If you’re an independent voter, there are surely things you don’t like about Donald Trump, the boastful entrepreneur and un-presidential wildling. The turbulence of his leadership requires a revolving door in and out of the White House – and his disregard for facts and the press should diminish any president’s reputation, but is that all there is to Trump?
Independent voters should recognize Trump as an acquired taste and give him the benefit of the doubt out of respect for their fellow countrymen, who believe he’s the antidote to the Obama era. After all, it was hard to respect a leader who banged his head against old problems with old solutions, always promising different outcomes.
Trump might fail, but don’t fault him for trying new approaches to foreign policy, where he injects his big personality into diplomacy. Unlike Obama, this president had wealth and fame before entering politics, and the global news media contribute non-stop to this president’s energy and excitement. Mind you, celebrity is driven by how often one is covered – not by how one is reported.
Trump’s celebrity informs his diplomatic approach of the super-salesman, moving prospects or adversaries to “yes” by building a personal relationship with THE decision maker. To wit, he is trying to de-nuke the Hermit Kingdom by befriending Kim Jong Un. In knee-jerk reaction, this approach was dismissed by Joe Biden, whose “team” got nowhere in eight years, and by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who’ve maybe eaten some Korean barbecue.
Typical of the Washington Worker’s Union, these three want a “closed shop” that prevents a non-member’s right to try; therefore, they dissed Trump’s tweet inviting Kim to an impromptu meeting at the DMZ. In fact, after his Vietnam walk-out, Trump disarmed Kim with the sudden invitation. His actions seem effective, because the North Korean leader expressed genuine relief (“I never expected to meet you at this place”) and the magnitude of the moment (“You will be the first U.S. president to cross this line”).
Surely, independent voters cannot fault fellow citizens for tiring of “union” rules that sustained result-free diplomacy. Obama-Clinton-Warren “shop stewards” trash Trump, when they could themselves benefit from a new way of talking the talk and walking the walk. Above all, they should respect the commander in chief’s in-game “audibles.” Sadly, Monday Morning Quarterbacks, such as Nancy Pelosi, criticize actions they don’t understand.
Nowhere has Trump made Obama look worse than with his handling of the economy. It is not leadership to prolong economic mediocrity and tell Americans it is the new reality. It is not encouraging when presidential candidates adopt Obama’s economic quackery, dismissing conventional economic measurements: Who are you going to believe – me or your lying eyes?
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) claims the Trump economy “does great for those with money and isn’t doing well for everyone else” because “that is corruption, pure and simple.” This is patently false, when wages are rising at the fastest rate for low-skilled workers in ten years and 224,000 jobs were added in June.
Cory Booker (D-NJ) claims to “live in a low-income black and brown community [where] this economy is not working for average Americans.” That is a misleading proclamation: blacks and Hispanics have gotten over half the jobs created since Trump entered office. A million more blacks and two million more Hispanics have found employment since Obama left office, and the unemployment rate for black women is now 5%.
Kamala Harris (D-CA) asks of President Trump, “How are you measuring the greatness of this economy of yours? And they point to the jobless numbers.” She claims more Americans are making ends meet by working multiple jobs, when the percentage of Americans holding more than one job has held steady at 5% since 2010. Today, 1.3 million fewer Americans work part-time for economic reasons than at the end of the Obama presidency (source: Wall Street Journal).
Income inequality actually worsened during the Obama years, when those with financial assets prospered while wage-earners suffered. Obama kept interest rates low and added punishing regulations; thereby boosting investor values and discouraging businesses from investing in human and physical assets (needed to drive economic growth).
Independent voters should dismiss presidential candidates who make patently false claims about a great economy and trust the man whose polices have exposed eight years of Obama lies and mismanagement. This is the overarching problem with the current field of Democratic presidential hopefuls: low on facts – big on make-believe problems.
Does this guarantee President Trump re-election? Hard to say this far out, but Democrats are not exhibiting the qualities of an effective leader. Independent voters typically support leaders with the courage to break from what’s not working (Bill Clinton on welfare reform) and the clear vision to see their reality (Ronald Reagan on tax-and-spend government). Talking the same old talk and disregarding economic data should be anathema to independent voters, meaning this field of Democrats has so very far to go.