Sales Job

The Art of Selling

Observing a talented sales person is a bit like watching a talented surgeon. The friendly appeal and subtle way of getting a person to like and feel beholden to you. Empathy for their perspective while simultaneously probing for weaknesses. Persistence in breaking down their defenses and asking for that final commitment.

We have all experienced at some time the let down from having been duped by a sales pitch: promises of features that don’t exist, descriptions of quality that are incorrect or exaggerated at best, weaknesses or flaws left undeclared.

Why do we fall for such blatant sales jobs? Because it is what we want to believe. The perfect sales job is finding out what you want to believe and selling it to you.

Trump the Master of the Sales Job

Typically this space focuses solely on local county/state issues as there are hordes of others who pander to every side of issues at the federal level. However, to ignore the influence of what has happened nationally since 2016 on the current political climate in Ottawa County is to be divorced from reality completely.

Trump has been endowed with supernatural powers. Everything from religious prophet to genius economist and every other discipline in between. It has been a quandary for moderates to understand the extremist views on both sides but even more so the fanatical worship of Trump regardless of what he says or does.

The religious community worships at the altar of Trump regardless of his potty mouth, past and present womanizing, his family history of racism that he perpetuates while claiming not to, and not to be missed his penchant for violence. There is no one in recent history with such obvious narcissism and the inability to tell the truth, and yet he is poised to be the next president of the United States borne on the shoulders of evangelical Christians.

Trump & the Chicago Economic Club Interview

If you listened to Trump’s interview with the business community at the Chicago Economic Club, the rambling mostly incoherent and false dialog was shocking.

One of the oddest folksy fantasies Trump put forward is China building mammoth auto plants in Mexico but abandoning them because they knew he would soon be president again. Yes, the foundations are in but they just abandoned them. But if Harris wins, they will return and wipe out automakers in Michigan. Unless we are all living under a rock, none of that very detailed fantasy is true.

Another very strange tale was about Venezuela emptying out their prisons and bussing them to the US border. Again, a very detailed account of a reduction in crime in Venezuela because they just showed up at the border in a bus with all their prisoners and they, I guess, just somehow walked on in because that is how it works at the border.

Finally, Trump pontificated at length about the wonderful tariffs he would impose. ‘My favorite word is tariff.’ Leading economists and the Wall Street Journal have warned starting a trade war could destroy the current robust economy. Yes, it is true, the stock market is at record highs and this is the leading indicator Trump pays attention to in regards to the economy. As much as Trump and his supporters deny it, the stock market is higher now than when Trump was in office even with normal interest rates and no stimulus propping up the bond market. During the Trump administration we maintained zero interest rates and continued to pump money into the market even while the market reached record highs at that time. A market with zero interest and on stimulus is not a healthy market.

While Trump’s tariffs did bring in massive amounts of money to the government. At the same time it destroyed the farmer’s grain markets so much so that he handed out massive payouts to compensate for the trade war he created.

Yet, in poll after poll the public trusts Trump with the economy more than Harris. Why? Because he says so and they want to believe it.

Ottawa Impact Sales Job

Much like the National Trump campaign Ottawa Impact would sell you on the belief that Ottawa County is a hot bed of hedonism that can only be corrected if they and their loyalists are in control.

One such fantastical tale has been presented by Roger Belknap, the Ottawa Impact Commissioner for Grand Haven Township. He displayed on his laptop at board meetings and on his website The War on Children. Apparently the first gay pride festival in Grand Haven constitutes a war on children. According to Belknap just the mere presence of gay supporters at the Grand Haven Waterfront Stadium, some of them with their children, promotes risky behavior. While championing parent’s rights, Belknap has decided his bigoted views should override them.

The expressioins of pride that were blessed by Rev. Cramer and Grand Haven City Council are undoubtedly an exploitation of children and perversion of their innocence – Roger Belknap

Ottawa Impact would have you believe the Ottawa County Health Department is promoting and assisting in abortions. The Resolution to Protect Life adopted by the OI majority Board of Commissioners also declares controversial personhood for fetuses. This resolution is so far outside the purview of county government its only purpose is to impose Ottawa Impact’s religious views on everyone else.

The biggest sales job is Ottawa Impact’s Constitutional County Resolution and their endorsement of Jon Anderson to be a Constitutional Sheriff. While littered with the word Constitutional, it is anything but. Constitutional Counties seek to decide at the local level which federal or state laws are constitutional and which are not. Obviously, this is not within the powers invested in the Board of Commissioners, the sheriff or the county prosecutor.

Normal: Trump vs Harris

The definition of what is normal has been indescribably warped since Trump came down his golden escalator. Some may have championed big change claiming the only way to improve government is to destroy it and remake it in their image.

In the chaos created by those who claim tearing down the government is necessary and the end goal of winning control justifies any means necessary: democracy, ethics, religion, and normalcy may all be sacrificial lambs.

Democracy is no longer the sacrosanct ideal now that white, religious, conservatives are aging. Perhaps minority rule is necessary, for our own good, of course.

Ethics is certainly out the window in the face of the blatant lying and conspiracy theories (the definition of which is an organized group of lies) that have consumed this election cycle. Trump and Vance either know they are lying and are unethical or believe their lies and are delusional, take your pick. Vance recently admitted the fantasy about Haitians in Springfield eating pets was probably false but decided to keep the lie going anyway. The Republican leadership know the 2020 election was not stolen, but choose to perpetuate the lie rather than contradict Trump who once admitted he lost but then went back to the lie because the truth angered his base.

Evangelical Christians have sold their soul to join with extreme political groups such as Christian Nationalists. They claim America was founded as a Christian Nation while in the same breath espousing religious freedom. You can’t have it both ways. Iran is a Muslim country although they tolerate some Christians in it. You certainly cannot claim they have religious freedom. The founding fathers wanted to avoid the same mistakes made in Europe who had state religions and clearly forbid the government to promote or prohibit any religion. Does that sound like a Christian Nation to you? No, if they intended Christianity to dominate government, they would have said so. They intended for America to have true religious freedom and for the government and the church to remain separate entities.

Trump has been selling a dystopian America and Christians/Republicans have been buying it because it is what they want to believe. America is failing because they turned their back on God, or perhaps since America is not actually falling apart it is more mundane, the fact that a majority of Americans no longer look and act like them. This makes Christians uncomfortable and therefore big change is not only justified but necessary.

While you may not agree with Democrat priorities and all the massive handouts they promise, and no common sense person does, the choice is still between normal and chaos. You must be sold on the idea that what we have is so bad you are willing to risk throwing it all out and start over. Why would you believe such a thing? Because you want to.

Normal: Ottawa Impact vs Everyone else

The last two years of Ottawa Impact reign have been anything but normal. No cause firings, a war on the health department, loyalist hirings and firings that trigger massive lawsuits. This is not normal healthy county governance.

OI Commissioners have blamed Democrats (even though the county has been Republican controlled for years), the media, and anyone else they can think of for their blatant mismanagement. Hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on severance and settlements. And yet, out of the original nine still four may be returned to office for the next four years. Why? Certain areas of our county want to believe the Ottawa Impact sales job justifies the chaos and is preferable to normal county governance.

Commitment

Normal is boring. A religious jihad and fighting evil is exciting. Anger is stimulating. Common sense is mundane. The savvy sales person finds and feeds on your weakness. Are drag queens really the most important issue in Ottawa County? Don’t fall for the sales job. Your values, Christian or otherwise, are your business but county government is not supposed to be the morality police. Vote your common sense. Vote for good governance. Vote for normal, not chaos. But most of all, vote!