As
my life proceeds within the human limits of transience, I continue to be amazed
at how we are all astounded by the totally predictable consequences of our
actions. We somehow believe that we can
make fairy tale statements, buy into unicorn and rainbow promises, and never
have to worry about the harsh realities of the world intruding on our
universe. Such is Trump.
The
idiotic and sophomoric Democratic Party and mainstream media are so obsessed
with their anti-Trump agenda that they have sacrificed all of their credibility
and professionalism, given up on any semblance of objectivity or pragmatism,
and have become caricatures of infantile children arguing in playgrounds. If you have any doubts about this, look at this: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/08/the-left-hasnt-given-up-on-kavanaugh.php. For their parts in the ongoing farce, the
Republicans have bought into Trump pretty much lock, stock, and barrel. Of course they have; there is so much
winning! Forget that he led a lifetime
of Bill Clinton-level morality prior to the Presidency (assuming it has changed since that time). Never mind that in his corporate dealings, he
has utilized the bankruptcy laws repeatedly; he is now portrayed as that
towering financial genius whose swashbuckling money quests always turn out gloriously
successful. So what if he has helped to
lower the civility level of political discourse to a level akin to college frat
parties? And now, it is somehow normalized for him to have paid off women with whom
he has had affairs; so long as he has done it “legally”. Really?
What
the heck did our Republican and Democratic Party leaders expect when they
submitted to us the “least of two evils”
candidates in the last presidential election?
Consider the choice…known greedy and corrupt lifetime politician versus
reality TV personality and business tycoon; gosh, how could this possibly turn
out badly? And then, following up on
that Solomonic offering, the national parties have continued their blood feud
over the first two years of the Trump Administration. Now, as we approach the midterms, we are once
again presented with two alternate realities that are less than lustrous. We can put the Denying Democrats in charge of
the House and go through an exciting two years of impeachment drama (Clinton redux); or we can leave the Keystone
Kops Republicans in charge to spend a huge amount of time and effort in
deciding who their House leader will be and then falling back into their old,
familiar routine of factional chaos. Our
national parties have doubled down on dumb.
Which brings us to the other side of the nickel.
For
all of the madness, confusion, melodrama, personnel carousels, and bombastic
rhetoric that Donald Trump has introduced to the White House, he has brought
one thing that has settled a point which has been long debated. The policy success that President Trump has
realized thus far in his first term is largely attributable to the fact that he
has taken an “outsider’s approach” to
the Presidency. Part of this is because
his own party abandoned him and would not touch him with a ten foot pole, even
after he won the election. The other
part is simply because he had no practical experience in government and could
only proceed with the knowledge he held; that being of a private sector
entrepreneur. How many times over the
last 30 years have we heard the mantra about how we need a fresh look in our
politics; we need that certain person that comes into it from outside of it;
we need that person who can take a new approach and is not indoctrinated by “politics as usual”.
There
have been a few candidates who have used this theme with some success. But they either failed to coalesce a
significant majority to accomplish anything or they turned out to be authentic
flakes who were selling themselves as mavericks. The Donald Trump phenomenon is the first time
that the outsider has come onto the stage with the power, the opportunity, and
most important of all…the cojones to actually do what he promised he would
do. Donald Trump is hard to take. He is so very polarizing and stokes the fires
of his haters just as much as he nourishes the appetites of his admirers. He shows no signs whatsoever of changing his
modus operandi. But if you can somehow
manage to cut through the circus that is Trump, you come face to face with the
undeniable fact that he has validated the suspicion that our government was
paralyzed by a lackadaisical state of funk and needed to be shook up,
revitalized, and refocused on addressing some burning issues that significantly
affect our nation and our lives.
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Regardless
of your political position, you have to admit that we are now addressing some
of those issues. Critical issues such as
the role of America in geopolitical intrigue and all it encompasses; taxing and
spending policies and the implications of income disparities; the overly
complex and overpriced national health care industry; comprehensive immigration
policies and the new realities of national sovereignty; and likely the most
important of all: Can our two-party political system rise to the challenges it
faces in governing our country in an effective and efficient manner? Like so many choices we make in our lives,
there are two sides to the Donald Trump nickel.
People have to be very careful that they don’t end up standing entirely
on one side and forgetting about the other.
