He's not led us into wars, he's not tanked the economy, he did a mediocre job on the virus but likely little different than Bush or Obama would've done. He probably he hasn't improved race relations (though he'll probably get more black votes than any other recent GOP presidential candidate), but neither did Obama or Bush.
Personally, I'll take Trump's boorish qualities any day over the elitists who allowed China into the WTO and take over our manufacturing, got us into multiple wars, were of questionable judgement on justices to the Supreme Court (Harriet Miers?), or ended up dividing the country nearly as much as Trump (Bush, Obama).
So I don’t understand all the attention to Trump’s words and tweets. He's not a person to take seriously in that regard. His faults have long been on full display - how are they still “news”? His transparency is an inadvertent service to the country, a cautionary tale. Every transgression is duly punished, every tweet mocked and criticized by media elites. Even some non-transgressions got punished, such as impeachment for the Russia hoax.
Nor do I understand why George W. Bush got so much credit for stating the obvious in his famous bullhorn speech at the site of the World Trade Centers after 9/11.
Is their any hard data that the bully pulpit can do anything dramatic? Even the great leader Lincoln could not avoid the bloodiest war in American history.
Actions matter, words not so much. But reporters revere words, so maybe they jack everything up based on that. Bush’s subsequent actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were infinitely more impactful than his words. But I guess if politics is your religion then speeches are liturgical. Or it could be that people just want to be inspired and expect their president to inspire them because they look to him as a father figure.
I just feels like it’s magical thinking to think any president’s words have any long or medium term effect on rioting, race relations, the economy, etc... you name it. Trump spoke at the March for Life rally in January and it appears to have had little effect in banishing abortion.
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The Athletic magazine has an interesting candid discussion with a group of ex-MLB players and a revealing comment was made by former all-star Torri Hunter:
"Let me tell you something about baseball players. People from the Dominican, Venezuela, Asia, white, black they come together and you know why they play together? Because they've got a common goal: We've got to win the World Series. And guess what: everyone says, 'Let's go..'...This is pretty genius description of America today. We have no goal. Neither the micro goal of better policing towards minorities, nor the macro goal of a Christian nation trying to get to Heaven. No Eschatology, no goal.
America has no goal. We have nothing we're trying to reach. That's why we're all over the place."
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From the Wall Street Journal:
"Unions like the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis fight to shield their members from punishment, both through contract negotiations and disciplinary hearings, saying that neither top police officials nor the public understands how dangerous their jobs are."
It's funny how the polarization on the Floyd killing isn't where it should be, that of police unions protecting bad cops. That's because GOP is anti-union but pro-cop and Dems anti-cop but pro-union. So we miss why even the Floyd killer had the opportunity to kill.
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