As of Friday morning, it certainly looks like we’re heading for at least two years of — well, not much. And while that’s not the best outcome for President Trump and his supporters, it’s far from the worst.
Several key states are still up in the air, but Joe Biden’s numbers only keep looking better while Trump’s keep shrinking. But even if and when Biden is victorious, it certainly looks like a Republican Senate, or at worst a 50-50 Senate controlled by West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, will be there to keep him in check and he’ll be all but politically paralyzed.
Biden will probably nominate some left-of-center judges to the judiciary, maybe he’ll even get one on the Supreme Court to replace an aging liberal justice. But that’s about it.
And Trump’s presidency was by every measure a success, even if it’s cut off at one term. (At least he wasn’t removed early, though that wasn’t for Democrats trying!) Its impact is set to last for at least a generation. The president most recently sealed that with the successful confirmation of his third Supreme Court nomination. No other Republican president would have had the stones to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, but Trump did it. With the election approaching, Democrats found themselves on the defensive.
Earlier, he stood by now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh when it would have been easy to abandon him under relentless fire from Democrats and the media — some weak-willed Republicans, in fact, did abandon him.
The GOP establishment in Washington has long advocated for yet more low-skilled immigrants to flood the country, rapidly changing our neighborhoods, schools, and culture. Trump, with the support of millions of voters, succeeded in cutting the growth of immigration by two-thirds, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. On top of that, the Trump administration built 400 miles of new walls at the Southern border — a project that no Republicans in leadership seriously cared about until the president made it a priority.
Trump did not involve America in any new wars — he is the first president you can say that about in at least 30, perhaps 40 years. Yet, still, he made a point of strengthening our military.
Until Trump became president, our allies sat fat and happy knowing that we would always be there to save them on our own dime. For the first time in far too long, Trump made them begin carrying their weight in keeping North America and Western Europe safe from Russian aggression.
Trump forced Washington to confront “free trade” as something that doesn’t live up to its name for everyone. It’s not “free trade” when the U.S. ensures a minimum wage and safe working conditions for us, while Mexico and China allow sweatshops to remain the norm in the 21st century. The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement improved on that.
Speaking of China, it wasn’t always taken for granted by our leaders that China is an existential threat to the U.S. Because of Trump, now it is.
I’m skeptical it’ll last, but the Trump administration has also brokered peace deals in the Middle East — something presidents have been trying to do for decades.
That’s quite a list. Trump might very well be a one-term president, but he put a lasting mark on his country and on his party. And the mark is good.
