of the story...

"Falling Down" is a near-conservative, half-sexist and very violent movie about an angry White man, named D-Fence, who gets sick and tired of the car lines in LA, and decides to walk through the city instead. Along the way, he confronts stingy Koreans, Hispanic gangsters, a neo-Nazi shop owner and some rich White golfers. The encounters get progressively more violent, as D-Fence gets hold of more and more lethal weapons. Finally, the police is called in and tracks him down. The two police officers are arguably the most boring characters in the entire movie, real nerds!

I'm not sure whether the movie has a real message, or whether it's simply a commercial speculation, but I suppose it's about the alienation of middle-class White males from contemporary America. Or something.

I readily admit that I like this movie, despite the questionable political message. And no, I don't take it very seriously. It's sheer entertainment. Half of the lines and all of the absurd situations are classics. "Hey, I'm sorry too, Rick". "There goes a man with a smile on his face. I'm sure his ECONOMICALLY VIABLE". "Have you seen his wife? SMACK". My favorite character is the Black guy who protests outside a bank, which considered him economically unviable. And my favorite situation is when D-Fence takes care of the crazy Nazi guy. But hey, Rick, I'm a liberal!

:-D

Recommended, if you take it with a very large grain of salt...

Breakfast, anyone?