by Mike Young. When the Republican candidate selection process began there were so many people in the mix it was hard to select. My first favorite was Ben Carson but his low key style lost him support as he fell from poll leader too footnote. He is still a great man but not quite right for the presidency.

Next was Rubio with a wonderful personal story and he is a great speaker. Although he seemed too young he was my next choice even though he did support amnesty for millions of illegals. But his star began to fade after I sent him some money. Now the Florida primary election will tell the tail for him. Maybe his time will come but I don’t think it’s just now.

So now we’re down to just three, one that everybody’s talking about, Donald Trump who appears to be on a fast track to the White House.  One who is an establishment kind of guy and then there is the renegade Senator.

How did we get here where a reality star is leading the field? Could it be that people are finely waking up to the fact that the government insiders are all the same? Republican or Democrat they are all in it for themselves. They may have started out with the best intentions but have been seduced by the dark side. Almost all are lying to us. Trying to tell that the economy is fine, that unemployment is low and jobs have recovered.

But as we look around we see fewer small businesses, and more are closing every day. The American people see this but in Washington they are living in another world. The biggest financial problem for American families today is income. Median incomes have been shrinking since 2006. Last month, when the labor department reported February job numbers there was one piece of truth and that was the average hourly wages actually declined.

People are being squeezed in the wake of the Great Recession. The recession supposedly lasted just eighteen months, but the twilight economy we’ve been living in, has lasted seven years. All we have to do is look around us, vacant store fronts a greater number of people on food stamps and increased government support for welfare.

People are angry that they can’t find fulltime jobs with decent pay, and angry that their kids can’t either. Many, many Latinos and African-Americans are living without jobs and once on welfare it’s hard to get off and back to work when the benefits are so lucrative. They are almost as lucrative as government retirements. Yet the vast majority of people still struggle to save enough for their retirement.

Most people know how far the American economy has fallen and they are struggling to get by. In just a couple of generations, we have witnessed our country lose our growth and prosperity, our Mojo. And people don’t like it and neither do I.  I wish fixing the financial problems of American economy was simple but the problems are much more difficult to solve. We have been just coasting along. And now were paying the price. People are mad and that’s what voters are telling Washington.

Everybody’s talking about the angry voters who are supporting Donald Trump but now I think I’m one of them. After listening to the debates there seems to be a ring of truth to what Trump is saying; we’re defending so many countries at our expense. Buying products from countries that shut us out of their markets. Countries send us their people so they can send money home to support that countries’ economy.

Our representatives in Washington have let us down maybe even pushed us down. And we’re tired of it, Democrat or Republican they are no longer the peoples’ representatives they are out for themselves. But Trump is different; he has it all now, why would he put himself and family through hell to run for President? Could it be because he is the citizen politician that our founders envisioned? There has become a class of ruling elites in Washington who only know Washington and have forgotten the people who sent them there.

Trump is not like them at all; he has stepped up because he cares, he loves America and has seen what a mess they have created. This seems like the time we should all reflect on what America is becoming and what we could become. Personally I like Trump’s vision more than the lies we have been told. Someone once said that the business of America was business and Trump knows business. Let’s make America great again!

Mike Young is a retired water and power executive who resides in Mesquite. Graduated from the University of LaVerne he has taught communications skills and technical subjects throughout the Western Hemisphere. In addition to writing and editing technical manuals, he has a book titled “Speaking for Effect”. He has received some of the highest awards and recognition from both professional and public organizations.