Mirror, Mirror

As I have said previously, there seems to be a lot of hype about what Trump will do when he gets into office. Yes, he has promised to ‘build the wall’, and restore our relationship with Israel, and all manner of conservative goodies. In fact, there are few things that are being bandied about that he will do that I don’t like.

That doesn’t however mean that everything he does will be rainbows and smell like unicorn farts. In fact, every day it seems that his pre-election moves are increasingly becoming a mirror that the pundits look into to see those things which they fear and/or laud. For Trumpites, that mirror includes a fence on the border, and a prayer in every school. On the other side, the Obamist expect that on the day that he is sworn in, gulags will open where women and children who even vaguely appear to have a Hispanic lineage will be interred.  For conservative economist, it means a return to a booming economy, for liberals he will turn our fruited plains into vast industrial wastelands dedicated to the profits of faceless corporations. Conservative justice pundits expect him to appoint a ridged constitutional scholar to the Supreme Court, and liberals expect the appointment of Dirty Harry (or the actor who played Dirty Harry - not a bad choice!). Conservatives look for him to kill Obamacare, and liberals expect he will usher in an era of back alley abortions and the poor dying from lack of care.

What’s common in all these? Well, they all assume that since Trump is a Republican, he will champion all the items that are on every conservative agenda, and do all the things that the democrats fear. Neither I think will be our actual reality. Yes, Trumps cabinet appointments are encouraging signs. He has appointed (gasp) an EPA head that despises the EPA’s overreach (Scott Pruitt), a state department head that (gasp) is pro-business (Rex Tillerson), and an energy department head that champions (gasp) drilling for oil (Rick Perry). These all match up nicely to what we as conservatives hoped for in a Trump presidency, and simultaneously causes the heads of the liberals so used to seeing a liberal president push his vision of life in Amerika to spin like tops, wailing in despair. 

While favorable for conservatives, this is not the end. Have no doubt that he will do things that conservatives and classic liberals will despise. The world of politics is just too vast, and the big tent is just too multi-colored. However, I do think we are getting the president that we wanted. He is neither the Conservative God of conservative wet dream nor the Hitler that liberals fear. He does represent a monumental shift from the ultra-hard left stance that Obama has taken time after time. It’s understandable that our left leaning friends are despairing as this is not something they were ready for. It’s OK for them to retreat to their safe spaces and cower for a while, shrieking shrilly at Trump’s every utterance. We can only hope that as Trump settles into his presidential digs and begins to reverse the most onerous of Obama’s overreach, the cacophony of their teeth gnashing and posturing will get more tolerable. In the meantime, I am enjoying the tears of their disparagement. Does that make me a bad person?

To paraphrase R. Limbaugh, I hope Trump succeeds, and it’s ok, and even expected, that the liberals will hope that he fail. Let the games begin.