Patriots: For over 26 years, your generosity has made it possible to offer The Patriot Post without a subscription fee to military personnel, students, and those with limited means. Please support the 2024 Patriots' Day Campaign today.

June 2, 2017

Let’s Stop Acting as if the 2016 Campaign Were Still On

If you keep up with the news, you might think that the unpleasant and unedifying 2016 presidential campaign is still going on.

If you keep up with the news, you might think that the unpleasant and unedifying 2016 presidential campaign is still going on.

President Donald Trump, up early, is sending out tweets coarsely attacking foreign leaders and American politicians — complete with misspelled words, in at least one case to the point of indecipherability.

Runner-up Hillary Clinton is supervising a busy staff, which, after she takes an hour for exercise, fills her in on the 60 minutes’ latest news developments. A leader of the “resistance” — a term she’s embraced — should always be prepared.

Charitably-minded observers may excuse both of these individuals, neither of whom expected 12 months ago to be in the places and positions they are today. And they might add that they’re not the only ones continuing to operate in campaign mode.

Rush Limbaugh proclaims that “American voters saved this country as we know it.” Or, to be more precise, the 46 percent of American voters responsible for securing 304 electoral votes for Trump did.

Limbaugh is, of course, right that Trump’s victory has had important policy consequences, from the appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the renunciation of the unenforceable strictures of the Paris climate agreement. More, although probably not so many as most Trump voters would like, are in store.

But America has rebounded from policy mistakes — you can make your own list — before. Every election has policy consequences, some of them pretty serious and many unpredictable. The country has evolved, changed, grown enormously, but much of its character remains recognizable in the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, who interviewed the rival presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson 180-some years ago.

On the other side, 43 percent of respondents to a Politico/Morning Consult poll want Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. Over half of those people — 23 percent of respondents — think he has proved “he is unfit to serve and should be removed from office, regardless of whether he committed an impeachable offense or not.”

So to heck with the Constitution and its nitpicking requirement that officials be removed from office only for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” These folks want a revote, right now. For them, the campaign is still on — as it may still be for the next 17 months, if in 2018 Democratic House candidates make impeachment a main plank of their platforms.

Amid the continuing campaign chatter, let’s step back and ponder how current events will be regarded in the longer run of history.

Trump’s capture of 70 previously Democratic electoral votes in the Midwest and Pennsylvania owes much to his distinctive stands on immigration and trade, even though the problems he cited are of declining importance. Illegal immigration across the Mexican border fell off sharply in 2007, and the reduction in American jobs because of Chinese imports probably crested several years before.

That positions him as president to claim credit for trends that are ongoing, albeit his policies are arguably accelerating them. Illegal border crossings are apparently way down this year, probably in response to Trump’s strengthened enforcement of existing laws. Manufacturing jobs may be rising, too, as rising Chinese wages make Chinese goods less competitive here.

On foreign policy, Trump has abandoned Barack Obama’s tilt to Iran (Obama had a secret back channel with Iran, dating back to the 2008 campaign) and stitched together an informal anti-Iran coalition in the Middle East. He may have persuaded China to exert some discipline over North Korea and has accelerated the long-standing missile defense program, derided for years by Democrats, to protect America from any Kim Jong Un nukes.

As for Europe, he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both have benefited politically from trading news conference and Twitter insults. Merkel is strengthened for her Sept. 24 election, and Trump can claim to have spurred Europeans to take more responsibility for their own defense.

This is starting to look like a more conventional Republican foreign policy than campaign rhetoric suggested. Congressional Democrats seem to have stalled in their efforts to find some Team Trump collusion with Russia that would justify the impeachment proceedings their party’s base expects and lusts for — perhaps because an investigation could show that the Obama administration surveilled and criminally unmasked Americans for political reasons.

I’m happy to join those urging Trump and Clinton to stop acting like candidates. But maybe the rest of us should take a deep breath and stop acting as if the campaign were still on.

COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.