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The term style over substance is typically used to describe a situation where appearance or presentation is valued more than content or quality. For far too long we Americans have stopped thinking for ourselves. We are so lazy that we prefer to believe what politicians tell us as opposed to verifying what they actually do. Folks, they lie! All the time! The press/media has repeatedly fed us style (feelings) with little substance (truth). Too many of us still slavishly believe them. (Mark Twain once said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed”). For reasons completely unbeknownst to me, we actually allow celebrities and athletes to sway our decision making. God help us! Actors/actresses are handsome/pretty and have an innate ability to portray, often fictional characters. That doesn’t qualify them to be centers of influence. They are no smarter than anyone reading this blog. Possessing a beautiful singing voice does not require an outsized ability to understand the intricacies of a Constitutional Republic. While athletes are physically superior to the general population, very few of them would be considered erudite. Most have no more than a high school education. Why do we care what they think?

A perfect current example of style over substance is LA Mayor Karen Bass, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s, follow-up to the horrific wildfires that devastated Southern California. They both scored a perfect 10 for style points in their artistic, post wildfire rhetoric. Nobody comes close to Gavin Newsom in the style over substance category. He is pathetically devoid of substance. In January, Gov. Newsom promised that victims of the fires would “not get caught up in bureaucratic red tape and would be able to quickly rebuild their homes.” (After making this statement he forgot his citizens and started his 2028 presidential campaign). In March, Mayor Bass promised the neighborhoods “would be rebuilt at lightning speed.” After 3 1/2 months, Los Angeles County launched a website that tracks the number of rebuild permits that have been issued in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. As of May 12, the website reported that the county had issued 7 rebuild permits! That means there is 1 permit being issued every 2 weeks, or 26 permits per year. At that rate, Pacific Palisades and Altadena will finish their rebuild in 460 years, or sometime in the year 2485. Only Mayor Bass, exuding style, would call that “lightning speed”.

For the next few minutes, I’m asking you to put your political biases aside. Take an honest look at the people we have elected to represent us and ask yourself, were they elected because of style, or substance? Was it style or substance that guided their years in office?

President Biden just finished a 4-year term cluttered with mistakes and bad decisions. Having said that it would be hard to argue that he doesn’t understand either style, or substance. Enough said.

Barack Obama was the very epitome of style with an absence of substance. He spent the better part of his first year in office traveling the world apologizing for, even denying, American exceptionalism. He was famous for threatening our enemies with red lines, then ignoring them when adversaries flipped him (us) off. He fought for the passage of Obamacare, extolling its virtues to the American people. Then exempted members of Congress from a few of its ugly mandates. He followed through on his promise to put an end to inside trading that was/is making many members of congress wildly wealthy. With much fanfare, and a bipartisan photo-op on the steps of the Capitol Building, he announced the passage of the STOCK Act in 2012. It was a very good bill that effectively made it illegal for members of Congress to do what common Americans were being jailed for doing. Then a few months later, under the cover of a compliant press/media, he allowed Congress to remove important reporting features from the bill. Without the reporting requirements it is virtually impossible to track the investments being made by members of Congress. Obama was mostly style, little substance.

George W. Bush flipped between style and substance. (Whether those were conscious flips is debatable). He was similar to a younger, more coherent, Joe Biden. His substance helped us recover after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His lies, style, led us into a war that cost America an immeasurable amount of blood and treasure.

President Clinton was perhaps the first President in my life who was driven almost totally by style. His method of governance was to thrust a dampened finger in the air to ascertain which way the political winds were blowing. (He was famous for biting his lower lip while telling us he “felt our pain”). In response to American citizens’ demand for an end to illegal immigration, Clinton led a push for legislation that would limit the number of illegals entering our country, make it easier to deport felonious illegals, and penalize employers who hired illegals. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 did just that. Once the bill passed, Clinton gambled correctly, that nobody would pay attention as to whether he made an effort to enforce it. He didn’t.

Whether you like/agree with Donald Trump or not, he fits the definition of substance. He has consistently told us what he plans to accomplish, then drives forward in a laser guided effort to complete it. He said he would stop the flow of illegals over our southern border, and it has stopped. He said he would keep males out of the bathrooms and locker rooms designated for females, and vice versa, and he did. He promised to keep males from participating on female athletic teams and he is well on his way to accomplishing that promise. The only thing holding him up is a few styling Governors in blue states who are fighting his common sense policies. He promised to end the mutilation of our minor children through irreversible sex change surgeries. It took Supreme Court affirmation to finalize his policy. I could go on. The point is that Trump is not interested in feelings, dreams, or style. He is driven by truth, reality, common sense, and substance. His substance is what our country has needed for a very long time.

For the sake of time I will not dwell on the lack of substance that has existed in Congress for 30+ years. Everyone in Congress will tell you they want to cut the deficit and the national debt. Yet here we are staring at $36 trillion in accumulated debt. To steal a line from my favorite current Senator, John Kennedy from Louisiana, “Every member of Congress says they want to cut the deficit. They all say they want to go to heaven too. They just aren’t ready to begin the trip.” That is a clear sign of a style driven organization.

Too many of us have totally abrogated the responsibilities bestowed on us by our Founding Fathers. We must stop voting for the pretty face telling us about all of the free stuff he/she is going to provide for us. We must set limits on how much of our paychecks we are willing to forfeit to provide for those who refuse to work. We must do so because those who refuse to work have no limits as to how much of our paychecks they are willing to take. We must work diligently to identify and reward those officials who govern by substance and replace those who survive on their good looks, personality, and style. At the end of the day, it is up to us to elect those people who put our interests ahead of their own. That is not the case today. That must change.

Thank you for taking the time to read my latest blog. I hope you found it interesting and informative. Bob