In The World of Trump

It comes as a surprise to me when I find that people I know and trust support the current state of the country. I try to pry information as to why, what things have been accomplished, and what goods have been done? But I honestly never get a straight answer. Mostly I get agitation that I don’t see it. I hear constantly that this is better than the previous eight years, but I don’t see how.

The Republican administration has pursued a hated health care policy to failing ends. They looked petty and fool-hearted the entire time. Especially while trying to pass legislation that would actually not lower premiums (that pesky thing people actually hate about the ACA, but would require more subsidies to fix). They have rattled sabers to the point that North Korea is calling us out on a global stage by launching ICBMs into our close allies waters. They have shown division and not strength on Russia quarreling over retaliatory sanctions. And they have alienated every single libertarian and independent voter in the nation by treating their majority and win in the government as a mandate for overly conservative principles. This even as Trump ran on no such principles.

I cannot for the life of me get behind cracking down on legal marijuana or even medical marijuana in favor of harsher minimum sentences and over burdensome drug policies. Surely we all know some kid who uses a drug, but that shouldn’t spend five years in jail for it. I can’t support stacking charges or pursuing policies to increase prison populations and not help poor people in crime ridden regions.

I also cannot support the current state of international affairs. Not only did we lose the role of global leader in just a few short months, but the French and Canadians seem to be the ones replacing us on that stage. Especially as France ups its game against ISIS and Islamic Extremism while holding NATO together and moving forward on reducing carbon emissions. We are like the star quarterback who was injured to find out the second string is hungry to take our job.

What baffles me the most is the alienation of our trade partners and the vacuum we created allowing China to establish the Silk Road Trade Pact (one of the largest of its kind) in the absence of the Trans Pacific Partnership. Now we are even more limited in how we trade on a coal and agricultural basis. Both of which hurt Montana more than any other state in the Union, but I digress.

The reality is that nothing is getting done, nothing will get done, partisanship is the worst I have experienced it. I have been called expletive after expletive just trying to understand peoples’ positions on policy and party, and it never works out. I am not a liberal by any means. I support smart energy, I support agriculture, I support the free market, but I also support compassion, understanding and assisting the weakest of our society. There is certainly a frustration in America, but I am certain that furthering our divide has not and will not help.

There was a hope though. It came in the form of a man with nothing left to lose, or maybe nothing left to give, for his country. A man scarred in many ways by his life in service. A man I certainly respect for civility, passion and principle. He stood up against his party’s hypocritical maneuvering trying to pass health care legislation, something they decried just eight years prior, and he vowed to work to restore good governance and reason to Washington. I only hope Senator John McCain can make that possible in time.