When Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President, he inherited a country that was in the throes of the worst economic crisis the country ever faced. He proceeded to institute a flurry of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders and worked with Congress to pass legislation that implemented what he called "The New Deal." This flurry of activity was then used by the media as some new benchmark all subsequent Presidents were held to. Frankly speaking, this is a silly benchmark and quite unfair to any subsequent President, since economic conditions, political climate, and thousands of other factors differ from the early 1930s.
However, it is useful to examine the progress the first 100 days of any presidency as a benchmark for how a given presidency is shaping up. If you were thinking I was going to now proceed to pick apart the first 100 days of the Trump administration, you'd be quite wrong. The media and a plethora of pundits have spent plenty of time doing that, so I suggest you Google the info and parse the various opinions. However, I would like to note a few, what I think are, unique things about the first 100 days of the Trump administration. Apologies if this post comes off as a bit disjointed and rambling. However, there's much to talk about and I'm going to try to limit things for this post and leave more for later.
First, my very first post on this blog commented on the increase in racist activity that I felt was partly fueled by the rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign ("Out of the Shadows"). The divisiveness of the country has gotten worse on multiple levels. Trump's 100th day fell on the 25th anniversary of the so-called "Rodney King riots." To me, we haven't moved forward from that tragedy and, in many respects, have actually regressed. Sadly, our elected officials continue to ignore the signs and continue to show lack of leadership. Our President has barely addressed the issue and his continued rhetoric and vitriolic behavior has continued to allow those with extreme views to come out of the shadows and claim the veil of legitimacy under the facade of political expression. Maybe that's what he wants, since they obviously form a small percentage of his base. If that were true, it's a sad comment on our society. Sadly, the media has also decided this topic is not worth addressing simply because no political leader, is addressing it. Our political leaders need to grow a pair and address the immediate aspects of this increase in racist activity. It has serious implications for the near-term (and possibly long-term) future of our democracy.
Second, the media and some selected others have made a big deal about how the President has the lowest approval rating of any modern President. Well, that may be true when one looks at the overall numbers, but a quick look "under the hood" is quite revealing (politico.com). The President's approval rating among Trump voters is above 90% and that number only drops slightly to 80-something percent when looking at Republicans as a whole. His approval rating among independents hovers around 40% and his approval among Democrats is around 10%. Yes, some in the media have talked about this breakdown, but what the media has not been discussing is what these numbers truly represent; an America that is seriously divided even in the face of a national leadership that has revealed a cornucopia of flaws and weaknesses. The general level of politicization has reached unbelievable levels, but also our current President has steadily attempted to politicize every aspect of our government, even those institutions that are supposed to be non-partisan. While I know many don't believe "non-partisan" exists, you might be surprised by the bureaucracy. Those working in the "non-partisan" parts of our government actually take their jobs seriously and understand why they need to remain apolitical. Sadly, our current President seems to think that if a particular branch of government disagrees with him or does something counter to what he wants, then he needs to play "Apprentice" and fire people and attempt to place his minions in those positions. This is very dangerous for our democracy. Those "non-partisan" entities must remain non-partisan and not subject to the whims of the President, legislature, or any other entity.
This leads to my third point....the total lack of huevos among our representatives in the legislative branch of our government. There are times I think they need to go back to school and take civics all over again. This cow towing to your political party and its goals, rather than doing what might be right for the country just illustrates my point above. Yes, we all have differences of opinion when it comes to what is "right" for the country. But, as Americans, we should be able to discuss those issues and come to some compromise that works for everyone. This digging in of heels that's done by both parties gets us nowhere. When did "compromise" become a dirty and divisive word? However, what's even sadder is that as we see a President who tweets bold-face lies, tries to mold history to his liking, and shows ever increasing levels of political inexperience and narcissism. In the face of all that, the legislative branch of our government seems to have forgotten whole idea of "checks and balances." Time to put some of the politics aside and start doing things that we should all be able to agree is for the good of the country, regardless of what the President wants.
Take the apparent interference of Russia in our recent election. While it's not clear whether there was collusion between Russia and members of the Trump campaign and/or administration, our intelligence experts seem to all agree that Russia did attempt to influence our election in favor of President Trump. In fact, it's become clear they have tried to influence other elections across the globe. As Americans, Republican, Democrat, and Independent, we should all be very concerned about this. Yet, Republicans seem to want to ensure the President and his friends are semi-protected from investigation, while Democrats scream for further investigation into rumors of collusion. Really, the House and Senate committees should continue their investigations in a non-partisan way, ignore what all the vested parties want, and see where the evidence leads without trying to influence the outcome. Yet, both sides seem incapable of doing that. Without thoroughly investigating this and figuring out what we need to do to protect our electoral process, all future elections are going to be subject to suspicion, only feeds the false narrative of wide-spread voter fraud, and erodes our democracy.
Fourth, all of this polarization has spilled into public discourse. It's sad to see people screaming and yelling at each other, without taking the time to understand the other side. Frankly, we've all forgotten that we have free speech in this country and shouting down and/or threatening the other side from expressing their opinion does nothing to advance our democracy. Lately, the left side of the country seems to be less and less willing to be tolerant of listening and has led to incidents of, what are basically, intolerance. Yeah, the other side may be advocating ideas and policies that seem extreme and exclusive, but at the same time, they are thinking the same about you. We all form our opinions and views based on our personal experiences. The only way to understand the other side, is to learn more about their experiences. My first point about the recent polls about Trump's approval illustrates this. Trump voters still approve of his job, despite all the things those on the left think are too extreme and horrible. He's doing exactly what they want him to do. Why is that? It's time for everyone to come out of each other's bubbles and start talking, instead of yelling. You actually might find a real person on the other side. It's also time for the media to come out of their respective bubbles and start engaging in a much broader conversation. These partisan approaches to news and information again does nothing to advance our democracy. I've always argued that the day the networks figured out they could make money off the news, is when the news dies. But getting back to the original point, free speech applies to everyone. It's one of the principles our Founding Fathers understood would be a cornerstone of our democracy. It's sad that many Americans are forgetting what it means.
OK, so enough for now. I can ramble on about more, but this post is already a bit too long. FDR's "New Deal" was the right thing at a critical time for the country. As I noted at the beginning, he achieved many of the goals of the "New Deal", because there was, for the most part, bipartisan understanding it was what the country needed. Time for our elected officials to understand what our country needs now and start to reach across the aisle to move our country forward.
#LetsMakeAmericaBuenoAgain
