Inaugaral Thoughts

So next Friday Donald Trump gets sworn in as president, barring the unforeseen, and an era of reversing what many of us felt was wrongly perpetrated upon this country hopefully begins.

Hopefully.

            Is Trump the guy to heal Obama’s racial division of our country? It would seem Rep. John Lewis (whoever the heck he is) thinks not but he’s also a big fan of a picture depicting cops as pigs in the capitol building that is coming down on Tuesday so I don’t really care what he thinks. I think it is going to take years and years to undo the racist hatred Obama fostered in this country and get us back to where we were; far from perfect but at least headed in the right direction. I don’t know that Trump or any man can fix what is currently broken by himself.  I still subscribe to the theory that black leadership is going to have to step up and fix the black family rather than continue to promote a concept of victimization to keep their power base helpless. Neither Donald nor I can do much about that. Take a knee, I guess.

         Is Trump the guy to fix the economy? Well, I think a number of us think that’s the case. And for a guy who is hated by the liberal media he has sure been getting a heck of a lot of press about all the jobs he’s already created that, according to the Associated Press, don’t matter because Obama didn’t create them. He won’t even be president ‘til Friday afternoon. It should be interesting to see what happens when he actually has some power.
 
          Will he build the dreaded wall that has the left so upset? Former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm observed after the election that those on the left took Trump literally but not seriously and those who supported him took him seriously but not literally. I think that is the most profound observation of where Trump’s support came from so far, although I have little hope the left is ever going to quit crying long enough to get it.

          We don’t care if he builds an actual brick wall on our border with Mexico.  We don’t care if he just draws a line in the sand, although I think it may be something more substantial than that. We care about our border security even if the left is foolish enough not to. We simply want existing immigration laws enforced.

And yup, call us whatever phobe is appropriate: until we have a reliable vetting system in place we might want to slow down turning our streets into the streets of France and Germany by pell mell letting in a bunch of barely vetted young men between the ages of 18 and 35 from a region of the world that prides itself on killing unarmed, innocent women and children because Allah is such a bad ass.

          Absolutely most Muslims are peaceful, loving people. Don’t even start. But I subscribe to what Brigitte Gabriel, the reporter who was born and raised in Lebanon and actually knows what she’s talking about has to say: Not all Germans were Nazis in the 30’s and 40’s either. Applying percentages Ms. Gabriel has allegedly gleaned from Middle Eastern, European and American intelligence communities as well as her own life experience she would be the first to tell you 1,260,000,000 Muslims are peaceful, loving souls.  That only leaves 240,000,000 you need to worry about.

Is Trump the guy to reestablish America as the preeminent superpower in the world? Well, I’ll sure sleep better at night if he is. I don’t want it to be Russia or China. Or Iran. In spite of the left’s belief that our new president swaps spit with Vlad Putin, I kind of think Russia would have preferred the U.S. keep leading the way on disarmament and a downsized military and a policy of cowtowing to whomever growls at us than what they may get with President Trump. But until James Comey steps up and admits HE cost Hillary her election we have to blame somebody.

I can only hope I’m right. If not, you may hold me personally responsible if I can hold any lefty pointing their finger at me responsible for #onlyblacklivesmatter and maybe a few other things.

Is Trump the guy to make our city streets safe again? Well, mine are fine. But as an American I wish Chicago and some other sanctuary cities with restrictive gun laws were a little safer. I hope he puts some teeth back in law enforcement’s ability to enforce the law.  The Broken Windows Policy of stop and frisk may have seemed discriminatory because of the demographic makeup of high crime neighborhoods but it without question worked. And the people who never get to talk in the microphone in those neighborhoods all must agree, in my opinion.

And we could go down the list and do this all day save for my commitment to try and keep these ramblings close to 1000 words. Please don’t be upset if I haven’t touched on your issue or if I left out any argument you’d like to have seen made or that you think I couldn’t dispute.  I really might not have been able to dispute it, after all.  Me and the guy who picks up your recycle agree but we’re hardly hallowed AP reporters (my tongue is so firmly in my cheek I think I bruised it).

On Friday it’s going to happen. An electoral bunch of us are going to rejoice, at least for awhile. Those of you on the West Coast and in the Northeast are going to mourn, moan and mope anew. And even though President Trump has an aggressive first day planned I’ll bet you on Saturday women will still have rights (voting, driving, not wearing burkahs, getting abortions, etc.), gays will still be able to get married, Muslims will be free to worship, no illegals or poor people will be without healthcare, no black people will have been rounded up by the national guard and executed in town square for the crime of being black, your grandma will still get her social security check and none of us will be forced to learn to speak Russian. Merry Christmas.

And no matter what Meryl Streep or Robert DeNiro or Alec Baldwin (he’s still alive, right?) want to lecture us on or threaten or refuse to do or whatever, Donald Trump will still be president. And on Friday night if I feel like buying a movie ticket and letting them entertain me I might. Otherwise I’m more interested in what the recycle guy has to say.