The Patriot Post® · Celebrate the Good That's Happening and Fix the Country's Problems

That President Donald Trump has many critics is no surprise. That he has created much of the negative feelings people have for him is also no surprise. One interesting question is, “How much of the anti-Trump fervor is legitimate opposition to his agenda or a true belief that he is unsuited for the job, and how much is just an emotional reaction to his personal behavior?”

His pugnacious style, attacking those who criticize him and fighting back against those who attack him, is at the root of much of the negative sentiment towards him.

Genuine dislike for Trump, some of that from hurt feelings, seems to be what drives most — or at least much of — the bad feelings toward him. So if Trump can be fairly accused of obsessive behavior that drives much of the negative sentiment, are his detractors not also behaving obsessively?

Some abandon their professional ethics and standards, saying, in effect, “Trump made me do it.” That attitude has taken its toll in the field of journalism, which has been severely damaged of late, and elected representatives and senators shirk their responsibility to their constituents in order to focus on obstructing Trump.

Why not balance those negative emotions with earned appreciation for the good things that have happened and are happening during Trump’s tenure as president, the strong economy being a major factor? Are these folks so petty that they cannot admit that he is doing some good things?

For example: Since Trump took office, unemployment has dropped, currently at 3.8%. We have the lowest unemployment rate in history for women, African-Americans, and Hispanics. There are more job openings than there are unemployed Americans — seven million job openings and six million unemployed. The number of those counted as outside the labor force tumbled by 487,000 in 2018, as workers who had become discouraged and dropped out of the labor force are coming back.

He has eliminated many regulations that impeded economic progress. Tax cuts have further spurred the economy and resulted in people keeping more of their earnings. Wages are going up with real weekly earnings up 2.6%. Manufacturing added more jobs than government, reversing the Obama trend. Some companies that left the U.S. have returned, bringing jobs back. And the GDP growth rate is up.

Why not focus on fixing problems that the nation faces?

The Left largely sympathizes with undocumented immigrants — that’s “illegal aliens” for the non-politically correct among us — and denies that the tens of thousands sneaking across the southern border and the tens of thousands more who have overstayed their visas comprise a crisis. Trump, on the other hand, understands that it is a crisis, agreeing with the federal immigration workers and those states that have to try to deal with this senseless situation.

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, instead of doing its job and helping to revise outdated and flawed immigration laws and procedures to help protect the country and the constituents that elected its members, plans to investigate Trump.

The Left’s favorite narrative is that these people are fleeing dangerous conditions or are just looking for a better life. Of course, some, likely most, are. There are proper ways of doing this, and sneaking across the border is not one of them. But others are sex or drug traffickers, robbers, rapists, and murderers.

All of those groups — both those having the best intentions as well as those with the worst — have one thing in common: They are in the U.S. illegally. Why is any true American willing to allow this to continue?

And while the mainstream media has successfully downplayed this situation, the problem is much worse this year than last. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reported on its website, “According to U.S. Border Patrol (CBP), in six and a half months their agents have apprehended more than 418,000 illegal aliens, which surpasses the total for FY2018. In the last six months, CBP has encountered more than 3,000 fraudulent family units. And CBP had apprehended almost 1,000 illegal aliens, mostly family units, before 5 a.m. on April 16.”

“Anti-enforcement politicians and Democrats in Congress reflexively blame the Trump administration or Central American dictators,” the report continued. “Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Jay Inslee (Wash.) even blamed the crisis on climate change.”

While we know that the Russians attempted to affect the 2016 election, as they have in previous elections, there is no evidence that anything they did had a real effect on the outcome. Therefore, Trump was properly elected as president under the electoral system that our Founders designed, and that has worked for well over 200 years.

There is important work to be done that is currently being delayed largely by the obsession to obstruct Trump and ultimately remove him from office. Those things include: reforming our immigration system, straightening out the shambles that are the health-care system, paring down the size and cost of government, and continuing to reduce harmful regulations. And these areas affect all Americans.

Finding satisfactory solutions to these problems requires everyone’s good intentions and honest efforts. Now it’s time to get to work.