Has it been more than two years since Donald Trump won the presidency? Wow! Time is really flying! Unemployment is at record lows and worker participation rate is at all time highs. GDP is stable around three percent and manufacturing jobs are magically coming back to America. Median household incomes are highest on record and gas prices are low.
The American economy is so good that Barack Obama is taking credit for it! If anyone doesn’t like the economy, he should blame Obama!
Headlines for the past two years have consistently blared the same narrative: Trump is a bad, mean, and evil person; therefore, whatever he supports is bad, mean and evil; and, whatever he opposes is good, righteous, and holy.
Trump’s enemies, i.e. those who faithfully march to the narrative, include all Democrats, the GOP establishment, 90 percent of the national media, and 95 percent of celebrities. Those are a lot of voices continually saying Trump is a bad, mean, and evil person. Amazingly, the latest Rasmussen poll shows Trump’s approval rate at 47 percent versus 52 percent disapproval. One might expect the American public to have disapproval rates closer to those of the national media and other critics. Why the large gap?
Possibly, grassroots Americans, particularly those of us living in fly over country between progressive bastions on the left and right coasts, are enjoying economic benefits of the Trump presidency, or late blooming economic benefits of the Obama presidency depending upon whom one credits for good economic times.
America still faces challenges. Drugs and opioids are killing more Americans every day. Large amounts of these poisons are transported across our porous border with Mexico, along with human traffickers, criminals, and terrorists. Overwhelmed border agents have consistently asked for more resources including personnel and physical barriers, what Trump has called a wall.
The narrative of Trump’s opposition says no wall, no way. Ironically, leading Democrats who are still in congress today sponsored legislation and voted for physical border barriers just a few years ago as a primary means of controlling illegal immigration and the flow of drugs. The only reason Democrats and other Trump haters continue to fight the wall is because the narrative says Trump is a bad, mean and evil person.
Politics has nothing to do with protecting American citizens with stronger barriers. Trump has asked for a fraction of one-percent of the federal budget to build more physical barriers at strategic crossing points. Democrats say this minute spending is wasteful. Would you vote to ask Congress to give less than one cent of taxes you pay to stem the flow of drugs, sex traffickers, criminals and even terrorists into America? Democrats have no plan to control who or what comes across the southern border daily.
The wall has nothing to do with wasting money. Border patrol agents say physical barriers are one of the most efficient and effective means of controlling who and what crosses the border.
The wall has everything to do with embarrassing Trump, that bad, mean and evil person who should not have won the presidency. It was Hillary’s turn! Those who march lockstep to the narrative are dedicated to thwart any and all of Trump’s efforts to ‘make America great again,’ even at the expense of the safety of our citizens.
With 2020 elections in sight, the next two years will be more of the same, only louder and more outrageous.
Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at [email protected], or interact with him on the Clarion-Ledger web site http://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/
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