Like it or not, that is the prescription the American voters wrote in November 2016. Depending on the course of action both parties take over the next four years, it may be refilled in November 2020.
When far-left Democrats awoke the morning after Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States of America, many were reaching out to each other for some form of relief and comfort.
What happened last night? Did what I think happened really happen? I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.
The eight-year long wild and carefree socialist rave had finally come to an abrupt, sobering end and the hangover was crushing. If you think conservatives were cheering and striking up the band, you’re wrong.
A long four years
Not a single day has gone by since the election without one media outlet or another lecturing us about the dangers and perceived threat of Donald Trump. Network news stories make bold, blanket statements about how ‘the American people’ feel and the need to ‘resist’.
Most of the prominent daily newspapers run several anti-Trump related stories on a routine basis. The opinion sections are littered with half-truths at best and flat out lies at worst. This is a stark contrast to media coverage of the last president. Mind you, this is all in service of the American people.
This media mantra begs the question: Who do you think elected Donald Trump?
As I alluded to earlier, conservatives were not the driving force behind Trump’s victory. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who won the Republican caucus in Maine, was a much more conservative-friendly candidate. On the other side of the spectrum, we know Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters most likely did not vote for Trump.
Who does that leave? The good old-fashioned apolitical American working class – that’s who.
Americans flocked to Trump for a bevy of reasons. They were sick and tired of career politicians lying to them, angry at both parties for their failure to keep promises and most importantly, they believed in a need to toss a proverbial hand grenade into the huddle of political corruption in Washington D.C.
So, while progressive Democrats were apoplectic and the media was frothing on ‘the day after’, I was simply resigned. It is going to be a long four years.
Trumped again?
Fast forward to election year 2020. Much as it did during the presidency of George W. Bush, the media has kept up a constant barrage of attacks on President Trump. Some of these he deserves, most he does not. Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer never miss an opportunity to preen for the camera and the networks oblige them.
When Trump wears a brown belt with black shoes, calls for impeachment sound across The National Mall from Democrats in Congress who pledge to not let this heinous transgression against the American people go unanswered.
Republicans still haven’t mended the rift between conservatives championing a limited government, traditional values platform and establishment types who can’t win an election no matter how much they compromise their principles to appease the left.
The Democrat wish list of presidential contenders include Nancy Pelosi, Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Obama and anyone else who can possibly get any further left.
The Republicans never got behind the de facto leader of their party, The President, having spent four years bickering about whose fault it was that Trump was elected in the first place. The establishment offers Mitt Romney (again) in an unprecedented primary challenge of a sitting president.
Once again, the American people are disillusioned, party affiliations mean nothing and Donald Trump is re-elected.
For every cause, an effect
I believe both Republicans and Democrats have abandoned their core beliefs and party ideology over the past few decades. The only thing that seems to matter anymore is getting elected.
Democrats have swung far to the left of what most Americans are comfortable with. Republicans have forgotten what they stand for and act as if they are scared of their own shadow. What both parties have in common though is the inability to tell it straight to the American people – to make an honest argument for their beliefs regardless of how it may play in the polls.
The media’s precious role of watchdog has been reduced in many cases to that of a lapdog. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the American voter. Getting back to reporting more than opining will go a long way to restoring the integrity of modern journalism – and the willingness of the American people to believe them.
If either political party or the media hopes to regain the trust of the American people they need to start with being honest about what they stand for. Voters and viewers will either like what they say or not. That is the very core of what elections are about; not misrepresenting your views in public while making opposite claims in the private halls of government.
A two-term Trump presidency could be a very real effect caused by the very people who so vigorously oppose him.