Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Has it ever happened before that someone won the nomination for President of one of the major political parties without holding any prior political office, either elected or appointed? 

I mean going directly from being a non-politician, a private sector person, to becoming the Republican or Democratic nominee for President? 

Well, we've had generals become Presidential candidates- and Presidents. But, the job of a general is a government job, since it's in the military. It's not elected, but it is appointed. And obviously, a general like Grant or Eisenhower did have very close ties to the government. 

But, Donald Trump was never even in the military. He was a real estate developer, a developer of other businesses, a television celebrity, and a big name that he marketed well; but, he was never a politician. 

So, isn't this the first and only time that someone with no prior experience working within the government has risen to the top of a Presidential ticket?

Preparation for the White House was always thought to require experience in other political offices, particularly elected offices. Most Presidents from both parties were either governors or senators before running for President.   

So, how did this happen? And what does it mean?

First, I'll tell you what it means. It means that people are disgusted with politicians. They consider them liars, manipulators, and self-serving hypocrites. Voting for Trump is like telling the whole political class to go to Hell. And more sympathetic with that sentiment I could not be. 

So, that's what the rise of Trump means, but how did people get so disgusted with politicians?

That's simple. Things are shitty. People don't believe the government's statistics on the economy. They think it's worse than the government is admitting. And they may be hurting from it themselves. Then, there is Obamacare, which has been a disaster. Mostly the poor have signed up for it, who pay little or nothing. If you aren't poor, you get slammed with high premiums. It's staggering how high they are. Plus, small businesses have been forced to provide Obamacare, raising their costs and hurting their competitiveness. Obamacare is really just another big, wasteful government welfare program that is bleeding money and certain to get worse. They even force insurance companies to insure people regardless of risk. Regardless of risk??? The whole insurance business is based on determining risk. The whole idea of Obamacare is un-economic, meaning that it defies economics. 

Then there are the wars. We're still fighting in Afghanistan- since 2001, and this is 2016, so it's the longest war in US history and with no end in sight. We just lost another American life in Iraq the other day, so that war isn't over either. 

People are fed up, and that's why they're supporting Trump. 

So, what's going to happen? I'm now prepared to say that Trump is going to beat Hillary handily and become the next President. The only way they could possibly stop him is to either cheat and steal the election (rig the machines, etc.) but I'm sure he's got savvy people watching out for that, OR they could go the lone-nut route. Hey, they've done it before. Haven't they?