Trumps First Year Was One For the Ages

For those of you who have known me for awhile, you know I've been writing about politics for the last 15 years. This blog started when the invasion of Iraq did in 2003. I've blogged most of the W years and all of the Obama years but slowed down as the Trump campaign and eventual first year occurred. Mainly that is because of the much higher profile of Facebook and Twitter and how the Trump campaign did exactly what the Obama campaign did; got their points out via social media. This blog reaches a minimal audience--well down from the heyday back in the 2006-2010 years. I could reach 300-400 people daily on Facebook and Twitter and maybe change one mind or even secure one wavering vote.

Over the last year, I've seen something I never thought I'd see; true change and reform within the federal government. In the past, it was just a slight change from left to right and back again. Obama changed that, he took the federal entity farther left than any previous president save possibly FDR. He fundamentally changed the power of the presidency by enacting regulations over legislation. He had his pen and his phone and he used them increasing spending to unseen levels and growing the federal civil service to grotesque levels never envisioned by the constitutional framers. He also expanded the executive branch in ways never seen before and when us on the right brought up the fact that the power allowed him would be seen as a precedent for future presidents we were laughed at because the left truly believed that they would establish a generational foothold on that branch.

Then along came Donal J. Trump. Here was a man that played by a set of rules the establishment and the media (but I'm redundant) couldn't fathom. After years of patting the blur collar voter on the head every four years assuring them they would be taken care of while simultaneously creating an America where they had no place finally caught up to them. Trump spoke directly to them. He went to Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, western Pennsylvania and the heartland and said I see you, I understand you and I will help you. Amazingly, a billionaire from New York connected with the forgotten blue collar worker and allowed them to see his vision. He won in spite of his faults because people who wanted the American dream saw in him as one who could deliver it. Hillary's people were playing from a 2008 playbook where Trump was playing by a 1980 playbook with a 21st century twist...social media. He also played by the rules that say if you win the electoral college you win the election; total votes don't mean anything. While Hillary ignored those who Trump most appealed to in favor or fundraisers and coastal elites, Trump went out and stumped for for historically democratic voter and made them feel like there was true hope.

So Trump beat Hillary. Immediately the media ganged up on him. Never had I seen a winning candidate not even in office suffer the negative publicity that Trump did from the media. They beclowned themselves by shedding any journalistic integrity they once had and printing any salacious story they could without even doing a little investigating. In the past, that would've doomed the president elect. But not Trump, he went back after them on every single story. He changed the news dynamic by tweeting at 2:00 AM or releasing a flurry of tweets at 5:59 AM. He drove the news cycle and when they had something they thought would stick he'd change the news cycle again. He tweeted out stories before the authors of them could release them and put his spin on the story before it could be digested.

But amazingly and without the media noticing it, he went to work. The single most conservative supreme court nominee was nominated and confirmed, The media would lose their minds and he'd tweet out something different and they would go in that direction. Allegations of Russian interference in the election were running rampant based on a dossier that was paid for by the Democrats so Trump selected a special counsel to investigate shutting people up while he worked but then fired the head of the FBI whom many on the left blamed for Hillary losing. This forced the media to do a 180 on Comey and say he was a good guy, a martyr after destroying him for months. Meanwhile, anyone paying attention saw exactly what was happening. Trump was simultaneously making the media crazy while he went about his daily work of reducing regulations--a key part of what his agenda was.

He's changed the federal judiciary for a generation. Anyone who knows how America works knows that the judiciary is the single most critical element of real and true change. He focused on the economy and did what Obama could never do; gave hope to people and consumer confidence is the most important part of that. Where Obama never had a year of 3% growth, Trump did it quickly. Unemployment fell, people went back to work and with the tax bill, the next two years will roar at levels unseen since the late 90's tech boom.

On the foreign policy front he canceled our participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership ensuring that our jobs would not be shipped overseas and got us out of the Paris Climate Agreement which would have cost us trillions. He began renegotiation of NAFTA, which was a disaster for American workers and even went so far as to cut the corporate tax rate to low not seen in decades. All this was done with a congress that was shell-shocked and poorly led. Most importantly, ISIS was exterminated from the land they held in 10 months through cooperation with the Kurds, Iraqi's and Russians. He also did what many red-blooded Americans have hoped for by giving the UN the finger. His single act of saying he was moving the embassy to Jerusalem exposed the hypocrisy of the vaunted body in mid-town Manhattan. On North Korea, he went right at the fat little dictator whom previous presidents only gave lip service to and then kicked the can down the road for the next POTUS.

So here we are. The African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates are at historic lows, the stock market is reaching new heights daily and consumer confidence is high. Amusingly, liberals are out of their minds and still raging about events that happened months ago while sputtering about today's latest tweet. Meanwhile Trump is transforming America for the foreseeable future. People in blue states will no longer allow taxes to be raised because they can no longer deduct them on their federal taxes. Blue states will have to rein in spending and if not, they will turn red.

This is all after just 11 months.