by Captain Dave Funk
Clash Daily Contributor
After spending thousands of hours of my life flying jet’s more than 30,000 feet in the air, I’ve become pretty good at analyzing weather patterns, avoiding turbulence, and getting around storms. Being a hardcore hunter, I also pride myself on figuring out patterns of behaviors of my quarry. Despite my experience and ability to outfox bad weather and generally see patterns and trends developing well in advance of most people, I clearly missed this one.
There is a really smart young man, who happens to be the son-in-law of President Elect Donald Trump. His name is Jared Kushner, he developed an innovative campaign strategy merging targeted demographic data, “Moneyball” tactics, and creating a new way to use social media in a political campaign. Forbes Magazine published online a very interesting piece about this entire effort back on November 22, 2016; that story then appeared in it’s print edition of December 20, 2016.
What is not shocking to me is that every day, we see Democrats and Republican’s alike looking for reasons that Hillary Clinton lost the election. Some claim, like President Obama, that her message, and by extension Obama’s, did not get out to the masses. Others like Senators McCain and Feinstein think Russian meddling in America’s recent election tipped the balance of votes into Donald Trump’s favor.
What actually happened is that Donald Trump used the smart people around him to once again innovate and create a new campaign model, that everyone else in politics and government have yet to even notice. I was and still am a huge Senator Ted Cruz fan and supporter. But everything I have seen to date from our incoming President Trump tells me he is going to be successful. Forbes Magazine, in the article linked above quoted Kushner referencing his father-in-law’s repeated admonishment during the campaign; “Donald kept saying, ‘I don’t want people getting rich off the campaign, and I want to make sure we are watching every dollar just like we would do in business.'” Having seen numerous political consultants’ rob candidate’s donors’ money through the many Iowa election cycles I’ve lived through, this quote really hits home for me.
From 41,000 feet, President Elect Trump has proven to me that his teams will Make America Great Again. The question is how soon everyone else in the world will notice the Sea Change that happened right in front of us.
photo credit: Modified from: Gage Skidmore Donald Trump via photopin (license)
Captain Dave Funk: Constitutionalist, hunter, dad and patriot, Dave has retired as both a US Army attack helicopter pilot and a Boeing 757 International Captain for Northwest Airlines; Dave has spent most of the last few years piloting US Department of Defense special mission aircraft in the “Sandbox”. With a unique perspective on the world that comes from thousands of hours at 41,000 feet, his ability to explain complex aviation question in simple terms has earned him guest commentator spots on most major TV and radio networks.
