America, Forget Donald J. Trump
He’s a dud.
As a kid, I loved fireworks. New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July, didn’t matter. Blowing stuff up in bright colorful whistles, bangs, and booms was a thrill. Occasionally, there are some duds. None worse than the big firework you saved for last. As the anticipation builds, you light the fuse awaiting the big flash lighting up the night sky, looking up you wait, and wait … nothing.
I imagine this is how many Trump voters feel now after casting their ballots for him in 2016. I’m not talking about the “Trump can do no wrong” voters, I’m talking about all the people he made so many promises to. Manufacturing workers, farmers, the poor, the middle-class, people dying from a lack of healthcare, and seniors to name a few. He’s failed to deliver for any of them.
Just like that firework we saved for last that never went off; a dud.
America, it’s time to move on. If you’re still considering supporting Trump this year, it’s time you look yourselves in the mirror and admit his administration was built on false promises. Or, you can hear me out and let me plead my case about Trump not doing anything for the benefit of the nation — as my moderate Republican friends who voted for Trump are beginning to see it.
I know, I know, the economy, right? Look, let’s face it, the economy has been on cruise control for years, and the jobs being added every month are low-wage — providing little benefit to the economy or the employee. These types of jobs require someone to work for multiple employers just to get by on a week to week basis. With pay so low, employees are not afforded spendable income, thus diminishing purchasing power bringing very little benefit to their local economy.
Right now, the vast majority of income in this economy is on a one-way street straight into the bank accounts of big corporations. It’s been that way for far too long. And under Trump, his administration has succeeded in accelerating the widening income and wealth gaps across the board. His tax cuts for the rich are devastating our national debt and have served only to line the pockets of the wealthy, bringing no tangible benefits to workers.
But we also can’t ignore that some of the largest gaps in America exist between the poor and the middle class. There isn’t an in-between anymore. A growing number of Americans are either really poor or a couple of paychecks away from being poor or displaced. This couldn’t exist on such a large scale in an effective economy.
“The median income of lower-income households in 2016 ($25,624) was less than in 2000 ($26,923). Only the incomes of upper-income households increased from 2000 to 2016, from $183,680 to $187,872.” — Pew Research Center
The stock market isn’t an economic indicator on its own either. I wish folks would stop pointing to it. It feels like they’re cheering the rich getting richer in real-time. It’s odd to me. Trump supporters unironically like to use the stock market as an argument to show how good he’s doing. Every time they do that, however, they’re glossing over the larger issue of how low wages affect their lives. The difficulty in earning a livable wage isn’t just an inner-city problem or a Black and Brown problem, it’s a rural white America problem too.
Low-income communities disproportionately suffer much more hardships than more affluent and middle-class communities. Communities rely on tax revenue for services, improvements, community programs, good schools, infrastructure, etc. All of which are abundant in mid- to upper-income neighborhoods. With less income in poor communities, and consequently less to spend on improvements, low-income workers suffer at the hands of much smaller tax revenue meaning fewer services, poorer schools, and fewer opportunities.
Recently, the Brookings Institute issued a report finding that “44 percent of American workers, a whopping 53 million people, earn low wages. These workers’ median hourly wage is $10.22, and they earn an annual pay of $17,950” — a far cry from the $45,200 to $135,600 income bracket to be considered middle-class.
The Brookings study also found that low-wage workers are the most likely to remain stuck in their wage bracket after switching occupations and workers in the middle class are more likely to move down the occupational ladder than up in the current economic environment. It’s an issue that has historically benefitted from more investment in workforce training and development, not less. Trump has done nothing to bridge these gaps which could bring millions of people out of poverty in a matter of just a few years.
Instead, many economists say that his policies, such as tax cuts, the trade war, deregulation and a weakening of the social safety net is leading to rising inequality. Economists also say that low- and middle-income Americans are finding themselves in more dire straits when it comes to healthcare, housing, student loan debt, social safety net assistance, employee rights, and benefits from taxes and trade.
In this context, he’s done nothing notable for any of us.
Now, if you want to make the argument that Trump kept the momentum up from the economy he inherited from Obama, I’ll concede to that. But you have to admit that his other policies, deregulation, and tax breaks for corporations are setting us up for something bad. Potentially, another recession. And that’s something that will disproportionately impact us, not the rich.
The economic impacts of Trump’s policies will be felt in the coming years. His administration’s lack of preparedness to address healthcare has only continued to exacerbate the problem. In the last decade or so, Republicans have been screaming about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, as it is alternatively known. In all that time they have failed to propose anything healthcare-related. Not a single alternative or improvement. Nothing.
One of Trump’s most popular talking points on the campaign trail was the elimination of Obamacare and the implementation of something much better. Trump even stated on multiple occasions that they had a healthcare plan in the works with months to go until the election. Yet here we are, 3 years in, and still no healthcare plan.
Look, guys, I don’t know how else to put this, but Donald Trump is a lame-duck president who has yet to accomplish anything substantial. Seriously. He screams about “the Democrats” ruining healthcare, but all he’s done is cripple the ACA making insurance through the marketplace much more expensive with astronomical deductibles. His health insurance policy is as nonexistent as it was the day he claimed to be working on one.
Like health insurance, his trade war clearly wasn’t well thought out and he had no contingency plans in place to avert the disaster it became. The farm bailouts came too late for many farmers because the administration wasn’t prepared. Then, when bailout money was finally appropriated, it disproportionately benefited corporate farms leaving family farmers to file for bankruptcy. Many families lost their farms or while others were forced to sell to big agricultural corporations.
I know. Many Trumpers will blame Democrats for not moving fast enough in the House to bail out farmers. I argue that if Trump were better prepared, as bailouts were anticipated, he should have had options on the table ready to go. He didn’t because it was about him being macho and about trying to prove he’s a stable genius. Had he been concerned with the impacts of his trade war on the American people, he would have been more proactive.
His escalations with other countries over trade was a tactic similarly used to increase tensions at the border. By creating a crisis he was able to justify the purposefully inhumane treatment of Latin American migrants. His policies are intentionally cruel and unjust. Not because he’s trying to “deter” others from coming, but because he sees people of color and poor people as less than human. As less than himself.
He’s using that prejudice to line the pockets of his buddies in the private prison industrial complex. These profiteers are making billions from detaining migrants in private facilities in squalid conditions. People are dying on their watch and neither the president nor the owners of these facilities give a damn. It’s our absurd reality.
Instead, they parlay that inhumane treatment into proof that they’re doing something about the border. They use it to show they are “acting tough” on immigration. They use racist tropes and play on racial fears driving hate and acceptance of what we’re doing to humans in camps.
Trump hasn’t done much of anything for anyone other than himself and his cronies. He and his family seem more concerned with business deals in other nations — using the highest office in the land to make them happen — than they do about issues here at home.
Remember when Trump said he was a nationalist? I would like to correct the record right here, right now. He’s a Trumpist and nothing else. He doesn’t care about any of us and he never will. Anyone still supporting him is being played and it’s not just “the left” who sees it that way. There are many factions on the right who echo these concerns. Most are called Moderate Republicans, others, Libertarians.
The moderate Republican oftentimes referred to as a Never Trumper, and the Forever Trumpers expose one of the deepest divisions in politics today. The GOP is split between moderates and Trump Republicans. However, many Republicans on Capitol Hill seem to fear him a great deal. Even a once moderate Republican is forced to be a Trump Republican now — out of what appears to be fear.
Some Trumpers love that about him. Hoping for a “dynasty” of Trump to rule us forever. They love every single dictator move he makes and couldn’t care less how it affects their freedoms. Forever Trumpers can not be convinced to simply look away from him. It’s weird.
But the more moderate Republicans are concerned about authoritarian language and ideas. Just like anyone else should be. They are often attacked on social media and among friends rather than heard for speaking out about it. Because of that, they’re largely left out of the national conversation. Still, moderates exist. They could help swing the 2020 election. Or maybe they won’t. Who knows?
What I do know, is that it’s time for America to forget Trump and focus on a more prosperous and equitable way forward.
Whether you voted for Trump or not in 2016, you can bet that you’re going to be in a much worse place if he gets another four years. Maybe you’re looking at the other Republican candidates that aren’t getting much attention. Or, maybe you’re getting used to the idea of voting for a Democrat, in which case you probably voted for Obama (good for you).
There are plenty of options out there that can better unite the country and focus on improving the lives of all its people. None better than any Democrat, to be honest. Either way, it doesn’t have to be Trump. We need to keep moving forward and it’s going to take all of us.
The first thing to do is simple: forget Donald J. Trump.
He’s left you behind anyway.
