I have time, so here’s another one of these. In this one I’ll just attack Scott Adams’ defenses of Trump’s first 100 days in office. *Yawn*, I know, believe me. But I’m kind of hunting for something to do right now, so…
I’m referring to this:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/159981284676/president-trumps-first-100-days
Ok, so here’s a point-counterpoint thing.
I guess I’ll put the important parts of what Adams says in italics, and then I’ll follow up after Adams’ text.
So, Adams starts with this:
1. 100 days is a meaningless, arbitrary marker for a president’s performance that is likely to be more misleading than useful.
and…
2. Let’s treat it like it is important! Reeeeeeee!
The first 100 days of a President’s term in office are immensely, massively important. IMO they are by far the most important days of any President’s term.
The reason boils down to those all-important first impressions. First impressions count for a huge amount in this world. And in terms of a President, they count for everything, since in the domestic political arena people judge politicians based on things like poll numbers and such, as opposed to actual “achievements”, whatever those may be.
And that importance is magnified greatly in the international arena. The people here knew Trump before he even ran for President, but people elsewhere didn’t. I don’t imagine that there were many fans of “The Apprentice” in rural Indonesia. International opinion of Trump started to gel the day he was inaugurated, and not a second before, and it has continued up until now. Basically, the first 100 days. After that, it hardens.
Adams then goes on to dodge the issues at hand by talking about “control groups” and other stuff that has nothing to do with anything, here. Look, Trump’s base is not happy with his performance. And neither is anyone else. It took the threat of World War III to push his approval levels up to a pitiful 50%. Whatever it was he was supposed to do, he didn’t do it.
Then Adams goes on to list some stuff that he claims is real, and that has to do with Trump:
Economic confidence is up.
No, it isn’t. This point I shouldn’t need to even refute, since it’s obviously wrong. If you doubt this, read any recent article on the unfolding retail apocalypse, or the student loan disaster, or the ever-growing wealth inequality here in the states.
Trump signed a bunch of executive orders. You might not like them, but that’s more about you, not about his job performance.
I don’t agree with this. Trump jumped into office after a sweeping landslide victory, with his party firmly in control of congress. He should not have had to resort to “executive orders” so quickly to get things done in his administration. And that’s leaving aside the argument whether Presidents should even be dictating policy with lots of “executive orders” anyways.
China is putting the screws on North Korea (finally)
That’s only because Trump and the rest of the military-worshiping goons here refuse to leave poor, defenseless North Korea alone. See my other posts here for more about this. China doesn’t want the US to invade and kill off a bunch of innocent people, I would think. Nobody wants an Iraq on their border.
Trump erased the “puppet of Putin” charge by prudent application of Tomahawk missiles. That’s an accomplishment, even if you don’t like it.
I don’t consider sliding backwards into the Cold War of the 1900’s to be much of an accomplishment. People elected Trump because they wanted to bury the hatchet with Russia and start anew. The public voted for cooperation with Putin, not Cold War II.
Trump erased the “Trump is Hitler” hallucination that the Clinton side spray-painted onto him during the election. (That’s a big deal.)
Yeah, he erased it by rejecting his base entirely and by embracing his supposed enemies’ views and platforms with both hands. And yes, that is a big deal.
And why the hell was it so important for Trump to distance himself from White Nationalism, anyways? After all, it was his appeal to that base that gave him the landslide victory that he received. Are we a democracy, or what? Shouldn’t the people get what they voted for?
Trump got a qualified Supreme Court judge, albeit the hard way.
I haven’t been paying enough attention to this to comment with any detail, but I don’t think that that makes any difference. This nation is ruled by Wall Street and the major political families, not the Supreme Court.
Healthcare is moving along briskly from the first plan that was terrible to something that is approaching feasible. That’s progress, not failure.
It is a failure to have a system that does not have workable healthcare, no matter how you look at it. Perhaps that failure was not instigated by Trump, in the way that Iraq was not instigated by Obama, but now that Trump is president, it’s his to own, like Iraq was for Obama. And there has been no significant progress on healthcare as far as I can see. The system remains unchanged.
Tax reform will probably be slower than we want, but most observers expect something good to come of it.
Really? Who are these observers, Adams? Because it isn’t the general public. We all know what happens with GOP style tax cuts- the rich pocket their savings and move on. Look at the last 35 years of GOP style tax cuts for evidence.
International relations look fine. The only awkward relationship is with Putin, and that’s the awkward relationship Trump’s detractors want.
International relations look… fine? Really? Really, Adams? The only awkward relationship is with Putin? Really?
Illegal immigration is way down because of Trump’s persuasion.
If this is in fact happening, I’m not sure that this has anything at all to do with Trump. I’ll bet it has more to do with the lack of jobs and money here in the US than it does with Trump. And that is of course if this is actually happening. We all know how loose the media is with facts concerning illegal immigration.
And now, what Adams says are Trump’s bad things:
You can criticize Trump’s actions against women’s reproductive rights, both on the topic of Planned Parenthood funding and his Supreme Court pick. But calling those things failures or successes depends on your political views, not on Trump’s job performance.
IDK and IDC about any of this stuff. I don’t think any of it matters, TBH.
I think you could make an objective case against Trump for putting economics above the environment. But you’d have to ignore the fact that a stronger economy almost always puts you in a better position to keep the environment clean. (Trump says that.) You don’t see clean air and water in poor countries.
Thus far, Trump has not put anything above his own need for personal and familial success. And where is the evidence that Trump has created a stronger economy, or that he has any desire to create one? All I’ve seen thus far is him conniving with his billionaire friends.
President Trump reversed a bunch of campaign statements from impractical positions to more practical ones. Is that failure?
So- the campaign statements that gave Trump and his party a historic, landslide victory, were jettisoned for “more practical” positions that have all arrived hugely unpopular and DOA? And that’s a good thing? I don’t know, Adams, maybe people should just GET WHAT THEY FUCKING VOTED FOR.
President Trump said a bunch of things that did not pass the fact-checking, surprising literally no one. And as usual, none of it mattered in any way except that it made us focus on whatever topic he wanted us to focus on.
Ugh. Trump’s problem is that so little of what he has done since being elected has passed any kind of “fact checking” at all. See- Syria. He was a lot more accurate before being elected. His tweets about Syria then were spot on. It’s mostly the stuff he’s done since he took office that been the real problem.
And considering his dire approvals ratings, I doubt that people are focusing on the stuff that Trump wants us to.
President Trump’s staff and advisors are reportedly doing a lot of in-fighting for influence. But that sounds more like a healthy situation than a Trump-is-dictator situation. It would be worse if there were no differences of opinion in the group.
That sounds a lot like oligarchy, to me. It sounds like a bunch of sycophants jockeying for power and position in the upper echelons in the imperial regime. A healthier system would have the cabinet working to fulfill the president’s campaign promises and working for the nation, and not for themselves or their families.
President Trump has been slow to fill lots of government positions. But has any of that mattered to your life? I haven’t noticed, personally. Was the Secretary of Whatever supposed to come over and mow my lawn?
Now this is just a groaner. Really, Adams?
President Trump did not release his tax returns, so we imagine there are problems there.
Ugh, I have no opinion on this and I don’t think anyone else does, either.
President Trump incorrectly claimed that his staff had been “wiretapped.” It turns out that they were only legally surveilled in an indirect way. Which only sounds different to his critics.
Just another spat amongst oligarchs. *YAWN*. Wake me when one of these clowns actually focuses on fixing the public’s problems, rather than their own.
See, this is what I was afraid of in regards to the losers that fall into line behind presidents, with those currently supporting Trump now being the worst I’ve ever seen. They just wind up wasting everyone’s time with nonsense, like this article from Adams. The professional GOP supporters, I think, are particularly bad in this way. Their “leaders” never ever deliver anything, because they haven’t had to, because of gullible brown-nosers like Adams, who will excuse even their leaders’ most egregious betrayals. This is why we have had to live with generations of “conservative” leaders like Trump that literally drop their base and walk away from them as soon as they’re elected.
Ugh. Blah.