Are You Mad As Hell? Trump Believes You Are!

 The 1976 movie Network featured a rant by anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) that mesmerized and motivated his audience.  He encouraged his views to go to their windows and yell out "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

Our consultant/columnist friend Tim Bryce says that sounds a lot like the anger Donald Trump is tapping in to.

Tim writes - If Donald Trump contributed anything to the political process during this presidential election, he has called the American voter to arms over our dysfunctional government. People are mad as hell about such things as:

- Our weak economy and GDP.
- Unemployment and sending jobs offshore.
- Illegal immigration.
- Declining morality.
- Disrespect for law and order.
- Political correctness.
- Our Middle East policies.
- Energy dependence.
- An overbearing health care system.
- Our general lack of leadership in the world.
- Politicians more imbued with self-interests as opposed to their constituents.
- The decline of exceptionalism and the liberal agenda to transform America into a third world country.
- And much more.

Week after week, the Rasmussen polls tell us we believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Congressional approval ratings are incredibly low, and the president's ratings haven't been above 50% since 2012.

Voters are now expected to accept subservience to a bureaucratic government, a redistribution of wealth, to feel guilty about our religious faith, race and sexual orientation, and burdened by oppressive laws and social mores. We now believe we no longer live in the same country we lived in just six short years ago and we're changing much too fast. It seems what is right is wrong, and what is wrong is right.

Our angst has gone well beyond being just irritated or perturbed, but blossomed into full anger. The fact Trump's campaign, someone not from the political world, rocketed to first place is indicative of the anger and mistrust of our politicians. It's beyond exasperating, it's transformative.

Unlike the Civil War which contested states rights versus federal control, now we are faced with a reformation of the fundamental American way of life, and people do not like it. The voters believe politicians are bought and sold to the highest bidder, and as such, no longer represent the best interests of the people. It should come as no surprise, they feel abused and taken for granted by politicians. Nor do the people truly trust the press who has become the mouthpiece of a political ideologue as opposed to an independent, unbiased source of information. They too are bought and sold to the highest bidder.

Americans are now at a boiling point. The political pundits and press are well aware of this wrath, but choose to do nothing as it makes for great ratings.

This is all reminiscent of the 1976 movie, "Network," where TV newscaster Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch) touches an American nerve by briefly describing the problems of the country, but not knowing precisely how to solve them, he says, "All I know is that first you have got to get mad. You have got to say, 'I am a human being, goddamn it! My life has value!' So, I want you to get up now; I want all of you to get up out of your chairs; I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'm as mad as Hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.'"

In the movie, the producers of the show are surprised when they discover the public responds by doing just as Beale requests.

If a newscaster today asked people to do the same thing, I am confident people would respond with the same vocal frustration as expressed in the movie. It would be an interesting experiment to schedule a specific date and time where the nation would be asked to yell out their window, "I'm as mad as Hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." The press, of course, wouldn't promote this concept as they prefer their control over the people thereby making them impotent. They know full well that an aroused public is more inclined to become active and vote thereby presenting a genuine threat to the status quo.

Let's hope we find a new Howard Beale well before the next election.

Keep the Faith!

Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com