Originally appeared in The Orlando Sentinel, June 26, 2017, with a headline that sounded a tad more pro-Trump.

A lot of people support Donald Trump, and here’s what liberals don’t get: Many, many people’s lives – largely but not exclusively in rural areas – have deteriorated over the past 20 years.

In every political campaign, Democrats and Republicans promise voters a better life, some version of a “make America great again” utopia. But on the down-and-dirty level, blue-collar workers’ incomes, home values and jobs haven’t improved. They haven’t even stayed the same.

Few Trump supporters like all Trump’s policies; few think he’ll accomplish everything he’s promised. But they hate the bloated, self-serving, political bureaucracy more, and they want someone to hit the puree button on the political blender.

In this, Trump supporters and Bernie Sanders supporters would agree. Their solution paths may head in vastly different directions, but many Americans believe the U.S. political system has become bogged down by its own bloat, fed by the gods of Wall Street and tax-cut-by-tax-cut skewed to favor the rich.

The big picture: In 1776, seven men (mostly) led the U.S. to declare independence. In 1787, 55 men sat in a room and figured out how things should work. Change was easy. If the fine gentlemen from Pennsylvania disagreed and became obstinate, the rest ganged up on him. Hard decisions could be made within those four walls and within a few days.

But government has bogged down, as does any big institution raking in cash for a few hundred years. Over time, federal bureaucracies created bigger bureaucracies and sub- bureaucracies. Every U.S. tragedy led to a new layer of oversight in 14 different bureaus. Every good-economic tax year led to more agency funding that couldn’t be cut in the lean years.

It’s this organizational bloat that most Trump supporters hate, and many liberals wouldn’t disagree.

America goes back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, first stocking Congress with one and then, four or eight years later, the other. Why? Because voters believe Candidate X will make their life better. And when their life doesn’t get better, they vote for change yet again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 50 times over 200 years, shame on me.

The two political parties can’t solve this problem. Democrats and Republicans are as locked into the system as the federal government. It was easier for the Titanic to change direction when it spotted an iceberg.

Donald Trump was, and remains, his supporters’ best hope for true change. Healthcare and immigration walls are just rallying cries. Whether Donald Trump can actually pull off change is a detail. He’s still their best hope.

The alternative to Donald Trump is “business as usual,” and for a large sector of Americans, that hasn’t worked out so well.

© 2017 SmithTakes.com