Trump: He Meant What He Said

When I was a junior in high school, decades ago, I signed up for Mr. Mueller’s class on oceanography as one of my science class requirements.  Most of my fellow students signed up thinking it would be an easy class.  I signed up for it because the topic of oceanography sounded very interesting to me. 

Mr. Mueller was a very plain spoken, gruff, and politically incorrect teacher.  He was not opposed to ridiculing any student that acted out of line in his class, usually to the class' amusement and to the student's chagrin.  There was always order and discipline in his class.

He would have been a tenured instructor that the teachers’ union would have somehow found a way to fire if he were to teach nowadays. I could see him being the one that refused to join the union or at least made union meetings very contentious, to say the least.  I imagine him pointing out their nonsense and the political over-reach of some folks instead of them focusing on how to be better teachers and demand that they be compensated appropriately for so being. 

I recall his initial “welcome speech” on the first day of class all of these years later because it was terse, to the point, and was obviously lacking in “feel-good” platitudes that many of the other teachers would bloviate upon.  He stated at the beginning of the semester that if you were late for class, his door would be locked and he would not let you in the room, so you had better show up on time.  Respect was a big deal for him.  He said he would be going over geological, biological, and chemistry related aspects of oceanography and as such that there was a tremendous amount of information he would cover and we would be expected to know for the exams.  He further explained that he would do reviews before each exam and that if we took good notes during the reviews and had done our work during the preceding section, we would likely all get “A’s”.  If not, we would likely fail.  

I found that I liked Mr. Mueller because he told you just where you stood, what was expected, and what he was going to do.  There weren’t any surprises.

I was amazed when seemingly half of the class passed with “A’s” while the remaining half failed just exactly as Mr. Mueller had foretold.  I received an A+.  

I find the situation somewhat analogous to President Trump today.  I personally do not care for Trump’s often un-statesmanlike demeanor, his petulant retaliation and conducting of national affairs by tweets, and his over-the-top rudeness at times.  I did not like what I saw as serious character issues with Mr. Trump during his campaign, and hence decided to vote for Darrell Castle with the Constitution Party accordingly.

In spite of his character flaws, many of President Trump’s issues that he campaigned upon seemed to be good ideas and particularly necessary in my opinion.  Some took the form of campaign promises similar to those made by Republican candidates for generations.  As such, not many people, including the Democrats, took them too seriously as actually being addressed in his administration other than just as window-dressing. 

After the better part of two years into President Trump’s administration, I think many people are surprised, or vexed depending on political ideologies, to learn that Trump wasn’t the typical politician just making half-hearted promises in order to get elected.  He actually intended to work to get his agenda enacted.

And this angers the left… to extraordinary degrees.

President Trump promised to nominate constitutionally-minded candidates to the federal courts and Supreme Court instead of appointing judicial activists whom look to every place besides the United States Constitution for informing their opinions on cases.  Justice Gorsuch and Judge Kavanaugh are excellent jurists in that very mold of textualists accordingly, thus the meltdown from the leftists.  Trump provided a list of twenty-five SCOTUS candidates that he would likely pick from for the Supreme Court.  There certainly was no surprises here.  

Trump promised to work with other nations to revise or establish mutually beneficial trade deals, and if the other nations refused to work with us accordingly, he would seek to right such trade imbalances via the instigation of tariffs on their goods.  China has long stolen intellectual property and maintained a dangerous trade imbalance in their favor with us, particularly regarding steel and aluminum.  Trump attempted to right that wrong; China refused to cooperate, and hence punitive tariffs have been enacted in order to prompt China to change its ways...  JUST   AS   PROMISED.

Like previous presidents, Trump also promised to end illegal immigration.  Unlike previous presidents from both parties, Trump actually instructed that the letter of the law be followed with regards to illegal immigrants.  This enrages the left as they see future Democrat voters being denied entry into the U.S.  They further blame Trump for actually following the law written long prior to his administration that separates children of illegal aliens from their parents.  (If I were to break the law in Mexico, I don’t think that the Mexican authorities would throw my children into jail with me.  I know we don’t hold minors in jail here for the legal transgressions of their parents.)  The fact that Trump has asked that this law actually be enforced as a deterrent to illegal immigrants has caused heads to explode on the left.  When he mitigated this law by executive order, the left still screamed and took offense.  Evidently for some of our brothers and sisters on the left, we are to have open borders or they will fight and resist!

President Trump promised significant tax reform to spur the economy to life once again from the sub-2% anemic growth experienced under his predecessor’s eight years.  By doing so he has created business and personal growth not seen in this country for decades by allowing people to keep more of their own hard-earned tax dollars.  Further, this has caused businesses to expand and hire more employees thus bringing unemployment numbers down to remarkably low levels.  Again, Trump did what he said he would do.

Trump has removed myriad economy-killing regulations that were often times unnecessary or useful only to certain special interest groups.  He promised to remove two regulations for every one that was enacted.  He has far surpassed this by a margin of 12 removed to 1 enacted according to some reports.  This cutting of bureaucracy has made government less bloated and more efficient and responsive in many areas… just as promised yet again.

Trump, like previous presidents, has rightfully complained about NATO allies not living up to their commitments to spend 2% of their GDP’s in their defense thus leaving America to heft a greater share of the burden of Europe’s defense.  Unlike his predecessors, President Trump has publicly and spectacularly called out our offending allies for this intentional transgression and has openly pondered the usefulness of NATO if they do not contribute according to their promised obligations. 

These issues and perhaps dozens more where Trump was proven not to just be making meaningless speeches, but was actually telling us what he planned to do has proven refreshing to many of us on the right of center.  He made many promises during his presidential campaign, just like all other politicians before him.  The difference is that President Trump intended to follow through on every one of them despite a very hostile opposition from the Left and denouncement at nearly all corners from the mainstream leftist media.

The fact that much of his enacted agenda has proven to be very effective and quite popular really enrages our leftist brothers and sisters.  They are incensed that Trump actually meant what he said and followed through on his words, just like Mr. Mueller did in my high school class decades ago.  Those folks that didn’t take them seriously are upset that America is being made great again (by most Americans’ definition) or that they got “F’s”.  I guess they didn’t realize that both President Trump and Mr. Mueller truly meant what they said.

In that regard, I have do have respect for the otherwise arrogant and often obnoxious President Trump,  just like I did for the brusque Mr. Mueller decades earlier.  They meant what they said, and that is indeed not only quite refreshing in this day and age, but sorely needed as well.

PS: As a FYI, September 11, 2018 will be the ninth anniversary of Saving Common Sense.  It will also be the last active day of this blog.  I have yet to decide whether I will remove the blog entirely or simply leave it up and no longer administer to it.   Regardless, I have decided to start a new "kinder and gentler" project in the coming months that will be less political and not dealing with malcontents and haters.  More to come on this soon!  Cheers!