You said a lot more but let's stop you right there....Americans didn't vote for him thinking he was a super great nice person. They voted for someone who could get something done. Also people were tired of voting people who yes can show much diplomacy in speech and be "nice" but really they crush you into the dust with high taxation and allow their jobs to be taken away. Sorry Miamited but you need to consider there's different ways that qualify for people NOT BEING nice. I like smooth speech as well as the next person but that's not necessarily a sign that someone is NICE. In fact it can be the greatest deception of all.
Hi bobber,
My post is my reflection on what President Trump has meant as the leader of our nation. According to the polls, just less than half the nation aren't expected to be in agreement with my understanding. Obviously, you and I represent that divide. In Paul's letter to the Romans he expounds on a list of behaviors that we can expect to see grow stronger in people and then closes out that list with these words, "Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." So, I understand that when it gets to our seeing wickedness abound, there are also going to be a lot of folks who approve of that wickedness.
However, putting aside this issue of his ability to be decent and respectful in his communicating with others, I don't agree that he has accomplished much. He did lower corporate taxes, but I have to wonder down the road at what cost. Right now we're enjoying a booming economy that we have enjoyed for the last 9 years. However, our national debt is growing by great leaps and bounds.
In 2016 one of candidate Trump's campaign points was that he was going to eliminate the national debt within 8 years. He's currently upped it by $3T. How was he at getting that done? He apparently doesn't even realize that it would be impossible, at current tax revenue rates, to eliminate such a pile of debt in such a short period of time without completely stopping the nation from spending any money on current expenses. Right now we take in about $3.3T/year in tax revenues. Our debt is $22T. Yes, we could pay off the $22T in 8 years if we didn't spend a dime of our current entire tax revenues in running the country. We could just close up all Washington offices except for the IRS to collect the tax revenues.
In 2016 he bragged loudly and proudly how quickly and easily he was going to be able to repeal the current ACA and put in place a much better and less expensive health insurance plan. He has made some feeble attempts to repeal the current plan, but there has yet, since the day he threw his hat in the ring, been any better and less expensive replacement plan shown. He, nor any of his faithful Republican lawmakers have yet to offer up even a scintilla of a plan to replace the current ACA. Let alone that it might be better and less expensive. So far his only plan has just been to get rid of the ACA. No more credits for the lower income to be able to afford health insurance. No more provision that everyone needs to carry health insurance so that the costs of the expensive sick can be off set by the revenue of the reasonably healthy. Bring back the turning away of millions with pre-existing conditions.
I don't want to make this post overly long, but those are just two of the major issues for which he made campaign promises that just aren't happening. We can throw in his record on his easy-peazy trade agreements. The new North American agreement doesn't really seem to be better for the U.S. Most of the provisions, such as higher wages for auto workers in Mexico, seem to benefit the other players more than us. Now, I don't think that's all bad, but neither do I think that such a new trade agreement is really saying much over the previous trade agreement for which he has often and regularly complained has allowed other nations to 'eat our lunch'.
Finally, I think that anyone would be quite blind to not see the effect that his administration has had on our international relations. I've never been an isolationist person. Even before I came to know the Lord I wasn't particularly isolationist in my understanding that America was this greater than every other nation, nation. That the American people were better than all those other people that live their lives around the world, hasn't ever been my understanding. Since trusting in Jesus I have come to fully understand that mothers and fathers in other nations feel the same way about their families and livelihoods as I do. They want to raise their children in safety and security as much as I do. That we live in a world of people, all of whom were created in the image of the same God that I was created in and that all deserve as much love and respect for who they are as I do.
Even many of his supporters, especially in the beginning of his administration, complained about his nature. That his tweeting out derogatory and defaming insults at people needed to be contained. However, as is normal with people, it has now gone on for so long that it is now being accepted as normal. We don't hear the hue and cry over his meanness, that even his supporters once raised. Look at Sen. Graham. I can't think of any better example of how people have turned another face of themselves out, because of the influence of Donald Trump. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a man who was quite rebuking of Donald Trump during his campaigning, and now sits as his lap dog next to his feet.
So, I fully appreciate and respect that your vision and understanding of our national political situation isn't the same. But, I'm not willing to throw in my approval of such horrendous actions committed by the leader of the nation that I'm a part of. Trying to convince myself, despite pretty obvious evidence otherwise, that he is doing some great work for the nation that no one else has ever done before.
God bless,
In Christ, ted
