Trump and the wonders of ridesharing

Did you see the headline on the front page of the Review Journal on Friday? It said, “Taxi numbers plummet as riders opt for Uber and Lyft.”

Does that surprise you? It sure doesn’t surprise me. Uber and Lyft represent freedom, capitalism, competition and the efficiency and quality of the private sector vs. government.

I’m a business traveler. I’m away on business 25 or more times a year. That’s at least 50 taxi rides to and from airports to my hotel. Plus another 100-plus taxi rides from my hotel to business meetings or conventions where I’m giving a speech. That’s means I’ve taken 150 or more taxi rides a year for the past 25 years.

No more. I haven’t even gotten into a taxi once in the past three years. I’ve replaced all those taxi rides with Uber. Taxis are as obsolete as dinosaurs.

This is the same reason so many people voted for Donald Trump. Because Trump is the Uber of politics. He represents freedom and competition and the marvelous quality and efficiency of the private sector.

Uber and Lyft are a breath of fresh air. They changed the way business is done. They changed transportation forever.

Why would anyone wait around in long taxi lines at McCarran for 30 minutes (or longer when a big convention is in town) when Uber is there in minutes? Why wait for one or two hours at a suburban Vegas home for a taxi to show up when Uber comes in minutes? Not only that, you see the driver’s location and watch him arrive in real time on your iPhone. Amazing.Why would anyone get in a filthy 20-year old taxi with a surly driver who barely speaks English when Uber cars are nice, new, clean and driven by the person who owns the car and takes pride in ownership?

And here’s the big one. Uber costs a fraction of a taxi. For all that quality you actually pay less. Why? The middleman is eliminated — there’s no government involved, no expensive rip-off government licenses required, no bureaucratic taxi company. It’s just you and the driver who owns the car.

I’ll never get in a taxi again.

This is the story of government. Government destroys freedom and competition. Government adds layers of regulations, taxes and complexity. Government makes everything it touches worse and far more expensive.

Democrats are desperate to cling to power. So they need to make up “fake news.” They tell you Trump voters are racists, sexists, homophobes, hateful, out to hurt you. But Democrats are lying. They are like taxi companies desperately trying to convince you to stay in their corrupt, grossly over-priced, horribly inefficient world.

The people of America who voted for Donald Trump aren’t racists. We don’t hate. We don’t want to ruin your life. We just want freedom and competition. We want government out of our lives. We want to do things ourselves, without layers of government regulations, taxes and complexity.

We want the private sector (like Uber) to dominate our lives, not government or government employees (with lifetime jobs regardless of performance or efficiency), or government-approved businesses (which get the “exclusive” based on paying huge license fees rather than performance or efficiency).

We don’t want Americans to die without access to health care. We just want to repeal and replace Obamacare with something like Uber. We know competition and the private sector and smart businessmen such as Trump can deliver health care far better than government.

It’s this simple: Trump is Uber.

Wayne Allyn Root (Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com) is a best-selling author and host of “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now. His R-J columns run Thursday and Sunday.