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President Trump’s Annus Mirabilis
A lot of people ended up with egg on their faces in 2017. The events of 2016 left me wiping off no small amount of yolk as well. Sure, there are reasons why this happened, but in the final analysis, those on the winning side always get to point to the scoreboard and take comfort in the fact that even if it was ugly, victory was nonetheless had.
Out of a desire to make amends for having been wrong, I’ve avoided writing about politics for most of the year, deciding instead to write about subjects as diverse as UFOs and personal finance. So, in returning to writing about politics, my desire is to be scrupulously fair to all involved and I begin by asking: What hath this victory wrought? In my opinion, little less than a miracle.
For those of us who were deeply skeptical of Trump (I’m still awaiting my GOPe check for my steadfast opposition), we possessed a legitimate set of concerns based upon the President’s personal history, personality and lack of conservative bona fides which led to our opposition. To the extent that our worst fears weren’t realized, this is an incredibly welcome relief and cause for rejoicing at having been wrong.
Beginning with the nomination of Associate Justice Gorsuch, and assessing the rest of the year’s policy outcomes, the President has either exceeded or met only his most avid supporters’ wildest dreams. On the topics of taxes, deregulation, welfare reform and other Federal Judgeships, the Administration has similarly impressed all but the hardest-nosed Trump skeptics, while only indulging in the most minimal bits of damaging policymaking, as in the case of TPP.
Withdrawing us from UNESCO and the Paris Accords, convincing the UN to place increasingly onerous sanctions on the North Koreans, removing the handcuffs from the military and allowing them to annihilate ISIS … I could go on endlessly. What’s even more extraordinary is the effect that the Trump administration has had on the Left. What do I mean?
As a general rule, the Left and Democrats, in particular, tend to be better than Republicans at the game of politics. Why is that? It’s what they do for fun. On average, Republicans have jobs or families and spend their weekends on projects at their homes or attending their kids’ various extracurricular activities. The left, who tend to be single, students, or are otherwise well-enough off to be bored on weekends attend protests on nice Saturdays … this they do for amusement. So, you’d think that people with so much leisure time on their hands would spend it honing a message which is sure to defeat the loathsome President Trump and his Vichy Republican collaborators in the upcoming midterm elections. But you’d be wrong.
Instead of reforming and moderating their party — which has stood at an historic ebb following its hollowing out at the hands of Barack Obama — the Democrats have decided to double down on the policies which have put them in these dire straits. To witness the normally canny (yet still putrescent) Sen. Chuck Schumer drive his party into a political box canyon for the sake of non-citizens by shutting down the Government and Xavier Becerra (Attorney General of California) openly attempt to nullify Federal immigration law by criminalizing its enforcement makes one think that President Trump’s seemingly flailing madness has had either the intentional or unintentional effect of making his enemies clinically insane.
Of course, the hardest thing to know about is the future, given that it hasn’t happened yet and logic dictates (if for no other reason than the tide of history) that the Democrats stand to pick up a number of seats in the House and even perhaps the Senate in 2018. Yet, what stays the hand of my prediction in this regard is the fact that with so many other unprecedented occurrences, what’s to rule out another unprecedented set of circumstances? Seemingly nothing at this point.
Even one of the gravest threats to this annus mirabilis — the Robert Mueller special prosecution — has only generated indictments for matters unrelated to the underlying issue and uncovered a process crime or two. This is bad, but hardly the stuff of Robert Ludlum or John LeCarre’s espionage-laden imaginations. I will go out on a limb here and say that short of Trump crossing himself up in a deposition, there’s simply no “there” there, given that if there were, a responsible prosecutor with knowledge that the President had sold the office to a foreign power would practically be required to approach the congressional leadership and Vice President in order to see that this ghastly traitor was promptly turfed out of the White House. Mueller’s lack of action in this regard is telling in and of itself.
Are there downsides to what’s been going on? Absolutely. The President remains precisely what we skeptics said about him. He is petty, narcissistic, and a moral cipher. He is the sort of man who carried on trysts with porn stars to low-level applause while his recently pregnant wife remained at home with their infant child. By attaching themselves to his coattails, and being dragged wherever he has gone, whatever dignity or respect the “moral majority” fakirs like Jerry Falwell, Jr. once had in this country has been rendered sharny for a generation. It remains to be seen whether this will be a net positive or negative, and seems like a small price to pay for the gains made.
Sometimes dirty jobs require a hatchet man, and the President’s hands (tiny or otherwise) would be better described at this point as two-headed axes.
The President remains mercurial; a man with a pen, a smartphone and a Twitter account, who is just as likely to cut down his allies on the backswing and members of his Administration as he is to appoint a Strict Constructionist to the Federal Bench. Whether that is the result of outsourcing the hard work or his own initiative … at this point, I don’t care. I’m not tired of all the winning yet, and here’s to another year of miracles.
Published in General
If we cede utterly the moral high ground, we will never again get a “Reagan, who can combine personal virtue with the ability to stand firm and win.”
That is my concern with Trump, and it wouldn’t hurt if I could actually tell my kids for once in their life that the President of the United States is a thoroughly decent and honest person instead of having to tell them under my breath, “psst… please don’t act like that guy… your life probably won’t turn out in such a rosy manner.” This doesn’t seem like a huge ask.
Having thrown my share of daggers, I nonetheless retain the right to point out where I think the President has gotten things wrong, and those places exist. But fairness demands that I do what I’ve done.
Personality can mean the difference between winning and losing an election.
I see it’s time for me to link to this again:
https://stephenmcalpine.com/2015/06/01/athen-is-fencing-babylon-is-a-cage-fight/
Trump’s debating style (if we may call it such) is what works in our current culture.
Got to disagree here. The Left treats politics as a blood sport, no fun at all. It’s the sine qua non of their existence. It’s imbedded in everything. To us it’s the side show.
Powerful argument! Gotta get you on one of the #MAGA Monday editions of the podcast!
You name the time and the place.
Are we still questioning if Trump can win the election?
I know this is off topic, but it’s been bugging me for years: please stop making UFC analogies when you clearly have never watched a single match. All of the examples listed in that blog post – leg breaking, door smashing, low blows – are illegal and will get the perpetrator instantly disqualified.
Depends. Are you willing to gamble the 2020 election on the possibility that the Democrats will nominate someone equally loathsome as Hillary Clinton?
But it won’t be the same Trump as last time, it will be the incumbent president. If he has four years like the first, I’d say he’s tough to beat. Or it could be a completely different situation.
Not to mention the ugliness that would ensue, trying to replace Trump on the ticket. Attacking Trump has not worked out well for the anti-Trump GOP, so far. They tried to stop him from winning the primary in 2016, and failed. Why would anyone think he could be stopped from getting the nomination in 2020? If they could, what would they accomplish, except to win the undying hatred of a vast number of badly-needed voters, and lose the White House?
(This is barring some truly massive misstep from Mr. Trump. Something more odious to his base than all we’ve seen so far. Like screwing up the immigration thing. Or failing on Obamacare. Even then, if the base blames Congress, he may skate on that too.)
Do you really think those are considered negatives? Well worth it to get rid of this loathsome president, no?
My different situation also includes the possibility that the FBI/DOJ thing blows up and he goes into this November perceived as the victim of a nefarious Democratic plot. Something like that would drag all the way to 2020, and the Dems could end up in a post Watergate style situation.
Napoleon said the quality he most looked for in a general was good luck. If Trump’s success is just good luck, then fine, I’ll take it. As I say when I get lucky in a no-limit hold ’em hand, “Winner winner, chicken dinner!”
Better lucky than good eh…? The problem is that luck is fickle and while it can lead to short term success has anyone ever had long term success because of it? Look at Napoleon himself his luck ran out because in the long term luck averages out to nothing. So if you had a choice between being the gambler and being the house, well you might make more money as the gambler in one night, but in a year the house will always come out on top.
To some, clearly so.
The Trump persona is more a thug than a statesman. The Republicans hate him for making them look like a barrel of twits. The Democrats hate him for beating them to a bloody pulp without even mussing his hair. Those of us in Flyover Country love him for doing what he said he’d do. And since history is written by the winners, well…at this point I’m not too worried.
Who said anything about gambling? I said “no limit hold ’em”, which is a game of skill. Trump’s not getting lucky. He takes calculated risks.
I was born flyover and Deeds, Not Words is the way I prefer to judge presidents, though I am a little more concerned over some of the words of our last one.
Trump’s mastery has been his neutering of the Media as a driver of policy. Rhodes, Obama’s master of press relations used the media as a bludgeon, as a way to cement conventional wisdom. He described them as 28 yr old know nothings, and played them like a fiddle. The Republicans were not smart enough to see how fragile that whole arrangement was and were neutered by it.
Trump turned that manipulation around by constantly feeding them silly nonsense. They would go off for days on end about nothing, and were desperate for more, so he gave them more. The Republican’s in Congress and Senate finally figured out that they could actually present policy without fearing what it looked like on the covers of the NYT. The Democrats actually lost the shutdown over Dreamers. They lost. And Trump took that word and wrapped it around their neck like a noose last night.
The Media will rail against the terrible things said last night but what will stick in people’s minds is the Democrats sitting on their hands and looking like they just heard their mother had died when Trump said that african american unemployment is the lowest it has been for a long time.
I challenge anyone to come up with a strategy to cut regulations and the federal bureaucracy the way Trump has done. As effectively and decisively. This is not a bumbling fool with no control or discipline. If you are made to think that, he is playing with you to put you somewhere he wants you to be.