I’ve been saying it on my blog for a couple of years now; I’m not a Donald Trump fan. Never have been.
Like a lot of mainstream conservatives, I’ve found bits and pieces of peace to make with Trump’s presidency; his SCOTUS nomination, the most conservative cabinet of my adult lifetime, a belated but intense confrontation with mindless identity politics, among others.
But Scott Adams – who, two years ago, was the only pundit that actually got Trump and his phenomenon right – adds another, more-human-than-strictly-conservative reason to be happy after a year of Trump; he‘s pushing back the limits of what is ‘possible”:
Do you remember when it was common wisdom that if the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel it would be a huge problem? President Trump did it anyway. So far, it looks like a minor problem at most.
Do you remember when experts said President Trump shouldn’t mess with the Iran nuclear deal because it could cause a huge problem for the United States and its allies? He did it anyway, and it is likely a supporting variable for the Iranian protestors who don’t like how their government is creating problems that don’t need to be problems.
Do you remember when experts said China will never help squeeze the economy of North Korea because China fears a refugee crisis? President Trump encouraged China to squeeze anyway. Then he helpfully provided satellite photos of tankers cheating on the high seas. After South Korea grabbed and held a second cheating tanker, the economics of smuggling oil have turned negative, or will soon. And North Korea is sounding — at least to my ears — more flexible than ever.
Adams actually lists many more examples; feel free to read ’em. Of course, the fat lady has yet to sing; will the tax reform gamble pay off with Reagan-era-level growth? We don’t know. Only politicians think policy = destiny.
But…:
The meta-impact of President Trump routinely doing the “impossible” is that it changes how all of us view our world. If Trump can keep doing the impossible, time and time again, why can’t we?
Sometimes things are literally impossible. But much of the time we are only limited by our imaginations. Many of us simply couldn’t imagine that a number of the things President Trump has done would work out well. These were not simple surprises; these were failures of our imagination.
And after the eight years of deadening, Carter-like malaise that Obama left (outside the activist class, anyway), that alone is a wonderful thing.
Most of the voices telling us what was impossible came from great Oz-like projections trying to protect their own interests and back-sides by demanding that we not pull back the curtain. Hip, Hip for President Toto!
Certainly if you’re drinking in the toxic brew that is the MSM, fermented from the distilled “wisdom” of the elites and coastal colleges, that’s true. And for even suggesting that these “impossibilities” were possible, you’d never do lunch in DC again!
Seems like Trump doesn’t care much about doing lunch in DC. Good on him for that.
One unique qualification that Trump brought to the presidency was that he didn’t need the approval of the media. He’s been trashed by the media constantly during his entire public life, and he’s responded by mocking them and ignoring their attacks (at a minimum) or attacking back. The fact that he has continued this behavior now that’s he’s president has driven the MSM frankly insane and made them so reckless that it’s destroyed any remaining pretense of objectivity.
I’m not a Trumpian, and I’m not a Trump fan, but if I look at what Trump does rather than what he says, I’m pretty pleased with how things have turned out. Reagan’s eloquence he does not have, but he does have Reagan’s governing ethos down pat.
I am amused to watch as “mainstream conservatives” come to realize that conservatism is possible. I await the next realization that many of the so-called conservative commentariat, the professionals in Acela, were only in it for the money. To think of all the money I spent on those &%V$@)M(%s over the years.
“But much of the time we are only limited by our imaginations.”
Lack of imagination will kill liberalism. Progressives think that it is possible to know everything, present, past, and future.
Religious people acknowledge that their view of the universe is informed by faith. Progressives don’t, or at least they have not since the 1960s.
Our modern world has a Christian origination. Modernity came from the Christian and Jewish imagination. Modernity is sterile, it cannot imagine anything other than itself. So-called “post-modernism” is just modernism refined.
That piece was written before Adams announced he is ready to turn on sTrumpet over Sessions’ renewal of war on pot.
But the piece itself is dead-on. I still loath sTrumpet the man, but am very content with his successes to advance conservative agenda, and more importantly forestall advance of soci@lism in the US. Of course, time will tell.
Sessions hasn’t explicitly renewed the war on pot. What he’s done is to end the illegal Obama prohibition on marijuana prosecutions. Whether or not aspiring prosecutors will ignore the many cases of clear crimes by Democrats to prosecute dopers is left to be determined.
I’m pretty much with JPA. I don’t like Trump/Drumpf much as a person, but he’s doing a decent job in many areas. It’s a pleasant surprise.
Personally, I think that like-ability is an odd metric on which to base one’s opinion of a politician; especially since many people found/assumed/hoped that Obama was a very likable guy.
Funny to think that Hillary! would’ve been both disagreeable as well as incompetent.
None of that means squat if the simpering pricks we put in power in Washington pass amnesty for those illegals.
Reagan turned California Democrat with his giveaway; these assholes will tank Texas.
This is as big, or bigger than SCOTUS. Get on the phone, boys. Promise your reps fire and brimstone if they sell us out.