UNDERSTANDING, with Jontie

Trump Is Not the Problem

Episode Summary

I recently encountered someone on social media blaming division among Democrats for Trump's Presidential victory. This assumed that Trump is the problem. Trump is not the problem, he's merely a symptom of a larger problem.

Episode Transcription

hey guys

it's Jontie from the 'Understanding, with Jontie' podcast

I was just scrolling through social media

and I came across somebody complaining about

you know Democrats how they're divided

and that's why Trump is President

and that if

this country doesn't want to see a repeat of Trump

then they need to come together and stop squabbling

I'm going to say something controversial

I don't think Trump is the problem

I think Trump is a symptom

he's a symptom of a bigger problem

he's a a

a symptom of the ideological battle

we are waging in this country

this ideological civil war

between Republicans and Democrats

and the problem is

a lot of us have bought into this

these ideologies you know

what it means to be a Republican

what it means to be a Democrat

this war that's going on it's win or lose

the other side is gonna destroy the country

our side is gonna save the country

when in fact

both sides are destroying the country

Democrats like to look at Trump

and see him as this aberration

to see him as this isolated problem

that we need to get rid of

if we can just get rid of him

society will be a Utopia right

this this country will become a Utopia again

but then we forget that he lost

he lost to Biden

and that Utopia never arrived

that that world where

you know all our problems go away wasn't realized

so what went wrong

what went wrong is

we're so involved in this war between the two parties

we forget about the deeper problem

which is that both parties don't serve us

Trump didn't serve us when he was in office

and that's why he got booted

we brought in Biden didn't really serve us

didn't really make things better

brought things back to a status quo

and that's essentially

what the Democrats are still running on

this idea that hey

we're not Trump isn't that great

wouldn't that be great if

if we lived in a world without Trump

that's not inspiring that doesn't solve our problems

that doesn't address affordability

doesn't address insurance

high insurance costs it doesn't address healthcare

it doesn't address education

it doesn't address the opportunities of the future

and nobody on the left as far as I've seen

has really addressed this

some candidates have said some good things

don't get me wrong

but the party as a whole hasn't embraced these ideas

hasn't come up with a coherent plan for this country

and so

you know

I fundamentally believe that ideologies are problematic

and we we really need to think from

you know in entrepreneurship

they talk about first principles

from a first principles perspective

like what are the problems

what are the solutions

maybe we pull on some far right ideas

maybe we pull on some far left ideas

maybe we pull on some moderate ideas

to solve the problems we have

you know both parties have good points

which is why they they survive

Republicans talk about

and having a a strong economic backbone to this country

and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that

that is a very good thing

you know people on the left talk about social programs

to make sure

that people don't fall into these cracks in society

and and that's also very good

that's very important the problem is

when you're doing one or the other

the farther right we go the more we allow people

to fall between the cracks of society

the less we care about people

the more we care about money

and this is why businesses

typically side with the fascists

because they're not gonna take away their money

which is what the socialists do

this is what the communists do

they

they redistribute wealth from the wealthy to the poor

until there's no more money left

so

neither Republicans nor Democrats

are solving our problem and then what we do in response

and this is typical in a lot of societies

they go farther right and farther left

but the farther right and farther left we go

the more extreme the solutions become

the more that we end up shooting ourselves in the foot

because yeah

you solve one problem but then you create two more

you create 10 more and the problem that fascists create

are wars is suffering

is apathy is is

you know you give a certain segment of the population

this feeling of being superior

while sending them out to die for you

right because that's the inevitability of a fascist

like they

they unite the society by identifying an enemy

and fighting the enemy

so either you're fighting an enemy outside the country

and so you're killing and being killed

using our resources to do that

or you're fighting an enemy within

and you're creating a civil war

and weakening our society from within

Socialist like I explained

will basically keep won't necessarily get into wars

doesn't mean they can't but less likely

and then typically kind of wage war on the wealthy

you know take the money and give it to the poor

but then societies become lazy

people get used to getting stuff

without having to work hard

and so they become less productive they become less

less innovative and they suffer in the long term

right and so the solution isn't ideology

it's pulling from both both have good ideas

and you might lean right in certain years

you might lean left in other years

but the fundamental problem is

these parties are both trying to

they're both serving their

their own interests

can they get money can they get votes

can they get can they get right

whereas the purpose of these parties

should be serving us

which is why founding fathers like George Washington

highly opposed the idea of political parties

did not believe they should exist

because in the end

they stop serving the people

politicians stop serving the people

and then they start serving these parties

and so it's really important we we

we dig a little deeper we don't fall for the hype of

you know Trump being this aberration

Trump being this this problem

if we can just get him out

you know everything would be better

because we've done it he was booted

Biden came in right

Kamala even offered her vision for our future

and we weren't inspired and that's why Democrats lost

if Democrats want to win

then they better come up with a vision for us

but you know what

I don't believe in that

I don't believe in either party solving our problems

because it's just inherent in the system

it's inherent in the ideologies that they've created

that they just want to serve themselves

they no longer serve us

and so we have to start looking for alternatives

individual candidates that rise above these parties

maybe maybe they run within the party system

because now you have to

but they're not a slave to that system

you know and that's what

that's essentially what Trump did

and Trump has shown us that

the President has this power

to dramatically change things

they can dramatically change things for the worse

or they can dramatically change things for the better

and for me personally I would like a candidate

who dramatically changes things for the better

because I'm I'm kind of sick of the worst

everything has gone up car insurance

house home insurance

uh health insurance uh

food everything

everything is more expensive

and I feel it I

I can't imagine if you were living paycheck to paycheck

it's catastrophic

we cannot allow this to continue

you know

I agree with a lot of things that Trump says as far as

like identifying problems like yeah

we we gave up manufacturing

and then and that's fine

if that's the decision this country wants to make

okay we don't want to do manufacturing

okay great

then what are what

what opportunities will there be in the future

and why didn't we train our own people to do that

and it's not one party that did this

both parties participated

right we

if people are pissed off about globalization

fine

it's not globalization that

that that wrecked everything

I was actually reading some history about

why it is that that Nixon opened up China

and the truth is

he was averting a really big financial disaster

I I thought it was greed

it wasn't motivated motivated by greed

we were gonna end up in a really bad situation

really quick if he didn't change the paradigm

and unfortunately globalization was the solution

but again you know

we could have taken those proceeds

educated our people

and kept a standard of living for ourselves

kept the opportunities coming

but we didn't invest in Americans

instead we

we brought in people from overseas

and took advantage of them

paid them lower wages um

you know brain

drained their countries and it benefited our society

it benefited investors it benefited corporations

but it hurt a lot of Americans and

I'm gonna do a whole series on this

you know the history of America and how we got here

you know going into some of the details

so I can better understand it

and I can help the rest of us better understand it

but I I really just want to keep reinforcing this idea

that one of our problems is just this ideology

just don't fall for it

it's a game that both parties are playing to divide us

to distract us from the deeper problems

that our society faces and if we want real solutions

we've got to stop falling for the lies

we've got to stop falling for the manipulation

we've gotta we've gotta get smarter

we've gotta like stand up for each other

we have to be better people

and you know our

our system of government is incredible

it the checks and balances

have kept things pretty good for a while

but no matter how good a system is

nothing beats good people doing the right thing

and I think this society needs more good people

doing the right thing and that's how we get out of it

we I've given up on media

I've given up on politicians solving this for us

we've got to solve this

but stop fighting this battle

stop fighting this battle we're we're

we're fighting for for Democrats and Republicans

for political parties that aren't looking out for us

they could have changed things

they could have invested in us

they chose not to

let's not turn on each other for them

let's lift each other up let's pick each other up

let's support each other let's educate each other

let's help each other that's what a country does

that's what a society does

and so I hope you'll join me on this ride

and I look forward to

hearing what you gotta say

thanks so much bye