Trump Proves Nietzsche Right: What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us Stronger

 Nicholas Waddy

By Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy 

President Trump’s electric rally in Wildwood, New Jersey proved one thing for certain: those Democrats who had hoped that impeachment and a Senate trial for “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress” would leave Trump deflated, and his supporters shell-shocked and crestfallen, have come up empty.

For one thing, Trump’s visceral connection with his Republican base is stronger than ever. 175,000 people in deep blue New Jersey tried to attend Trump’s rally, featuring freshly-minted Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew. It was held in a stadium that seats just 7,500.

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings among Republicans remain at record highs, and his primary opponents in the race for the Republican presidential nomination are running on fumes.

But it isn’t just Republicans who are flocking to Trump’s colors. Trump, in the wake of four years of concentrated, vicious attacks from Democrats and the mainstream media, and in the midst of a bitter battle over impeachment and removal, is notching the highest approval ratings of his presidency. Democrats and liberals are beside themselves: every time they think they have Donald Trump on the ropes, he rights himself and delivers a series of counterpunches, leaving his would-be attackers dazed and confused. What’s more, the crowd inevitably rallies to Trump’s side. His legend grows, and his chances of reelection rise.

What’s truly gratifying for Trump supporters, though, and especially for those who have attended his rallies in person, is the fact that, despite all the slings and arrows that Trump and his movement have faced, the people surrounding and cheering the President have never lost their optimism and their sense of fun. Trump rallies are full of smiling, laughing people — people who embody and reflect the same boyish enthusiasm, self-deprecating humor, cheerfulness and tenacity in the face of vilification, and unalloyed patriotism, of Trump himself.

Trump is the happy warrior, the bearer of Reaganesque wit and positivity, and his supporters eat it all up and reflect it back to him. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, and a testament to the basic goodness and hopefulness of the American spirit.

Democrats, if they hope to win in 2020, should start by admitting the obvious: their campaign of personal destruction aimed at Trump, his family, his administration, and his supporters has failed miserably. Four years after their slash and burn crusade began, Trump and his movement are indeed stronger than ever.

Democrats might be forced to try the unthinkable in 2020: give up on hate, and attempt to construct a positive vision for the country that would justify a vote for (God help us!) Joe Biden, or Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren, or Mike Bloomberg.

Good luck to them! Donald Trump has been writing a tender, lighthearted love letter to America for the last four years. It won’t be easy besting a man who enjoys such a natural rapport with the American voter.

*** 

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480.

About the author

Correspondent

46 Comments

Click here to post a comment

Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us! (Email & username are optional. To leave a name, click on the email icon)

  • Meanwhile back at the ranch

    Donald Trump takes out another terrorist leader: U.S. kills Al Qaeda’s chief in Yemen in an airstrike after he repeatedly threatened to attack American soil
    Qassim al-Rimi, 41, was killed in the January strike but officials had been waiting to confirm the information before making public statement
    The Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has been keen to attack the U.S. and Europe
    Confirmation of al-Rimi’s death would mean a significant blow for the group

  • Meanwhile back over to former DEMOCRAT presidential hopeful Mikey Avenatti’s issues

    ‘Audio released Friday reveals the comments that landed Michael Avenatti on trial for allegedly attempting to extort Nike.

    “Look, Scott, listen. I’m not f–king around with this,” a voice identified as Avenatti’s says on the March 2019 call, which Wilson was recording for the FBI. “I’m not continuing to play games. This isn’t complicated.”

    “You guys know enough now to know you got a serious problem. It’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this. A few million dollars doesn’t move the needle for me, I’m just being really frank with you,” Avenatti continues

    ‘The recording was played for jurors Thursday as prosecutors attempted to prove that the embattled lawyer tried to shake down a Nike lawyer, Scott Wilson, for over $20 million in exchange for not taking corruption allegations to the press.“Look, Scott, listen. ‘

  • The picture of Trump’s rally vs Biden licking Ice cream to a empty DQ. . Priceless

    Biden Licks an Ice Cream Cone at Empty Dairy Queen in Iowa as Trump Brings Down the House with THOUSANDS at Rally in Des Moines

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/biden-licks-an-ice-cream-cone-at-empty-dairy-queen-in-iowa-as-trump-brings-down-the-house-with-thousands-at-rally-in-des-moines/

    Word is ole Joe asked the clerk, “Where the hell is everybody”?

    Clerk replied “At the Trump rally”!!

  • All your republican folks can complain all you can against the democrat elite… but the real problem is that your president is dumb as hell. And everybody knows it. The rest of the world is just laughing as one of the world’s biggest powers is being ruled by a total idiot.

    • Trump won a Presidential election with zero political experience, has run a better economy than anyone that didn’t have a World War to prop them up, and remains the Teflon Don to all efforts by his enemies to take him down. If that makes him an idiot, then his opponents are worse than primates in the IQ department. Congrats, you’ve been beaten by someone you consider beneath you.

    • Gonna be another long four years for an idiot like you. Yea, Trump sure is dumb. Pull your head outta your ass, President Trump is leading the world in the defeat of global tyrants and has incredible respect. What are your accomplishments, Leon, outside of finally being potty trained at age 12?

    • The president doesn’t rule the country. The oligarchy from behind the scenes does. Like the vast majority of current politicians in the upper tings of power in democratic governments across the world, as the middle class continues to shrink, the politician has become a frontman to suffer the ire of the less privileged once the greedy policies of Wall Street and banking crash and burn. The last three presidents—though it goes further back than that—are strong evidence for this, with Trump and Bush being obviously idiotic frontmen. Obama, at least was charismatic, but he was also divisive and did nothing to really change anything. His bailing out of the banks—the greed of which caused the mortgage crisis—as “too big to fail” shows that he’s no different. Of course, he’s now raking in millions as a former president.

      • Hey idiot, Trump is changing that. Why do you think he has so much opposition from the fucking establishment? Yea Trump is an idiotic frontman….right! Your IQ compared to his would be a zit on a whales ass. Of course Clinton, Bush and O-hole were controlled. They were owned by the globalists. Only idiots like you that voted for O-hole twice were fooled and now you bitch he was no different. Kennedy and Reagan were trying to oppose the globalists and Kennedy paid the price and Reagan was shot and silenced after two fuckin months.

        • ROFL.

          Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Daddy was rich. He’s now classified as a billionaire. He’s lived off of the globalist system his entire life. According to your logic, if Trump is so opposed to the system, where has been his assassination attempt? I know. He’s just been too smart. Excuse me while I roll my eyes.

          • Trump is one of the hardest working people in the world.Roll your eyes numnut. Trump understands how the Globalists operate and wants to destroy a corrupt system. As far assassination attempts moron, check with the Secret Service, more than a brain dead whiner like you realizes.

            Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. There is nothing the political

            establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense.

            The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.

            The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election. As an example, just one single trade deal they’d like to pass, involves trillions of dollars controlled by many countries, corporations and lobbyists.

            For those who control the levers of power in Washington, and for the global special interests they partner with, our campaign represents an existential threat.- President Donald J Trump

            historically, we are witnessing a phenomenon that has occurred only infrequently; the right man at the right place at the right time. We are fortunate.

            President Trump drawing back the curtain on deep state and “It’s all about corruption, exposing it, rooting it out, and destroying it.” Destroying it being operative here. There is no question the president has exposed the Evil Wizard for all to see, in the most public fashion and importantly taught us we don’t have to cower in it’s shadow.

    • Trump has managed to avoid a war with Iran while taking out a major Iranian terrorist leader.
      Trump has also managed to renegotiate bad trade deals with China and Mexico.
      All while having to fight off a hostile Congress, a corrupt Court system and a mendacious Media.

    • You must have never watched a Trump rally, either in person or on TV. Or, you’re a libturd. I normally use the term “libtard,” but that term has been determined to be not politically correct, so you get to be smelly instead. LOL

      • You assume much. Why would I want to watch any political rally? Yet, your comment does make perfect sens, Scot, because it fits right in with your reasoning, namely, how you got suckered into selling Amway products. LOL.

  • The Democrats have fought to oust a democratically elected President from Day One, just as defeated UK European Union supporters fought to overthrow the democratic vote of the UK to leave the EU. Britain has just officially exited the EU. 🇬🇧 I wouldn’t rule out a second term for Trump.

  • Trump reminds me of me. I was Trump before Trump was Trump. In other words, I have always pushed back against the criticism thrown at me when discussing Amway and other MLM scams, remained the happy warrior, and I’ve done that for much longer than Trump has been known to be the same way, which was when he threw his hat into politics in 2015. America. You. Are. Welcome.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lQrlzECAIw

    • “Trump reminds me of me. I was Trump before Trump was Trump.” Scott Johnson

      Scott, Maybe the GOP should dump Trump and put you on the ticket.

      • The Donald is doing just fine. I was describing a trait, not qualifications or a desire to hold public office. He knocked it out of the park again last nigt in Iowa. Did you see the rally?

        • Oh yes! I couldn’t wait to see the Trump rally. When he walked on to the stage, I got goosebumps!!! Then, for some reason, I got a boner! LOL. I knocked that one out of the park too! Wish you could have seen me in action.

          • You got a boner wow. There was a certain effeminate President that preceded our real President. Trump. He enjoyed boners in a special place.Somehow I don’t think Prezzy O-hole would find your tiny bone as fulfilling as Reggie Love’s

    • Yea right. Trump is a successful billionaire businessman who was able to become President of the USA and a damn good one. Married an amazing woman and has an amazing family. Sacrificing his comfort in his late years to serve this country. You on the other hand are some internet loudmouth who’s only redeeming value is that your not one of the left wing nut cultists that pollute this blog.

  • Or it represents the same sort of doubling-down on beliefs seen in cults. The remaining NXIVM diehards may well be quoting Nietzsche, too.

    The changes in approval ratings are small, and within the margin of error of the polling – maybe they indicate something, and maybe they don’t. Selecting other statistics, support for impeachment and removal is trending higher:

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/public_approval_of_the_impeachment_and_removal_of_president_trump-6957.html

    I’m a non-aligned centrist who’d like to see more objectivity. Why not at least provide us an analysis of all the polling from the source you cite, rather than just one example that fits a particular narrative?. Instead we’re getting something more like what Raniere attempted with The Knife.

About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi's "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM," which aired January, 2023.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

Archives