In the fist 100 days, our President has done very little of what he promised. He has done very little of anything, in fact. In some ways this is disappointing. While I do not subscribe to apparels to nationalism, and certainly not to the more bigoted and misogynistic statements made by the POTUS and key members of his staff, the broad notions of improving security, reducing deficit and debt, and better economic activity are fine enough goals to pursue. The problem is that none of our President’s specific plans actually work to achieve any of these goals. Most do just the opposite. IN that sense, it is a very good thing that he has made little headway on his agenda.
Politifact provides a nice summary of the promises for the fist 100 days, as well as a detailed accounting for each promise. IF you care to examine the list you will see that very few promises have been fulfilled, and most of those are arguably harmful in and of themselves. It has been disheartening to see how much he can undo with his executive authority. Fortunately, we have also seen checks on presidential power employed to prevent some of the more egregiously harmful policies implemented. Even members of his own party recognize than many of these ideas are not worth pursuing, so portions that require congressional approval have made little headway.
Assuming nothing happens to cause him to depart early (#TrumpRussia), we can hope for a change of guard in one or both houses of Congress after mid-term elections, hopefully forcing some compromise on points in need of address and tabling the more ludicrous proposals.
I wrote previously about the misplaced notion of “if he succeeds, we succeed.” We cannot succeed with policies that exacerbate inequity in wealth; that actively target segments of the populace based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, or political affiliation; or that seek to extricate us from global alliances and treaties focused on security and global issues. We can’t succeed if we promote long-term environmental damage to support short-term corporate profitability. We can’t succeed if we refuse to fund necessary services so that corporate entities and the extraordinarily wealthy get to keep more wealth.
I”m glad to see a dearth of policy implementation in this first 100 days. Perhaps this lack of policy support and historically low polling might motivate POTUS and his party to reexamine their priorities. Of course, hope isn’t a plan. Contact your representatives at all levels, be sure to register and vote, and if you have the time to do so, get involved locally. Keep up the pressure for the remaining 1300-and-change days.
The View from the Armchair 