A quick internet search will reveal that on no fewer than five occasions in the last year the media has happily chirped “President Trump has had a bad week.” Michael Bloomberg penned an article dated December 23, 2018 that haughtily announced, “With the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency drawing to a close, the past week all too perfectly exemplified its destructive effect on competent government in Washington — and it should give all Americans, in all parties, cause for concern.” It is an established fact that the Democrats and their media accomplices want to destroy the president. They spin, lie and cover up any good news to perpetuate their illusion of a presidency on the brink. Already there are columns decrying the shut-down, the withdrawal from Syria and the resignation of General Mattis.
The truth is, though, things are not at all as they are being presented. Last week alone President Trump’s administration did three things that were exemplary in wisdom and foresight.
The first of these three is the planned withdrawal of troops out of Syria. Susan Rice, Obama’s former national security advisor wrote of President Trump’s decision in the New York Times on December 23, 2018. She called it a “reckless, unilateral decision to announce the sudden withdrawal of all 2,000 United States troops from Syria and to remove 7,000 from Afghanistan.”
It’s beyond ironic to hear anyone in the Obama administration criticize another administration for troop withdrawals but getting beyond the normal arrogance of the previous administration, Ms. Rice is just flat wrong. It is a sane and rational policy to avoid becoming mired in another nation’s war. You would think that would be obvious. The conflict in Syria is not one that the U.S. can fix. It is a religious war between factions of Islam. The Sunni, Shia and Alawites, a branch of the Shia and the faith of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, have been battling for a long time. There is not a longing among any of these groups for a western-style democracy. It is a religious civil war. The blood of American young men and women should not, in my opinion, be shed in this kind of conflict.
Personally, I have a family member in the military that could be deployed in Afghanistan or Syria. I understand the training and preparation that our armed forces demand, and I am confident they could do the job if called upon. The critical question though, is why. Why should any American son or daughter be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice in a cause so murky and undefined? President Trump doesn’t think they should. He ran on that in 2016 and he’s keeping his word. I, for one, am grateful for this smart decision.
The second of the brilliant moves by the president involves prison reform. As a minister, I’ve had the opportunity to serve as a volunteer in both adult and juvenile prison facilities. It doesn’t take a doctorate in sociology to understand that there are issues with the system. There were imbalances in sentencing and how crimes were viewed and punished.
Time magazine reported on December 21, 2018 “Now the years of work by criminal-justice reform advocates on both sides of the aisle has paid off. On Dec. 19, the bill passed the Senate by a margin of 87-12. On Dec. 21, just hours before the government was scheduled to shut down, Trump signed the bill into law in the Oval Office, marking a rare bipartisan breakthrough. Advocates had not just coaxed support from once-skeptical senators. They had convinced a tough-on-crime president to back it, surmounted two years of partisan rancor and finished a landmark effort that had stalled during Barack Obama’s administration.”
Did you catch that last part? This effort stalled during the Obama administration. With strong support from his son-in-law Jared Kushner, President Trump, just days ago, signed into law a measure that will help. Though controversial in some conservative circles, I believe it is long overdue and a victory for the president.
The third incredibly smart move by President Trump is the government shut-down. He is adamant about getting funding for the wall as he ought to be. President Trump made border security a big part of his 2016 campaign. The Republicans in Congress, having had control for the last two years, failed to deliver. In a matter of weeks, the Democrats will run the House. If President Trump is going to make a stand for protecting our citizens and our border, this is the time.
The Washington Post, in January of 2018, in a rare moment of honesty, reported, “Democrats, under pressure from immigrant rights groups, have strenuously opposed including Trump’s wall in the negotiations. They call it a waste of taxpayer money, but they also have signaled that the political price for helping the president make good on his prime campaign promise is far too high.”
Senator Jeff Merkley (D) from Oregon reiterated that Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley reiterated that Democrats will not support any funding for a border wall.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina is right when he said, “Senator Schumer, what does it take for you to realize that we need more money for a broken border? This is about them hating Trump so much, wanting him to lose, they can’t understand that America needs to win and we’re not going to give in. I’m a pretty reasonable guy but we’re not going to give in on this.”
As I write this, it is Christmas Eve and the shut-down is still going on. I think the president is right to do it this way. If border security matters, then someone must go to the wall to get a wall.
Three smart moves by a great president. Looking forward to more Trump triumphs in 2019.
