Republicans have a rationale which they believe will prove effective on the 2020 elections. The economy is doing very well. The stock market continues to set new all time highs. Unemployment is at the lowest level in half a century. The party which has the superior economic argument usually is victorious. Trump favors the idea of American exceptionalism. He is a nationalist who believes in putting his own country first. He has devoted his efforts towards undoing all that his predecessor did and leveling unceasing invectives against many of the more prominent Democrats. Anyone with a critical word to say is a purveyor of fake news. Removing all regulations for safety, protecting the environment and endangered species, banishing limits on milage requirements, cutting capital gains taxes plus other requirements making any kind of big business are all absolutely fine as long as the general outlines of prosperity are preserved. Impeachment is another witch hunt which will succeed in the House of Representatives and fail in the Senate probably. Clinton was never removed from office. The same outcome awaits Trump. The president has already raised over $300 million dollars for his re-election committee. Could anything stop another surprising victory by the singular man who has beaten the Democrats once with his appeal to less those with less education, his steadfast opposition to the Affordable Care Act, his contempt for NAFTA, the UN, NATO, existing treaties and allies? Combine that with his love for dictators and yet despite all that no one can rule out the chance that the man who had high ratings on The Apprentice could continue with a second term.
Democrats have to present alternatives which appeal to the majority of the electorate without scaring some voters away with health core expansion which could add trillions to the deficit, expand the government which Trump has shrunk by a bit, and might reverse the economic expansion with lots more jobs which we have benefited from under Trump. It would be ironic for the Democrats to run into opposition that their expansion of health care, reversing Trumps tax cuts, and spending more on the EPA, infrastructure, a higher minimum wage, a concentration on renewable energy while cutting fossil fuels-could it fail because the king of debt who ignored deficits Donald J. Trump will make an about face and criticize the free spending ways of liberal Democrats. The current administration has enacted huge changes in some surprising ways.
What are the big transformational changes which voters will accept? A large majority of voters believes in climate change. Glaciers melt all over the world. Levels of carbon dioxide and methane inexorably rise. Temperature slowly increases. Democrats believe in science. Trump has said climate change is a hoax. It will be possible by moving towards renewable energy to provide new jobs, and halt the complex though very real relentless threat from changes all over the Earth. Improvements in the economy are genuine. Both sides have to admit it.
However the economic surge is temporary. It is short term. Some Democrats were disappointed with the small, incremental changes under Obama. Many of the Democratic contenders for POTUS have made promises for huge changes this time around. Revise immigration laws, raise the minimum wage gradually to $15 an hour. expand health care slowly, adopt a cosmopolitan point of view recognizing the the significance of all countries, and all 7.8 billion people in the world, move against cutting forests in the Amazon, Indonesia, Siberia and elsewhere, reclassify marijuana so offenses are misdemeanors, not felonies, stop putting people who can’t pay a ticket behind bars, plus other progressive change which will have our government moving forward again, not backward. Big improvements are necessary now and for future generations. Think for the long run.
Deuel Woodward resides in Chula Vista.
