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3 Things to Like About President Trump; 3 Things Not to Like
We’re six months into the Trump Era, and there’s no sign of the gay concentration camps Rachel Maddow said were forthcoming. But surely we must be developing some opinions on how he’s doing so far. So here’s my list(icle) of three things I like about PDT so far, and three things I really don’t care for. First, what I likes:
- I like that he doesn’t let himself be a punching bag for the Democrat Media Complex. The last two Republican presidents seemed to think that defending their administration’s policies from Democrat attacks was ungentlemanly. Trump has also identified the weak point of the media establishment — their egos. Most of the media operatives, especially on television, are dumb, vain, and egomaniacal. Trump knows that if he pokes them, they will go into paroxysms of “How Dare He Criticize Us” vituperation. He provokes the very media temper tantrums that discredit the media.
- I like that some of Obama’s executive overreach has been repealed, and that some of Obama’s worst policy decisions are being revoked. We’re out of the Paris “Redistribution of Wealth to the Third World” Accords. Criminal aliens are being deported once again. Israel isn’t being treated as a pariah state. More of this, please.
- Neil Gorsuch was an outstanding Supreme Court appointment. Good Lord, can you imagine the horrible people Hillary would be putting on the court? Sotomayor and Kagan were bad enough. Try Justice Kamala Harris on for size. (Not that it would be her, but it would be someone just as hard left, just as hyperpartisan, and just as corrupt). Democrat presidents never nominate swing votes.
Now, three things that I don’t like about Trump’s presidency so far:
- I don’t care for the Tweeting. It’s not the Tweeting itself I mind. I understand that PDT needs a way to get his side directly to the people because the Democrat Media Complex is bent on his destruction. But there’s too much “Angry Old Man” and not enough “Leader of the Free World” in his Tweets for my taste.
- It doesn’t really seem like the Swamp is being drained. Maybe it’s part of a longer term strategy, but so far, there seems to be very little movement in the direction of changing the way the political class conducts business. The bureaucracy remains out of control, and his cabinet picks have done little to reform their departments.
- Being a deficit hawk, I’m disappointed that Trump signed off on the massive omnibus bill. (Remember when Paul Ryan promised no more omnibuses? That federal departments would be funded by individual appropriations bills once the Republicans took over? Yeah, that. Trump doesn’t seem, on the whole, very concerned about debt or deficits.
I could have made other choices in either category, but I think those are my top three. What are yours?
Published in General
The tweets aren’t just angry. They’re also weird, obsessive, and disturbing. Every time I see one of those word salads, I worry more and more that the president, as we say in these parts, “ain’t right.”
I can’t read minds, I can read my computer screen.
Thank you sincerely, @cdor. (Referring to kind comment a few comments back.)
I’m nobody’s enemy.
He was not my candidate but in the end I did vote for him. However, it took me quite awhile before I decided to do so. I based my decision on one important reason: The Supreme Court. I knew that a conservative voice needed to be the next judge on the court. I’m hoping that Trump gets at least one more appointment before the end of his term. Some days I am confident that he will get another term and other days I’m not sure he will last another week.
We are about six months into this presidency. For every three steps forward he takes with diplomacy, jobs, regulations overhauls, etc., he takes four steps back with his Twitter account. I’m not a fan of him tweeting but it’s part of his persona. Unfortunately, his persona is partly a street fighter. That can be good (knocking the media) and it can go really bad (personally calling out and degrading individuals by name).
I listened to Newt share with Fox News why Trump is the way he is. I get it but at some point you’ve got to be the bigger man. It’s okay to take direct pot shots that hit them accurately but comments like he made about Mika (and yes, I know that they’ve said plenty of stuff about him) win no one over to his side. It’s cheap and it makes him look even worse. The tweet about them visiting Mar-a-Lago would have been fine, adding in the bleeding comment pushed it way over and it missed the mark he could have made without it.
All in all, I think he’s doing a passable job and would be able to do more if the GOP leadership would decide to do their jobs…which leads me to my next comment. McConnell and Ryan are horrible leaders. They have both houses and the presidency and still can’t (and in many cases…won’t on purpose) get anything done. I don’t believe either are conservative and when Obama was president, they had plenty of cover. Now with no excuses to be had, they simply go on recess and complete nothing. Add in that they hold Trump at more than arms link distancing themselves from whatever he does or says and you have two leaders who are failures.
I hear you HOA, but we must be using a different abacus . Mine says 10 steps forward for every one backward. Our President is a flawed man. He will more likely be found in the water fighting with the sharks, than walking on the water dancing with the angels.
HoA I find your assessment a fair one.
Cdor I find your assessment a fair one.
We wonks on the right live in a bubble. The wonks on the left live in their own bubble.
My guess is baring any earth shattering negative event. The people in the middle will give him a 2nd term. Why? Because our elite (both sides) are crooked as hell.
Scott Adams does a periscope video on the tweets. It is funny and I think it is what most of those not living in a wonk bubble think.
https://www.pscp.tv/ScottAdamsSays/1ZkJzyXQXgoGv?t=7
Runs about 18 minutes. You can tab through the run time and get the general gist.
Most people I imagine don’t even know his tweets are happening. I for one only find out about them several hours later if they bubble up in the podcasts I listen to, or make it to the general Ricochet discussion. There are people that probably pay even less attention than me. So most of the sturm und drang goes by unnoticed by most people.
I agree with you that nothing the Dems are doing so far is helping their 2020 prospects. But I for one don’t think anyone can disprove the null hypothesis when it comes to Trump’s 2016 victory. Which means I don’t know that there is any proof that his victory was anything but a coin flip.
Scott Adams was not a guy on my radar screen up until this year. He presents an interesting and unique pov on Trump. I agree that Trump is often just jackin’ with the high and mighty when he tweets. I think I said here or somewhere that a lot of his tweeting is just relieving pressure like an air valve on a radiator. Adams goes about in that video showing how small and insignificant are the real outcomes generated with Presidential tweeting. Just as many here have stated that while Trump’s offhanded statements give some people the vapours(pass the smelling salts), he is actually accomplishing a lot that people don’t even notice . So thanks for the nice words @kevinschulte. In less than a week all this will be forgotten and we will be on to the next horror of horrors and Trump will have accomplished another half dozen great things for this country that nobody will be talking about.
It is telling that the definition of “courage and perseverance” to some is when the man who holds the office of the President of the United States obsesses like a teenaged girl over what B-list cable TV personalities say about him.
Ironically, many still persist in displaying that very obsession over Trump’s victory eight months ago. Let it go.
Neil Gorsuch makes this all worthwhile. And if we get another good conservative on the court when Kennedy retires then Trump can tweet any damn thing he wants.
How is that worse than being obsessed over his tweets?
You first.
I do understand that the thick scales of blind devotion may impede this observation, but, just to clarify, no one is obligated to relinquish his right to point out legitimately childish and foolish actions by this president simply because he has been elected. Nor is pointing out these foolish and childish actions even remotely equivalent to “obsession over his victory”.
On the other hand, distress that the President does have fans on the right seems to be really unhelpful to making any progress on conservative causes.
Because the constant browbeating of his non-fans on the right is helping so much.
I’d say that a more objective observation would be that the greatest impediments to progress on conservative causes are the activities of the President himself. Of course, if we had wanted progress on conservative causes it may have been helpful to elect an actual conservative.
Do you recognize that there are some conservative developments that have come from the White House or is it your view that Trump is wrong on every policy and nomination?