Korner: Editor's Choice on Trump's Scorecard
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All apologies for selecting a "Letter On Donald Trump" from a Denizen whose worldview is similar to my own. I did feel though that Rick had a measured and nutrient-dense mini-essay, one which raises concrete points that can easily be commented by either side.
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Trump's form is ugly as ugly, but I'm fine with the results.
A friend recently asked me why I support Trump, when Mike Pence stands ready to step in, someone more inclined to see things the way I do. One reason is that while I think his form is atrocious and not my preferable way, it's his way. He needs to do what he thinks is necessary, within the law, to achieve his objectives. If he has to tweet to get health care passed, or get the press to put the focus where he thinks it should be, so be it. He always does what he thinks he has to do, to get things built, or promote himself for ratings or whatever. Will it work as President? Is it "Presidential?" I never cared whether Obama was being presidential or not. According to some, he was the most Presidential President the world had ever seen. That and a terrible Iran deal will buy you a cup of coffee and a $400k speech nobody will long remember, I suppose.
So, I try to overlook form and focus on substance - the bottom line. In that regard, I have very little objection to Trump's actual performance. But you gotta follow the law. Unfortunately, these days what passes for "law" is how an obscure judge feels about it. Hopefully Neil Gorsuch will help to fix that.
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Nobody gets everything he wants, but I'm basically ok with what we're getting:
- Obamacare needs to be fixed because insurance costs are a joke and freedom and market approaches need to be re-introduced in order to correct them.
- Border security is greatly improved.
- I support drill, baby drill and modern, new pipelines.
- I want tax reform to encourage investments in capital and support budget cuts - and don't care at all what our spending says about our values. I don't want to spend money to signal virtue. I want to spend money on essential government services.
- I fully support Israel's right to exist in safety behind workable borders.
- North Korea must not be allowed to build an intercontinental nuke missile.
- Sarin gas attacks, especially on populations, cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
I might wish he could be as smooth as Barack Obama, or Mike Pence for that matter, but I don't care what elites in foreign capitals think about us. I always wondered why the guy played, "You can't always get what you want" at his campaign rallies. Perhaps to warn both his supporters as well as his opponents.
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Like many of you, I am tired of his constant reminder that he won the election. Yes, Donald, you won. We get it. But....well, if anyone was not supposed to win the Presidency at any time between the day he announced to the night he won, it was Donald Trump. He was never supposed to win. Ever. Has anyone ever done this? Hmmmmm.....I can't think of one. Maybe Harry Truman. But Truman was already the sitting President when he was never supposed to win. So, talk about your power of positive thinking. He also did it with half the money of his opponent and an overwhelming deficit of good press, much of it well earned, both then and now. I think Trump is a good observer of society, and has learned that trying to curry good press is a trap that will render one ineffective. BUT, he knows the aggregate value of press, good or bad, has always trafficked in it, and you can't argue with the results he has gotten by being ever available to its voracious appetite.
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Tragic hero, headed for a great fall due to his fatal flaw? Perhaps. That's his problem. In the meantime, the country needs some things badly, including expanding economic growth and bending the deficit curve. He's headed in the right direction. I think. I could be wrong.
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DR D SAYS
Of Rick's seven bullet points, at least 1, 3 and 4 are completely dependent on your position. But this still goes to Scott Adams' point that IFF the U.S. is MOVING on these issues already in the first half of Trump's first year, the question is certainly not Trump's competence. Neither could it be "fascist" because he shouted from the rooftops that he would do these things, and was fairly elected by the People after declaring his intentions.
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Nodding in the position of my progressive friends here, I will cheerfully concede that Trump's "grotesque personality" (Ann Coulter) is a problem of form AND of substance. He is incendiary. Maybe we needed a President to stand up to the Thought Police, but the resulting bare-knuckle cultural civil war (Trump vs NYT, the riots, the escalation of polarity, etc) has already been far more costly than I bargained for.
Also, I agree that President Obama was about as Presidential as any man in history. I'm very proud that the First American was a black man; try electing a Chinese man in Turkey. My left-wing friends here might be surprised to learn that I work for Klat precisely because of an essay that was sincerely complimentary to Barack Obama in the largest view of his career.
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On Rick's other four bullet points: on 7) Sarin gas attacks, I would hope that we all could agree there is SOME point at which the "leader of the free world" actually leads the free world in an intervention to stop atrocity. There is a general consensus that we won't let despots gas children and that we won't let madmen have nukes. If we can help it.
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On 6) Korea's nukes, I am curious what the Leftists and Rightists think about this -- quite apart from any resentment of U.S. arrogance in seeing itself as "leader of the free world." I don't know much about it, but I can very easily imagine Kim Jong-Un nuking the city of Seattle in 3 years, can you not? Are you read up on "The Arduous March," the Kims executing parents for stating that their children starved to death because it cast aspersions on the government, and so forth?
I'd be interested to know if we agree -- or not -- that the REAL Hitlers of the planet should be prevented from having ICBM's. Or has moral equivalency taught us that it is no longer appropriate to differentiate between Hitler and Churchill?
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Personally I would put these things on MY OWN bullet list as Trump accomplishments, along with most of Rick's:
- As President, I would acknowledge that radical Islam has declared war on us
- I would promote the "Blue Lives Matter" side of the law and order debate, which Trump/Pence are doing
- We are now discussing things that were forbidden to discuss one year ago, such as whether certain 1% to 4% minority interest groups should not change law as much as they do
- As President of the United States, I would put U.S. interests first, as Trump has done with his "MAGA" theme
- I agree with the "No better friend, no worse enemy" foreign policy that was agreed on by almost all Americans until very recently
- I highly approve of the "negotiator" style that critics call flip-flopping
The biggest (but not only) things on MY OWN bullet list of Trump setbacks:
- The cost of the cultural war is very high - I hate to see married people divorce over election votes (you know what I mean)
- I don't know whether Trump is an unusually corrupt man by recent (post-1992) Presidential standards; if he's proven to be, then swap him out for his VP
- It seems the chances of a nuclear incident are higher (pray this isn't true)
- The Ann Coulter crowd has me "concerned" that Trump is going to sell out
- I hate the fact that our President is, um, unreliable per fact-checking (although Bill Clinton had his own flavor of problems with the truth)
- Many decisions, such as the Comey firing, leave him too open to unfair Fake News (unfair because exactly the same mistakes on Hillary's part would not create media chaos). Much more finesse would be be better.
Two neutral issues for me are:
- There is a true "constitutional crisis" developing over activist lower-court judges' sensibilities, vs. Trump's EO's
- I tremble to think about what is going to happen during the next SCOTUS confirmation
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The Konspiracy Korners at SSI have been, for the most part, very edifying and respectful, for me anyway. Those who don't like them, please continue to not participate. :- ) Those who do enjoy them, please continue to comment in a friendly tone so as to encourage your debate opponents to reply.
Respectfully,
Jeff
Left hates, Coulter disappointed, must be doing something right