President Trump Uses His Indoor Voice For A Change
Leave a commentMarch 1, 2017 by Chris Kite
Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall did a wonderful job of summarizing why President Trump’s speech was deemed by many to be a success and a possible major turning point.
We’ve seen before that this President can have moments of what appear to be acting grown up and responsible, but they usually fade away quickly. So I would say, the proof will be in what he does going forward.
That said, this speech, while certainly more Presidential, was still filled with lies and half truths. To be honest, they were presented in more traditional political language that what we used to hearing from this Republican President. They were less bombastic, they were softer, and they were a touch less outrageous.
- Immigrants, whether “illegal” or “legal,” tend to have lower rates of criminal activity than natural citizens. I personally have no problem with ramping up border security, within reason, and making sure people don’t illegally enter the country. I do, however, have a problem with CBP officers stopping people getting off a domestic flight and demanding that you show your papers. They should not be detaining American citizens to question them about their religion. They should not be harassing visitors from friendly countries. These things are unconstitutional, or, at the very least, wrong.
- Similarly, we all want to keep terrorists out of our country. But banning entire populations from Muslim countries is not American, is discriminatory, and is highly misguided. As if to prove that it is all political, the administration supposedly has a new executive order ready to go, but are waiting to implement it until a slower news cycle. This smacks in the face of his outrageous claims that we must do it now and do it quickly, or we risk great peril.
- He is decimating environmental protections. There is no other way to spin this. He is giving industry and profits priority over safe air and water, wild lands, and the planet’s future.
- He is still taking credit for saving and/or creating jobs which he had no involvement in. This is not that unusual for a President to do, but he is certainly more bold about it. And makes no attempt to provide any truth in his statements.
- He continues to lie about the “94 million Americans” not in the work force. The vast majority of those are out of work by choice. Because they are in school, staying home to take care of children, retired, or otherwise uninterested in working.
- He continues to make an example of Chicago despite there being other cities in the US with worse violent crime. And he continues to ignore Chicago requests for specific help. He seems much more intent on politicizing the issue than actually doing anything about it.
I’m not going to hold my breath in anticipation that we suddenly have a reasonable and thoughtful President that will implement policy based on facts and professional input, rather than his gut feel and what he sees on Fox “News.” But I do find myself hoping that perhaps he has found his adult self and might act more Presidential and grown up going forward.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/day-two-thoughts-on-the-president-s-speech
