Trump—A Year Later ...
A year ago I sat in a room with a couple of Democrats and, I am a bit abashed to admit, enjoyed the emotional meltdown.
It was a Tuesday night and against all odds Donald Trump was running away with an electoral college victory as disbelief and chagrin swept over my friends.
Better yet, it was on camera. Three of us were on the WAPT-TV set, giving commentary—two Democrats and…me.
Not that I voted for the man. Most certainly, I did not. Said it that night during the broadcast.
Still, I couldn’t help but relish watching the Tougaloo and Millsaps professors enter their anguish. And it was a long entryway. The Millsaps guy found a great New York Times feature online; it had a dial that relatively early in the evening predicted, with about 98 percent certainty, a Trump win. While the networks were pretending there was a horse race, midway through the night the Times declared that it was over.
The shock rattled our little room much earlier than it shook the national networks.
It would have been so much more gratifying that evening had I voted Trump. But I couldn’t. I mean, the man has the maturity of a sixth-grade brat. Even today, he demonstrates it with his juvenile tweets and over-the-top insults delivered on whim.
Further, he has bragged about his serial adultery, has made a fortune with seedy casinos, owns strip clubs, has made a cameo appearance in a porn film, dismissively mocked America’s most famous POW, has regularly funded liberal causes and politicians, and is, um, slightly theologically confused: “I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness,” he said last year. “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes?” Oh yes, and his favorite Scripture, when asked: “an eye for an eye."
One would think his own supporters would take at least a little umbrage at Trump’s perception of them: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
When asked by friends about my lack of enthusiasm for the current President, I typically respond that one of my biggest worries is that he will succeed, and then every school child in America learns that with this deleterious behavior you can rise to the most revered and powerful position in the world.
On policy—well, he had no track record. He has moved in Democrat circles most of his life and wrote out fat checks to their candidates and causes. He proclaimed himself pro-life but in the past had kind things to say about Planned Parenthood. He offered some great commitments for Supreme Court nominees, but within twelve hours seemed to back off that pronouncement. No foreign policy experience, nor domestic politicking proficiency for that matter.
And it shows. The man isn’t very helpful to a Republican Congress that could sure use some leadership; goodness knows, they aren’t getting it from their own party bosses. But he is ignorant on policy and is insulting—hardly a winning strategy for a party that, measured by the most recent election this week, desperately needs one.
Still, stocks are up. He has placed a conservative Supreme Court justice. His Cabinet has been called, by a former Reagan cabinet member, more conservative than the Gipper’s.
Tips for the future? Attend a few Heritage Foundation seminars, lose the Twitter account, never give a speech or make remarks that aren’t written by a professional.
But I will grant my friends who voted for him this: he is undoubtedly, so far, better than Hillary. Not even close.
And, he gave me one satisfying evening at WAPT a year ago.
Pray.