Do I really care what "The Gulf of..." is called?
Do I really care if it's labeled "The Kennedy Center" or...?
Do I really care that the president is modifying the White House?
...Or if Joe Biden's official portrait of is an autopen?
I can answer that in three words: I. Don't. Care.
I think debates over these and other minutiae are petty, funny, childish, egotistical, silly, exasperating or all of the above. And we shouldn't devote one second of the national consciousness to them! They're beyond insignificant; they're trivial! We have more important things to worry about!
Such as Americans' ability to provide for our families — food, housing etc. — necessities harder to get when inflation shrinks the dollar. And things such as paying our own ways, our shrinking trust in our own government while increasingly fearing it! I fret that courts have become revolving doors, protecting criminals and ignoring victims; and that loud voices shout down our right to speak up.
I'm concerned we're losing our right to safety in our homes and on the streets, our right to defend ourselves, and our right to control our own lives free from government meddling.
"America First" is not a mantra to abandon our friends and the rest of the world. It's about us and us helping them. It's important for the U.S. to rid our global neighborhood of those preying on us and our allies. I'm glad we're regulating our borders again, letting those friendly and productive into our country, and telling our adversaries to get lost. I care that we're reclaiming our sovereignty.
Does this mean I overlook every questionable word President Trump utters? Or that I condone his every action? Hell, no! I don't condemn him for every little grammatical error or faux pas, either. Or every time he's rude or crude.
"America First" is not justification to turn our backs on the world. I watch, and I wait. I wonder if President Trump will have time to repair problems his predecessor created DJT's now having to address. I wonder if his successor (I hope it's a common-sense conservative!) will be up to the job and not let everything turn to crap.
I'm praying our president will continue to exercise good sense and not let Washington erode his ability for straight talk; that he'll not surrender his spine like so many of his predecessors. I worry that we Americans, who seem to need immediate gratification, get antsy and don't allow Trump domestic policy to work.
I'm concerned his age will catch up to him before he's finished.
These things are important to me, and I believe should be also to all Americans. And I'm glad we have a true leader who lawfully uses the full power of his office to govern, instead of a president who couldn't move unless some phantom pulled his strings and told him how to find his own butt. (Harsh? Certainly. True? Most certainly!)
From Day One, our national news media and career politicians (embedded like ticks in our government) hated DJT. He was an outsider, zero government and political experience. And he spoke brashly (and some would say ill-advisedly). But he wasn't devious, and the Ticks couldn't stand it. He won his first term doing what most of them promised they'd do when in Washington: stand tall and make things better. But they already had succumbed to Potomac Fever and to the Siren Song of power. They already were arm-in-arm, dancing the Washington 2-Step.
From Day One, our national news media and career politicians (embedded like ticks in our government) hated DJT. He was an outsider, zero government and political experience. And he spoke brashly (and some would say ill-advisedly). But he wasn't devious, and the Ticks couldn't stand it. He won his first term doing what most of them promised they'd do when in Washington: stand tall and make things better. But they already had succumbed to Potomac Fever and to the Siren Song of power. They already were arm-in-arm, dancing the Washington 2-Step.
The soon-to-be president shined light on their consciences many DC insiders had smothered. They hated the exposure and hated him for turning the spotlight on them. So they attacked en masse and cranked up their propaganda machine.
I'm continually astonished and dismayed how well that worked. So many of my good, kind and, in most ways, intelligent friends have swallowed the anti-DJT swill without challenge. Their dislike for him has distilled into absolute hatred! He could cure cancer, invent a time machine and walk on water, and they'd not even entertain the possibility he might be right!
I'm continually astonished and dismayed how well that worked. So many of my good, kind and, in most ways, intelligent friends have swallowed the anti-DJT swill without challenge. Their dislike for him has distilled into absolute hatred! He could cure cancer, invent a time machine and walk on water, and they'd not even entertain the possibility he might be right!
What Mr. Trump has accomplished has been either legal or is or will be adjudicated — and staggering! Yet, victims of TDS (yes, it is real.) still swear he's evil incarnate trying to destroy our Constitution. His family's been denigrated and threatened. He's been called a misogynist, felon, rapist, swindler, pedophile — everything but to supper. All without solid, irrefutable evidence.
And I'm not even gonna explain why I, a former journalist and public relations practitioner of 30-plus years, do not trust even one national medium and its minions any farther than I can tote the whole lot to the dumpster!
To reiterate my initial queries: No, I don't care! Those interminably debated "issues" are idiotic. I do not give a woodpecker's pecker about renaming iconic buildings or seas, about the president's construction/remodeling choices or his "desire" for a third term. They're all silly subjects the news networks' Big Giant Heads (remember TV's Third Rock?) use to distract John Q. Public and beat up on our president. Neither do I care what he may have said 30 or 40 years ago in an unguarded locker-room-type moment.
I only care what he's accomplishing now!
In short, I don't sweat the small stuff — and neither should you!
May you have a blessed, healthy and prosperous New Year!
