On the EDge: Trump’s contentious first year

January 22, 2018 Utah Channel 3

OPINION — It has been a year since the coronation, since “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” as a long-gone, beleaguered White House flak proclaimed, gathered in front of their televisions or in person in Washington, D.C., to witness our transition of power in government.

It doesn’t matter whether you come from the left or the right, it has been, in mildest terms, a very contentious year.

We were promised action.

A lot of action.

Quick action.

Decisive action.

Big league action.

We were promised that, right out of the gate, the Affordable Care Act would be repealed and replaced with some grand scheme, whose details have yet to be shared, that would provide us with the best health care the world has ever seen. Instead, it took nearly a year to defund a portion of the ACA and there is still no replacement bill on the table.

We were promised that the North American Free Trade Agreement would be immediately torn up and renegotiated because it was such a bad deal for the United States. Arguments pro and con pushed aside, the agreement remains in place.

We were hammered with talk of tightening up the borders as part of the turnkey implementation of a new administration. What we got was some hastily cobbled executive orders and more bellicose rhetoric about a wall along the border with Mexico to keep out all of its druggies, rapists and “bad hombres,” as they were called. Mexico has also steadfastly refused to contribute a single peso to construction of that wall.

We also saw executive orders creating travel bans to protect us from foreign terrorism. The executive orders, however, were found to be unconstitutional.

There were promises to “drain the swamp” and replace the key players entrenched along The Beltway with a new breed of public servants devoted to making America great again. The reality is a revolving door of politicos, some of whom are facing serious criminal charges and some of whom have left amid barely disguised rancor for clashing with the president. What remains is an exercise in nepotism and yes men and women dedicated to stroking an ego that knows no limits.

If you are a “Dreamer,” you are waiting, frightfully, for a knock on your door from immigration officials.

If you are a state’s rights advocate, you are shaking your head in disbelief as the administration relights the once-doused reefer madness mentality. Never mind that the old-school thinking has been a burden on people of color who have been disproportionately jailed for cannabis infractions, a slap in the face of science and research and a political divining rod of angst between the federal government and states enjoying huge revenue boosts and public satisfaction with the relaxation of individual marijuana laws. Why? Because, well, “good people don’t smoke marijuana,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said. Even though this is contradictory to campaign platform, the president has not asked Sessions to stand down.

The economy?

There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on here, too. The administration cannot make legitimate claim in the realm of unemployment which started trending down dramatically in 2011. That business about returning jobs to the United States? Well, the truth is that 93,000 jobs were outsourced from the U.S. during the last year – a slight increase in the 87,000 annual losses during the previous decade.

The spike in the Dow and S&P 500 is something that cannot be legitimately credited to this administration, either. The effects of the new tax bill have not had time to play out and the increases in the stock market can more accurately be explained by an uptick in the global economy.

We have seen the standing of the United States crumble in the eyes of the greater world as a result of the jingoistic “America first” policies of the administration that have alienated every nation from Great Britain to Germany to our neighbors on the continent of Africa.

And, we have seen the United States placed on the threshold of a nuclear war with North Korea as language and diplomacy have failed to keep the two leaders from spiteful, playground name calling and threats.

There have been “successes,” if you will.

The president, during his first year, has heightened the hatred of President Barack Obama among a certain group of electors with petty paybacks in the form of snarky politics, executive orders and continued vitriol heaped upon the first black man to occupy the White House. It is a good bet the president has no understanding of the legislation and decisions of his predecessor and the effects of the current ramshackle administration.

He has succeeded at creating the worst divisiveness in the United States since the Civil War. He has further demonized liberalism and progressive politics, going as far as to support an accused pedophile in a senatorial race against a moderate Democrat; has endangered the 1st Amendment by trying to use his bully pulpit to quash peaceful protests by athletes and others concerned with equality and civil rights; and, declared war on a media whose responsibility is to serve as the watchdog for the residents of this nation. His attacks on the media, which he once unabashedly courted as he tried to burnish his image as a rich, powerful player – in all connotations of the word – have been vicious, with rabid barks about fake news and failing newspapers that, in reality, are doing quite well.

When the pen turned sharp and reporters suddenly began to deal with him as a world leader instead of reporting on the exploits of a wildly eccentric playboy-cum-lord of the manor, it got real and it became obvious that the president’s greatest skill was self-aggrandizement.

This divisiveness is further evidenced by a fractious partisanship, spurred on by faux claims of obstructionism by the Democrats. However it is difficult to lay blame on the opposition party when the White House, Senate and House of Representatives are controlled by Republicans.

Hypocrisy has made substantial gains as more and more surfaces about the scandals – from so-called locker room talk to hush money payments for porn stars to hide extramarital dalliances – perpetrated by a man who claims a moral center and registers favorably with a dubious religious right.

Then, there’s the Mueller probe, which in most normal circumstances would dominate the headlines. Of course, current circumstances are anything but normal and Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, money laundering and other crimes and misdemeanors are still under investigation by the special counsel.

In its first year, this administration has proven itself to be anything but big league.

In fact, in keeping with the baseball terminology, it is, at best, a bush league operation chugging along with a cylinder that misfires badly and rolls dangerously on bald tires.

No bad days!

Ed Kociela is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.

Email: edkociela.mx@gmail.com

Twitter: @STGnews, @EdKociela