E-mail answer from my banker to a couple of questions.~~~~~ That’s quite a broad subject to comment on, but I’m glad to try:
Trump is far from perfect, most of us knew that going in. He’s been soft on the enormous budget deficit which seems to be stuck north of 1T annually; his tweets are too often acerbic and offensive to the undecided voters, not to mention sometimes just stupid (e.g., never heard of a Cat 5 hurricane and thought Dorian might hit Alabama); he flips and flops and contradicts himself, which would be OK only if it’s a sly negotiating tactic but I suspect often it isn’t; he too often drives away good people from his administration, like Gen Mattis; etc.
All that having been said, he has been fighting tremendous headwinds ever since he was elected: The Deep State, the “Russia collusion” lie/fiasco, bitter hatred from the mainstream media, from academia, from Hollywood, and from all those other American institutions which have been swayed/cajoled/bludgeoned by the Left. I don’t believe any other president in history has had to endure a fraction of the vicious attacks he has been subjected to. And not just him, but his wife, his family, his associates, and his MAGA hat wearing supporters.
Despite all the terrible opposition, he has accomplished a lot: Two excellent Supreme Court justices (hurry up and die, RBG, so he can make it three. Yeah, that’s terribly unchristian of me, but I can’t help it!), a rollback of numerous Deep State regulations despite the headwinds described above, a re-setting of international relationships with our allies so that we’re not played for the money-dispensing suckers which we had become, noble attempts to stem illegal immigration, and to change immigration policy so that legal immigrants are selected who can best benefit America. Also, he has “bitten the bullet”, or “taken the bull by the horns” (take your pick of metaphors) by confronting North Korea, confronting rapacious China, and confronting Iran (although, I’m not too sold on the Iranian policy because I think the Jewish lobby has too much influence in that regard – I have no love lost for Iran, and can see a real problem if they go nuclear, but I’d hate to see the US put Israeli needs ahead of US needs).
Regarding the 2020 election, I have grave concerns about the wisdom (lack thereof) of the American voting public. The Dem platform is scary in so many ways – open borders, free college for all, free medical care for all, anti-oil, anti-nuclear power, anti- Western European Judeo-Christian culture, anti-capitalism, against constitutionalists for the Supreme Court, and on and on. I wish I could put more faith in the voting public rejecting such garbage, but Americans are more and more brainwashed by the leftist propaganda espoused by the Media and by Academia.
If God is good, and Trump wins in 2020, then I believe he will then try to make some serious headway against the unsustainable fiscal course this Nation is on. To do that, he and the Nation will need to address Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which are eating up the lion’s share of the budget, and which are growing at an unsustainable rate. The big problem here will be the Congress. Even if the GOP wins the House and the Senate (what are the odds??), it will still be extremely difficult to significantly impact Entitlements, because it’s virtually impossible that the Senate would be 60+ Republicans.
One thing I’ll say about Trump, for all his faults: He’s a man in his 70s, fabulously wealthy, who could have decided to screw this nonsense and retire to his mansions and his golf courses. He’s certainly not doing it for the money. He has a number of good conservative convictions which he is championing for all he’s worth. I hope against hope the voting public will support those convictions in the 2020 election.
Trump is far from perfect, most of us knew that going in. He’s been soft on the enormous budget deficit which seems to be stuck north of 1T annually; his tweets are too often acerbic and offensive to the undecided voters, not to mention sometimes just stupid (e.g., never heard of a Cat 5 hurricane and thought Dorian might hit Alabama); he flips and flops and contradicts himself, which would be OK only if it’s a sly negotiating tactic but I suspect often it isn’t; he too often drives away good people from his administration, like Gen Mattis; etc.
All that having been said, he has been fighting tremendous headwinds ever since he was elected: The Deep State, the “Russia collusion” lie/fiasco, bitter hatred from the mainstream media, from academia, from Hollywood, and from all those other American institutions which have been swayed/cajoled/bludgeoned by the Left. I don’t believe any other president in history has had to endure a fraction of the vicious attacks he has been subjected to. And not just him, but his wife, his family, his associates, and his MAGA hat wearing supporters.
Despite all the terrible opposition, he has accomplished a lot: Two excellent Supreme Court justices (hurry up and die, RBG, so he can make it three. Yeah, that’s terribly unchristian of me, but I can’t help it!), a rollback of numerous Deep State regulations despite the headwinds described above, a re-setting of international relationships with our allies so that we’re not played for the money-dispensing suckers which we had become, noble attempts to stem illegal immigration, and to change immigration policy so that legal immigrants are selected who can best benefit America. Also, he has “bitten the bullet”, or “taken the bull by the horns” (take your pick of metaphors) by confronting North Korea, confronting rapacious China, and confronting Iran (although, I’m not too sold on the Iranian policy because I think the Jewish lobby has too much influence in that regard – I have no love lost for Iran, and can see a real problem if they go nuclear, but I’d hate to see the US put Israeli needs ahead of US needs).
Regarding the 2020 election, I have grave concerns about the wisdom (lack thereof) of the American voting public. The Dem platform is scary in so many ways – open borders, free college for all, free medical care for all, anti-oil, anti-nuclear power, anti- Western European Judeo-Christian culture, anti-capitalism, against constitutionalists for the Supreme Court, and on and on. I wish I could put more faith in the voting public rejecting such garbage, but Americans are more and more brainwashed by the leftist propaganda espoused by the Media and by Academia.
If God is good, and Trump wins in 2020, then I believe he will then try to make some serious headway against the unsustainable fiscal course this Nation is on. To do that, he and the Nation will need to address Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which are eating up the lion’s share of the budget, and which are growing at an unsustainable rate. The big problem here will be the Congress. Even if the GOP wins the House and the Senate (what are the odds??), it will still be extremely difficult to significantly impact Entitlements, because it’s virtually impossible that the Senate would be 60+ Republicans.
One thing I’ll say about Trump, for all his faults: He’s a man in his 70s, fabulously wealthy, who could have decided to screw this nonsense and retire to his mansions and his golf courses. He’s certainly not doing it for the money. He has a number of good conservative convictions which he is championing for all he’s worth. I hope against hope the voting public will support those convictions in the 2020 election.
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