(This is very long but I hope you will take the time to read my thoughts.)
An upcoming checkup with my oncologist got me thinking about physicians I’ve known and selected over the years for my health care needs. My nurse friends will probably agree, we benefit from insider information to select the best possible doctor. And they likely also will agree that, although we appreciate a good bedside manner, the most important factor by far is skill and results. If the ability to communicate well and convey compassion is included in their skill set, that’s wonderful but never takes precedent over knowledge and it’s skilled application. Over my long nursing career I’ve worked with many physicians and I’ve heard about many more from my colleagues. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of them. It caused me constant amazement that some of the least skilled doctors had the most loyal, admiring patients because of a kind and compassionate personality. Those patients didn’t have the ability, however, to know or compare the skill level of these same doctors they adored. (Fortunately there are some limited ways to do that today through online ratings.)
Is there a parallel to this election season and the candidates we are choosing? I’m quite aware of how many have a deeply felt hatred for Donald Trump and, although they may not have an adoring admiration for Joe Biden, they say he is a kind and caring candidate. He certainly comes across that way in the settings we’re allowed to see him. Trump too often comes across as a total jackass. I wish he didn’t but he does. At this critical turning point in our history, though, should I make my vote decision based on feelings, a.k.a. picking the doctor with the better bedside manner or do I pick the doctor who has proven and better results?
I’ve heard endless promises from presidential candidates in the past 12 elections, most of which never were fulfilled. After maybe the first 5-6 elections, it became very clear that candidates promise the sun, moon, and stars only to go to Washington and do what they darn well please, as long as they went along with established bureaucracy. Trump broke that mold. The difference? He wasn’t a Washington insider. He had connections with insiders but only as much as they wanted his donation to their political campaigns. The insiders liked him back then including Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, Terry McAuliff, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, and surprisingly Kamala Harris and Joe Biden who all received campaign donations from Trump.
Trumps accomplishments are actually impressive in spite of the fact that the media gives him no credit for them.
- Lowest unemployment rate since 1969 and strongest economic recovery...which he voluntarily gave up to mitigate a pandemic the severity of which was not seen in 100 years.
- Lowest black unemployment rate ever...in spite of all the Democrat campaign promises to blacks and the Republicans’ disregard of black communities over 6 decades with no improvement, only decline.
- Lowest Hispanic unemployment ever.
- Reached out to Blacks and Hispanic with effective policies to improve their communities by prison reform, economic opportunity zones in inner cities, permanent renewal of funding for historically black colleges and university (instead of the annual requests they had to make.)
- First real growth in pay for middle class and blue collar jobs In decades. A family of four earned $9,000 more per year on average since Trump’s tax cuts.
- Responded to the pandemic in previously unimagined ways. He shut down the economy knowing it would hurt his re-election chances. He closed travel early while being called xenophobic and racist by his opponents who, at the same time were telling people to not be afraid and keep about usual activities, visit China Town, go to the movies, yahdah yahdah. Now in hindsight these very folks criticize him for not closing travel sooner.
- Instead of acting like the dictator the Dems and media claim he is, Trump asked, ASKED, businesses to voluntarily produce ventilators, PPE, testing equipment, etc. and they did. He believes in the goodness of American people and businesses and didn’t need to dictate as the Dems pushed him to do.
- The predicted 2,000,000 lives at a minimum to be lost to coronavirus was revised to a best case prediction of 2-500,000 lives if we did everything right. As of today, October 16, 2020 there have been 218,000 lost, too many but nowhere near the worst case scenario and on track with the best case.
- Leading the economic recovery from the Covid shutdown which is much faster than predicted.
- Trump’s Administration achieved these pandemic response results with the depleted stockpiles left from Joe Biden’s leadership of the H1N1 pandemic and with an ineffective public health surveillance system not designed to be the rapid testing system necessary for this pandemic...and these in spite of warnings from public health officials, including Dr. Fauci, that future pandemics would follow H1N1 and Ebola.
- Took on North Korea in ways unseen by the Clinton, Bush, Obama administrations and has resulted in no further long range ballistic missile tests over Japan and South Korea.
- Has stood up to China, the first time since Bill Clinton attempted to appease them with super computers and since Biden ineptly managed relations between China and America, allowing China to acquire US military technology. But he very skillfully let the Chinese Communist Party enrich his son with $1.5 billion dollars in business deals.
- Defeated ISIS and their caliphate after Obama and Hillary made the rise of ISIS possible through arms dealing and promoting the Arab Spring through their State Department’s Civil Society revolutions.
- Ended the Iran Nuclear Deal as Iran continued its nuclear development and used the $1.7 billion cash settlement agreement to promote further terrorism throughout the Middle East.
- Authorized the take down of Iran’s chief terrorist general, Qusem Soleimani, who was responsible for the deaths of innumerable civilians as well as US military.
- Moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem as all US presidents in modern history promised to do in their campaigns but never followed through.
- Brought Arabs and Jews together with Saudi Arabia taking a lead roll in the Middle East. He brokered the first contract between Israel and Arab nations in 3 decades for mutual, peaceful economic development.
- European nations are now finally paying their fair share for NATO.
- Ended the US participation in the Paris climate accord. While the US was already exceeding in carbon footprint reduction targets, there was no effort in the agreement to make the worst air quality offenders, India and China, responsible to reduce their footprints through a document that talked a good talk but had no real accountability for action.
- Nominated 3 constitutionalist judges for the Supreme Court, none who have proven to be activist judges for the Right. In spite of the claims of the hyperventilating Left, the first two to become justices seem to make decisions based on the constitution as written. Is there something to really be feared by that?
- And finally, a southern border wall is being built. Mexico has cooperated with stopping illegal immigration, turning back the caravans that flooded illegal immigrants into the US when Trump first took office. Illegal immigration has been significantly reduced and it is not because Trump hates immigrants. They need to come through the legal way and he wants to make that way easier and fairer through immigration reform but the Dems would not consider it. Most importantly, the efforts on the border have been part of the noble battle to reduce child and women sex slave trade and to halt the dangerous drug trade.
President Trump has accomplished all this while facing a literal coup and organized resistance from the day he was elected. This has been carried out by the FBI, DOJ, CIA, DNI, State Department, IRS, and many bureaucrats entrenched in the federal government And it was initiated with the approval and direction of former President Obama and VP Biden. Their own documents are now being released which prove this to be true. He has faced unprecedented resistance by news media of all types, big tech social media platforms, celebrities, billionaires and their $ billions, and coordinated Marxist Organizations. No president since Abraham Lincoln has faced the headwinds Trump has faced and is facing and yet he has accomplished more of his promises than any other in my memory of 12 campaigns.
Trump is a Republican by party but he has shown a willingness to negotiate for the betterment of the American people. Democrats could have had so much for their constituents had they been willing to sit at the adult table and negotiate. They would rather fight and waste time and resources to regain control and preserve their deep state. Democrat leaders have proven over the past 4 years that they care only about power and very little if any about the American people.
This all is why I will be voting for Trump. I’m voting for the “doctor” who has demonstrated the better skill and has kept his word to make us well again...even though he has the worst bedside manner.
(If you made it this far, thanks for reading!)
No comments:
Post a Comment