Washington (Gallant Gold Media Hill Report |Opinion | March 19, 2019) –  This phenomenon that we’ve been witnessing for nearly three years now – friends, family and colleagues who we get along with very well, many of whom we even admire, supporting Trump, and we can’t figure out how they can be so blind – can be explained. Cakeism. We’ve seen it before. In fact, illustrations of this are everywhere. Securing a new credit card and jetting around the world. Buying a fancy car when the existing one only has $35,000 miles. Eating delicious cake. Cake is so delectable. Does anyone doubt this? It’s certainly my weakness.

“Let them eat cake.” ~ Marie Antoinette, 1789

When good things are good, they can’t be bad, right? Take low unemployment rate as an example. It’s certainly wonderful. No one can deny it. Who doesn’t love an excellent job market? I’ll take doubles, even triples. Trump announced at CPAC, that the unemployment rate is so low we don’t have enough skilled Americans to fill the open positions, so we need immigrants. Yes, Trump did emphatically state that we desperately needed immigrants, even though he’s demanding a wall to keep immigrants out. He clarified. According to Trump,  we need the right kind of immigrants.

If a low unemployment rate is good, how can it be bad? Very easily. There’s always a downside to a short cut. Consequences are inevitable. Increasing our national debt by a trillion dollars a year, will lead to the death of America unless a fierce and noble leadership team steps in to quickly fix this disaster. Cutting environmental protections, as well as all the regulations that keep our landscapes and health safeguarded, will have very serious repercussions to our food supply, our tourism industry, and our physical well-being. Our crumbling infrastructure can’t be ignored.  Modernizing requires public funds. Taxes. The downside to our low unemployment will quickly become our worst nightmare in the not so distant future.

Cakeism. The belief that there’s only one side of the coin, the good side. The upside. The belief that there are never any consequences for bad decisions or short cuts.

So yes, low unemployment rate is sensational, the same way chocolate ganache cake is to die for. We can absolutely thank Trump for this. Thank you, Mr. Trump.  But an increasingly polarized country, with the far right demanding a civil war (what they mean by this, is slaughtering innocent liberals and their families with assault rifles, the same way the New Zealand terrorist slaughtered innocent families at the Mosque) is a frightening traumatic reality. A corrupt cabinet that undermines our future. A president without a moral code, leading through fear, serving himself, bettering himself, at the expense of everyone else. Extreme weather conditions that will only grow worse, flattening towns, destroying thousands of square miles of personal property, killing thousands of Americans, eliminating our coastal communities and many of our most important military bases.

Destroyed American landscapes. Unattended superfund sights. Gargantuan national debt. Crumbling infrastructure. An entire generation of undereducated. Alarming healthcare crisis. Our cherished institutions, the very pillars of our democracy, smashed. Extreme wealth disparity. Out of control white collar crime. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny,” ~Aristotle, 322 BC

Excellence is what America has always reached for. Excellence has been our collective purpose for two straight centuries. Excellence is what propelled us to become a global titan. Excellence, not cakeism.

I’m sure many of us have family, friends and/or colleagues who’ve made comments to the effect, “I like a lot of his policies, but I’m not a big fan of Trump.” We can now simply reply, “Cakeism. The belief that you can have all the advantages, and never have to deal with the disadvantages.” Cakeism isn’t rational of course. Bad decisions will always have negative consequences, despite the momentary short term gain.

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