As with most people, I have had some broken friendships and relationships over politics — not really on my side, but on theirs.
I have heard many speak about this. A relative refuses to come to the house for a holiday over politics, or someone “unfriends” you on social media.
We have come to the point that the “regular guy” no longer can be casual about politics. Everything is polarized, from TV shows that feel the need to preach to you about their politics to your cousin Vinny refusing your invitation to your Super Bowl party because you have different political beliefs than he does.
There is no “nuance” to anything. Everything is completely righteous or completely sinful. Completely correct or worthy of hell-fire.
Really? Is that where we are?
Yes, I guess it is.
If you support anything Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz does, you must be on your way to Satan in the afterlife and love all the corruption and evil that is coming into public view.
If you support anything Trump does, you must love all things that he does — all of his tactics and all of his positioning.
Can we please take a step back and look at these things in the light of day, instead of in the light of torches and pitchforks being carried on the way to burn down Frankenstein’s castle?
You can lean to the right and not love everything that Trump does. You can lean left and not think it’s OK for 20 million illegal aliens to take up residence in the U.S. and get free housing, food, health care, and education.
For most of us, it’s somewhere between those two extremes.
Now for the usual “Let’s bring down the temperature” plea that everyone inserts right here — but I’m not going to do that.
Why? Is it not the most productive and helpful thing for both sides to do? Yes.
Will it not yield a profile that will be more like 99 percent of “We the People”? Yes.
I’m not making that plea today because it is made in a vacuum — a worthless vacuum of stupidity that has no chance of success.
I’m a libertarian-leaning conservative and have been that most of my life. In my teens, I was part of the charismatic Jesus movement. In my 20s, I embraced conservatism. After 40 more years, I find that I’m a realist.
You see, everyone thinks they are realists when they become cynical and are very proud of telling everyone how distrustful they are of everyone.
If you are there, you are the person I am talking about. You have to move beyond that and really examine the view forward.
If you don’t, what’s the point? Just crawl back into your hole and unplug. Let the heavy lifting be done by others.
Knowing that no one (including yourself) is 100 percent trustworthy, how do you put a political movement together? You (gasp! Can I say it?) compromise!
I will NOT compromise my principles … blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I understand. Didn’t I tell you to go to your hole and unplug already? You aren’t interested in compromise, right?
What is this compromise that Trump has done and continues to leverage every day?
Early on, I wasn’t a Trump supporter. I saw him as a “populist” and not a conservative.
To a point, I was right. He is a populist. He is a populist who is getting things done moving toward the right.
Our guys (at least the guys who said they were on the “true right”) get nothing done.
Trump has gotten more done in his first year than the greatest American president in history — Reagan, of course — did in his entire first term. Oh, and by the way, more than Trump 1.0 did, also.
He learned something — something that we have to learn from the loony left: They can’t be reasoned with.
Trump 2.0 did one thing better than anyone else in history: bulldoze what he believed until he could see daylight.
During Trump’s first term, he thought that with some insider people and knowledge, he could finesse his agenda through with his superior negotiation skills. He was wrong.
What it takes is finesse to get into the driver’s seat of the bulldozer, followed by plowing through his enemies, including many GOPers who say the right things, but are RINOs at heart.
Trump has learned that fear of him by these fake Republicans isn’t enough. He has to do all the work and carry all the water at the same time.
So, now the compromise: The compromise we have is in ourselves. Instead of looking at each tiny step, let’s look at the entire journey. Instead of being backseat drivers, we look at where he is at the end of that project.
For example, consider Greenland. Trump tries to buy it, threatens to take by miliary force, and floats all kinds of ideas. When I first heard them, I thought, “Where is this going?”
Then, five hours after arriving in Davos, Trump walks away with nearly unlimited access to everything we want in Greenland with zero cost and zero force. Coincidence? No — masterful negotiation.
Trump needs this kind of room to maneuver.
Given the chance, he can stop wars, get billions in trade deals, and enhance the U.S. position all over the globe.
He can do most of the above with a few meetings and some tweets.
C’mon. Are you interested in results, or just more people who enjoy doing nothing?
Look at the end result and give Trump room. He’s a force for good and a performer. Let him perform.
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