I think optimism is in the eyes of the beholder.

Even in the early days of America when it was largely an agrarian or agricultural, farmer-type of economy. There were still cities; there were still elites.

I just find this interesting that Ronald Reagan was regarded much the way Donald Trump is except Reagan was governor of California. He had run for the nomination the Republican Party in '76. But he was laughed at. They thought he was dumb then. They thought he was slow minded and dim-witted back then. They thought he couldn't speak. They thought Reagan - amazingly, a guy that later became known as the Great Communicator - couldn't speak.

The Republicans want illegal immigrants for different reasons. They want 'em for cheap labor. Democrats want 'em for voters. Well, Republicans would like that too.

Remember back in the nineties, a bunch of Democrats decided to tax luxury items, including yachts? They figured it was not fair that some people could afford yachts, and so since they could, they said, "We're gonna tax the hell out of yachts at the point of sale, 'cause it's not fair. We need to collect revenue from all this!" What happened was that the people who actually build the yachts lost their jobs because people stopped buying them.

Republican voters are fed up with Democrats and Democrat policy.

As far as the low-information segment of the population - the vast, vast, vast majority of which votes Democrat - if you are a progressive as Barack Obama is and you want to sell the direction you're taking this country, it's okay to call it great now 'cause you've got it moving in the direction of decline.