Trumps First Year Was A Disaster
Andrew Sullivan's analyses are often interesting. While he admits that Trump looks bad and things could end up very bad, he claims that Trump has really not done much more harm than the typical Republican administration.
His reason for hope however is that IF we can just get through Trump the world is actually in rather good shape. Well I am an optimistic realist, which means that I face the realities first then chart what I hope is an optimistic way through them. Here are Sully's reasons for optimism.
I can't help but think that Sullivan like so many people have become so focused upon Trump that they no longer see the problems beyond Trump that are largely responsible for Trump.
REASONS FOR OPTIMISM
Economic growth is now ubiquitous in the developed world
a record eighth year of economic growth,
bringing peak employment
and finally a bump in earnings.
Median household income is now the highest in history.
The Dow is at 25,000.
Medicine has effectively abolished most of the diseases
Illegal border
crossings to the U.S. have fallen to record lows.
More Americans have health insurance than at any point in
history
Crime rates are at historic lows and keep declining
Solar energy is finally competitive with fossil fuels.
Global conflict continues its long centuries-old decline.
ISIS has been destroyed in its own heartland.
Anyone with a phone has access to more learning and
knowledge than at any point in human history.
More people live in democracies today than a dozen years
ago.
When natural disasters happen, they kill fewer people in a
far more populous world.
The last decade has
seen the biggest decline in global poverty ever
"Global conflict continues its centuries-old decline." Last century was no decline, particularly if you measure civilian deaths against previous centuries. That's numero uno. But if, numero two-o global conflict is in decline, where are all those refugees -- more than the population of France -- coming from?
ReplyDeleteAnd "more people live in democracies today than a dozen years ago"? A dozen years ago, Turkey was a democracy and Russia was becoming one. Not now. So subtract their populations and how do you get "more"?
And most of his economic joy comes from comparing now to the Great Recession. Compared to the fallout from the last time we gave the wealthy a "middle class tax cut" and freed businesses from "burdonsome regulations," nuclear winter would look good. Fortunately, we are going back to the follies that gave us that very useful benchmark of near-total disaster to measure against.
I'd like to start the new year with optimism, but, seriously, all we have is hope.
Tom, I'd like to add to your list the attacks on democratic process in Poland. A big disappointment to me. May as well have saved themselves the fuss and stayed totalitarian albeit of the communist flavor.
ReplyDeleteAnd the 25th amendment solution is a pipe dream and wishful thinking. This Vox News article makes the case that the president is becoming unhinged. Sorry, he was always unhinged. That's part of why his base likes him. It would (at least) take detaining him involuntarily for a 72 hour psych evaluation for the 25th amendment to be invoked. And all it would do is make him a martyr.
ReplyDeleteHowever it is good to read Sullivan's article and remind ourselves that there is much in the world that Trump can't affect. As the article points out, "Trump’s very incompetence is also a calming factor."
ReplyDeletePresident Barack Obama gave our Country a "running Start"....THANKS OBAMA!!
ReplyDelete