When Winning is Insufficient.

When Winning is Insufficient.  There must be times when it is very difficult to be Donald Trump.  He is never wrong.  He always wins.  He is an expert on every subject.  He has never wanted for anything.  And he thinks that it should always be this way and everyone should agree with that concept.  Everyone does not.

It is easy to take issue with Trump the man; but coherent disagreement with Trump’s policies is hard to come by.  George Santayana said: “Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.”  This pretty much describes most Democrats; still in denial about losing the election and refusing to move on to governing as the minority.  Rather than taking on Trump and the Republicans with a debate on policy, they seem hell bent on creating maximum chaos both in government function and judicial misadventure.

The real danger for Trump in continuing his arrogant, childish, blustering, illogical, and arbitrary rhetoric is that at some point, the support for his sound and much-needed policies will begin to erode due to his irresponsible behavior.  The orbit of the man and the orbit of the message are moving closer together and it not serving any useful purpose; rather, it is a deterrent to getting business done.  A significant majority of Americans support most of the policies being proposed by President Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress.  And even though there is real and legitimate disagreement about timing and implementation schedules, the gist of the proposals make good, common sense.  It is tragic that rather than focus on the art and science of governing, with a Congressional majority nonetheless, the Trump Administration continues to contest every childish barb and legitimate criticism hurled in their direction as if it was totally out of bounds to question their competence and judgment.   Well…the simple fact is that actions and words which exhibit lack of competence and judgment deserve legitimate criticism and, even though they are oftentimes tasteless and nonproductive, childish barbs as well.  When you have a winning hand, one should simply play the correct cards and let the game play out.  The Democrats have no cards to play; their only political option is to obstruct. Trump simply empowers them when he engages in this foolishness.  Many times, talking only gets in the way; braggadocio is stupid.

By and large, Trump appears to have assembled an impressive set of Cabinet officials.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about his White House staff.  They are obviously intelligent folks, but they are not acting so smart lately.  Hopefully, the belligerence and confusion they have demonstrated in the early days of his Administration is a product of inexperience and over-reaction to an idiotic press.  We can also hope that the people President Trump has chosen to head up the Departments of this government will begin to fill in the thousands of subordinate positions with competent and ethical people. 

This country has waited eight long and tortuous years to rid itself of the Obama liberal curse.  That wait has been rewarded with a possibility of our government returning to a model that more closely aligns with our founder’s vision of what it should be…by the people and for the people.  If that is to be achieved in spite of all the obstacles being erected by Democrats, it would be very helpful for President Trump to speak much more sparingly, much more directly, and with a much greater focus on a specific agenda for this nation.  If Donald Trump can somehow find the good sense to restrain his runaway ego, allow the principled leaders in his Administration to run this government, and simply coast through the remainder of his term(s) without creating a continuous circus, there is hope that America can regain its standing in the world and its service and obligation to its people.