Looking ahead, hopeful but uncertain

[aadler]

Welcome back, Mister President.

I did a post like this on the day Barack Obama was first sworn in (here), a follow-up at the beginning of his second term (here), and one on the day you began your first term (here). There was NOT a comparable post for Joe Biden, because he was placed into office by obvious, blatant fraud, and I had no hopes for him other than that the nation might possibly survive him.

I’ll be honest: I’ve never lost all my reservations about you. Your public persona — coarse, bombastic, erratic, obnoxious — was clearly crafted by you for performance effect, a tool you used in working toward various goals, but nonetheless had to be at least partly reflective of your actual personality. I spent the first several years of your initial term in office watching for the wheels to come off; even if I preferred you to Hillary Clinton, that didn’t mean that I trusted you or fully believed in you.

Your performance in office gradually won me over. Never entirely, because unpredictability never stopped being one of your major characteristics, and there was no knowing how that unpredictability might manifest next. Nonetheless, if I didn’t agree with everything you said (and frequently despaired of how you said it), I found the overall effect of your presidency to be positive, aiming toward American strength, American pride, effective foreign policy (as distinguished from airy wishful thinking), energy independence, economic growth, and a general attitude that our nation was a good thing and didn’t need to apologize to anybody. You frequently spoke disparagingly of opponents, but I never saw you use government agencies or policies to go after them; if you were affected at all by negative press, it was only to the extent, seemingly, of making you more determined to stick to your guns.

(Your actions during the advent of Covid were not a point in your favor, but erred mostly in putting too much trust in ‘authorities’ to help you choose the right course to take, and the follow-up actions by your White House successor were almost exponentially worse.)

Now that you’re back, these are my hopes for your second term:

I hope that you will take appropriate action against everyone who used government agencies and policies to persecute political opponents. They have to pay. I can understand wanting to avoid doing what they did — we don’t want to become what we hate — but the full force of law should be brought against everyone who used illegal actions to attack, condemn, bankrupt, incite attacks against, and imprison those not on their side. That includes but is not limited to perjury, suborning perjury, and selective enforcement/sentencing (just one example: an Antifa couple proven to have firebombed a police car wound up with less prison time than people who walked into the Capitol on January 6). Above all we don’t want to enshrine the notion that the Democrats can spend years engaging in the most despicable actions and get away with it, without consequence, because “we won’t sink to their level”. No. Consequences. Make them pay, and make sure they know what they’re paying for and why. Don’t do what they did, no, use the actual law and only go after those who broke the law, but within those parameters you need to be harsh and relentless.

I hope the ‘cease-fire’ deal you forced between Israel and Hamas does indeed have some secret caveat that will make it worthwhile, because on its face it’s horrible for Israel and rewards terrorists for engaging in terrorism. Hamas has broken every agreement and will break this one. I hope there is some as-yet-unknown that will apply appropriate consequences for what we all know is coming, and will not only allow but facilitate Israel taking the steps necessary to ensure that a massive terrorist incursion like October 7 can never happen again. I doubt even exterminating Hamas would be enough for that, but it would at least ensure that Hamas won’t be the perpetrators of the next atrocity.

I hope that you keep the promises you made in regard to ending illegal immigration and getting all the illegals the hell out of our country. They broke the law to come here, they break the law by staying here, they’re not Americans and America is better off without them. I’m not against immigration per se, but I don’t think it would harm the nation to lock the gates for the next 20 years, till we can recover and consolidate from the damage already done by the decades (particularly the last four years) of almost unlimited illegal invasion.

I hope that you’ve learned to be wary of everyone in the political establishment, and don’t simply demand loyalty from those under your authority, but ruthlessly enforce it. In your first administration, you were repeatedly and treacherously undercut by those who were supposed to be serving your interests; you need to be careful of who you choose this time around — as you appear to be doing — and instantly and forcefully punish any betrayal.

I hope you will carefully and constantly assess your present physical state and mental capabilities, and hand over responsibility if you ever determine that you’re no longer up to the job. Your energy, drive, and resilience make that eventuality seem unlikely, but you’re at an age when it could happen, and we spent years watching your predecessor visibly deteriorate to well below the point where he was actually qualified to remain in office. (Arguably, he was unqualified the day he was sworn in.) We need better than that, and we need you to live up to what should be done if that day ever comes.

I hope you don’t go too far in trying to make up for the four years that were stolen from you. Your past history is of a man who understands compromising to reach achievable results, but it also shows a tendency toward grandiosity. Your current situation would seem to justify pushing hard toward the goals you have continued to hold; I hope you do push hard, but stay within the bounds of justice, decency, and the trust of those who supported you.

I hope you support and encourage the people of Iran in resisting and eventually overthrowing the Islamofascist theocracy that seized power during the ineffectual Carter administration. Most of the people — or at least a huge chunk of them — did want to get rid of the Shah, but didn’t want to turn their country over to religious despots. The mullahs were on the edge of losing power nearly fifteen years ago, but the execrable Barack Obama ignored the crowds of protestors and continued to prop up the regime. I know you have no love for the government; I hope you will take some action to help the people against that government.

Above all, I hope you don’t fail to live up to all the hope that has been invested in you. After what has been done to our country for far too long now, we need the recovery that all the things you have promised might be enough to enable. Don’t fall short. Stay the course. Focus on the results. When it’s all done, make us glad we put you where you are.

[Advance warning to prospective commenters: I don’t forbid disagreement, but this was an expression of my opinions, not an invitation to debate. Though not likely, I am willing to delete comments that annoy me too much, and there’s one particularly obnoxious individual that I’m absolutely ready to ban if he/she ever appears again.]