A dear friend of mine the other day told me I was too negative. This is from a person who did not vote for Trump herself but does not think he will be near as bad as I do. She said to me, "You're too negative. Surely there are some things he may do that you would agree with. Give him a chance."
I thought about it. I overwhelmingly think the bad outweighs the good when it comes to Trump, but I thought I would try to be positive and look on the bright side. After all we are stuck with him, so here goes. These are things Trump has said he would do, or he has done where I agree with Donald Trump. On some of them, I applaud him.
Trump says he might end daylight savings time. That would make a lot of people happy. I don't know anyone who likes it. Why are we stuck with it? If Donald trump can end Daylight Savings Time, I will be pleased.
Trump has said to be considering privatizing the post office. Yes! That is something I have long advocated. The only mail I ever get is fundraiser appeals and advertisement. I have not written a letter in years. I pay bills by automatic draft. When I don't talk on the phone with someone, I communicate by Facebook messenger, text, and email. There may be some people who would miss the post office, but they would adjust. Anyway, it would probably not just disappear overnight. Fed Ex or Amazon might buy it.
Trump will likely end the insanity of the federal government forcing states to allow men to play women's sports and putting men in women's prisons.
Trump will likely end some of the sillier aspects of wokeism. I expect a single individual will no longer be referred to with the plural pronouns of "they/them." I suspect government communications can refer to "mothers" instead of "birthing parents." I expect this to spill over into the larger culture.
Under a Trump administration, I doubt our embassies around the world will fly the gay pride flag.
Trump will take a hard line on Iran. Biden reversed Trumps hardline policy on Iran when he came into office and allowed Iran to benefit from billions in oil revenue and reduced sanctions. Now, thinks to Isreal, Iran is weak. I expect Trump to reinstate his tough on Iran policies and keep Iran in check.
Trump has vowed to slash the size of the federal government through a new government agency run by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They are to find inefficiencies, waste, and fraud. Something similar has been tried before. You may remember the Grace Commission under Reagan. It is hard to root out waste and reform is resisted. People like efficiency in theory but not when it threatens jobs and money spend in their state. Also, the majority of the budget is untouchable consisting of interest on the debt, Medicare, and Social Security. So, it is a hard job to actually affect any significant savings, but some improved efficiency is better than none. And, Musk and Ramaswamy are thinking big. "We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright," Ramaswamy told Fox News last month. "We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government." Last year, when he was running for president, Ramaswamy pledged to immediately fire 50% of "federal bureaucrats." I don't know that it can be done, but I support this effort. I'm kind of excited about it.
He gives hope, pride, and encouragement to liars, mediocre, and weird people everywhere. If people like Robert F. Kennedy andPete Hegseth and Kash Patel and Kari Lake can rise to the level of success to serve in a president's cabinet or other important post in the federal government then weird and unqualified people and liars everywhere can have a hope for success.
He may cause liberals to rediscover an appreciation for political norms necessary for the functioning of a democratic republic. I am speaking of things like appreciating the filibuster and opposing packing the supreme court. It has been Democrats who have favored ending the filibuster and ramming things through with a simple majority and it has been Democrats who have talked about packing the Court. Now, I would bet they don't want to see those "reforms" take place. Of course, the downside of what I suspect will be a positive development is that Republican may now favor those things.
Trump will secure the border. Biden made a huge mistake in May 2023, when he lifted Title 42, the emergency health order Trump had put in place to block migrants from entering the country to seek asylum. Biden’s decision allowed millions of migrants to stay in the country while their asylum cases slowly moved through the courts. Biden oversaw the largest immigration surge in U.S. History. I expect Trump's get-tough approach will drastically discourage illegal border crossings.
Trump will deport the undesirables. There are illegal aliens who are criminals here and people who have deportation orders who have not turned themselves in. I am concerned about Trump's mass deportation plan. However, Trump has said he will start with the criminals and recent arrivals. Mass deportation takes a lot of funding for manpower and retention facilities and travel cost. Congress has to appropriate the money, and it takes time to do the mass deportation, so I don't think mass deportation will occur. However, he will probably deport a few hundred thousand or a million people who should be deported.
Trump will lessen the risk of a terrorist attack on American soil. Among the illegal aliens are people from many nations including from countries that wish us ill. Known people on the terrorist watch list have been caught at the southern border, and we don't know who is among the gotaways. Border security will make us more secure.
Trump says he will legalize the dreamers. I think he may actually do it. Maybe, he really does believe it is the right thing to do. Maybe, he thinks it will soften his image and counter the bad press certainly to arise from deportation. It is an issue that has evaded resolution for a long time. Trump may make it happen.
Trump showed that the backlash to Dobbs was overstated. No antiabortion senator or governor has lost an election since the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Many thought the overturning of Roe would result in Democrat sweeping victories. Trump kept that from happening.
Trump gave people hope. He said he would bring down groceries prices and people care about that and are hopeful. He also said he could raise tariffs and export millions of laborers. A lot of those laborers are farm laborers, and a lot of our food is imported, so the hope of lower grocery prices is probably a false hope, but a false hope is still hope.
Trump badly crippled or ended identity politics. Trump made inroads in groups that normally vote Democrat. Dems put people into different buckets and appeal to them as Blacks, Latinx, gay, women, Asian and any other group they could think of, by telling them they are victims. Trump broke that. About the only group where Democrats dominated were among college-educated, wealthy elites, and single women. Trump made inroads among Blacks and won 21% of the male Black voters. He lost Latinos by just 5% and Asian Americans by just 15%, and Trump won “other” minorities such as Arab Americans, Native Americans, and others. He also made inroads into gays, giving them speaking roles at the convention while keeping in his coalition Christain fundamentalist This is quite an accomplishment and bodes well for the future of the Republican Party.
Trump's presidency may reduce crime. Most crimes are violation of state laws, not federal laws and a president is limited in how much impact he may have on crime. However, Trump's threat to use the US military to police crime ridden cities may cause local governments to improve policing themselves. Trump can use the power of grants to states and cities to cause them to take a tougher stance on crime. Also, by sitting the right tone and using the bully pulpit, blue city mayors may abandon some of their soft on crime policies. We have already seen that no one is advocating "defund the police" (well, almost no one, we still have Ginny Welsch). Metro Nashville has started enforcing traffic laws again. The woke policies that led to more crime are already fading. Trump will set the tone that makes getting tough on crime popular.
There, I have said some nice things about Donald J. Trump. Don't expect me to make this a habit.
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