Circa 1965, a man pulled into our driveway, told my father he had “macadam left over from a job down the street,” and he would “repair your driveway for half the usual cost – and do it right away.” He had a nice guy, happy-to-help-out demeanor, and my father fell for a scam that has been around since the invention of the paved road.

Three months later the rains started washing away the new macadam that, in truth, was only black paint.

Which brings us to Donald Trump. Even my die-hard Republican friends have to admit, if only to themselves, that things look a bit fishy right now. His high-profile guarantees – the wall between Mexico and locking Clinton up – have largely faded as he focuses on putting high-paid execs in high-profile government positions.

The macadam Trump sold us is stronger infrastructure, lower taxes and a happier middle class. The black paint we got is a government that will help the mega-rich get richer and a middle class that will see their driveway fade in three months unless the richer rich toss down a few scraps.

“The swamp” Trump wants to drain isn’t Washington corruption or a dysfunctional political system – a noble and just cause no matter which political party you salute. When Trump said he wanted to “drain the swamp,” we probably should have asked for more details. We didn’t know it was the “regulations and taxes holding my business interests back.” We assumed it was the “federal bureaucracy” swamp.

Rich businesses have always had an unfair advantage. They can hire lobbyists to push their cause; they can spend tons of money helping a politician get elected; they can even semi-anonymously trash opponents during an election with lies, half-lies and unfair truths.

Now, however, the discreet line between politicians and business interests has broken down – the “discreet” part because it’s no longer discreet, and the “line” part because there is no longer a line. As CEO of Exxon, Trump’s Secretary of State has a vested interest in making gobs of money from oil sales, and Russia’s Putin has a vested interest in making gobs of money from oil sales. It’s the perfect deal unless you’re a middle-class American fretting the cost of gas to get your kids to school.

Trump isn’t Republican; he isn’t Democrat. He’s a businessman who just sealed the biggest deal of his life by selling Americans macadam and delivering paint. He wrote a book, “The Art of the Deal,” and his techniques appear successful: Tell people what they want to hear.

Trump is damn good at what he does, and he’s smart. That doesn’t make him our friend.

© 2016 SmithTakes.com