The Patriot Post® · A Personal Observation

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/77171-a-personal-observation-2021-01-21

Throughout the past four years, I have had many opportunities to work with President Trump. He and his family have been more mistreated and lied about than any First Family in recent memory. They have worked harder for the American people than any First Family in recent memory.

Donald Trump did more for the conservative cause than any president in recent memory, and I say that even though my entire career was formed by Ronald Reagan.

Thank you, Mr. President!

Thank you for defending the sanctity of life. Thank you for protecting religious liberty. Thank you for appointing nearly 300 conservative federal judges and, hopefully, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Thank you, Mr. President, for beginning the process of securing our border. Thank you for recognizing Israel as the true ally it is by finally moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Thank you for eliminating the ISIS caliphate and taking out Iran’s terrorist leader. Thank you for forcefully confronting communist China.

Thank you, Mr. President, for the first serious tax reform in decades and for massively cutting regulations. Thank you for achieving energy independence. Thank you for record high household incomes and record low unemployment rates.

I know how difficult it is to leave the White House. I remember the day when Ronald Reagan left the White House, the same day I left my West Wing office. It was a tough day. Reagan’s time of political leadership ended that day.

Mr. President, I am convinced that your time of leadership will continue on whatever road you take. As you suggested yesterday, we look forward to seeing you again with great expectation. God bless you, President Trump, and God bless your family.

Trump’s Farewell Address

President Trump delivered his farewell address to the nation Tuesday afternoon. He highlighted many of his administration’s accomplishments, offered his prayers for the Biden administration’s success, and thanked the American people for the “extraordinary privilege” of serving as our president.

Trump noted that his presidency “did not seek the easiest course; by far, it was actually the most difficult… I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices because that’s what you elected me to do.”

He’s absolutely right. Unlike past politicians, Trump did what he said he would do.

It would have been easier to follow conventional wisdom and leave the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. It would have been easier to follow Wall Street and continue “business as usual” with communist China.

It would have been easier to follow the Washington consensus and leave the border wide open. It would have been far easier to cave to the left and abandon Brett Kavanaugh instead of standing by him and fighting for his confirmation.

But Trump proved what could be done when you have a leader with the courage to fight. In doing so, I believe he set a new standard and a high bar for future presidents.

Trump also warned that America was facing a crisis of confidence, saying, “No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes, for these are the very sources of our unity.”

There has been a lot of rhetoric about unity lately, and today especially. But who is attacking our values? Who is rewriting our history and smearing our heroes? Who is undermining our values? It’s the left, and it’s only getting started.

Biden’s Agenda

Joe Biden has been preaching unity while left-wing socialists are doing everything they can possibly do to crush the voices, livelihoods, and futures of anybody associated with the conservative movement.

The left’s idea of unity is that you do what it tells you to do and believe what it tells you to believe.

The media are praising Biden’s emphasis on unity. Fox News yesterday was so encouraged that the theme of the inaugural address was “America United.” Really?

Well, Joe Biden left his inaugural ceremonies and went to the Oval Office, where he promptly signed more than a dozen executive orders. Among them were ending the construction of additional border barriers and ending construction of the Keystone pipeline.

So, President Biden used 25,000 troops to make sure his day was not upset in any way, but he made it clear that there will be no troops at the U.S. border. And it’s also telling that his first acts are job killers.

He’s taking us back into the communist Chinese-controlled World Health Organization. He’s taking us back into the Paris climate accord, a big job killer, which Congress should aggressively fight. It’s a legally binding international treaty that requires Senate ratification, not an executive order.

Biden’s executive orders are not the acts of a president who wants to bring us together. It is the exact opposite. He’s not trying to be “the president of all Americans” when he pushes a radical left-wing agenda.

About Those Troops

I commented yesterday about the 25,000 National Guard troops that are providing security for the inauguration. I have no doubt that the troops here and their families view their actions as a service to our country by helping to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.

But I suspect what is on the minds of the people who sent all those troops here is best captured by something Molly Hemingway tweeted: “The Democratic Party is using those troops to send the rest of us a message about power. ‘We run this nation … men with guns enforce our decrees.’”

Where were these troops when Minneapolis was burning? When Portland was burning? When Kenosha was burning? When Washington, DC, was burning this summer?

After the election, members of the Biden transition team worried that more Trump supporters than Biden supporters might show up on inauguration day. And why wouldn’t they worry about that? After all, that was the trend throughout the entire campaign. But how conveniently it all ended up for them.

Because of what happened on January 6, barely anyone was allowed into Washington yesterday, let alone any protestors coming to express their views the way the left did during Trump’s inauguration four years ago.

It is not a coincidence, in my view, that there are 25,000 troops in Washington, DC, to guard the president at a time when the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, and the freedom of religion are all coming under incredible attack by a left-wing juggernaut.

By the way, if the latest NBC News poll is to be believed, Team Biden might have reason to be worried: In spite of the media’s best efforts to smear Trump and boost Biden, his approval rating is just 44%, virtually identical to Donald Trump’s 43% approval rating.