“What’s in a name? That which we call
a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
That is what
Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet and that classic line comes to mind every
time I hear my fellow citizens who are Trump supporters recite all the
blessings the Trump administration bestows on us: the upbeat economy, the
record Wall Street performance, the cutbacks in regulatory burden, and the more
assertive way in which America is confronting challenges from China, North Korea
and Iran.
The analogy
is imperfect – like most analogies are – but the point is that these blessings
could have been and would have been bestowed upon America if we had had a
different, or should I say ‘real’, Republican in the White House. In other words,
the reality is that if the GOP had nominated someone else than Donald J. Trump
in 2016, the rose would have smelt as sweet (and there would be a lot less
acrimony in the land).
It is water
under the bridge, because the elections of 2016 have given us what we have
today, but it is good to realize that in two years we have a new choice to make
and maybe this time the voters will take character, experience and competency into
consideration.
America
could have enjoyed a strong economy and stock market performance, stimulated by
close scrutiny and pruning of unnecessarily burdensome regulations, without
disregard of the growing inequality between privileged and underprivileged
citizens; without disregard of the looming national debt explosion; without
disregard of the contributions immigrants make to the vitality of our economy; without
disregard of the scientific evidence of global warming; and without a zero-sum
approach to the trade relations America enjoys with other nations.
With respect
to foreign policy, America could have solidified its global position of
leadership and strength without alienating its traditional allies; without giving
up on the liberal order America itself established following World war II;
without bluff and bluster in lieu of carefully crafted and strategically
focused diplomacy; and without a zero-sum approach to friend or foe
relationships with powerful contenders for world hegemony, particularly the EU,
China and Russia.
In both
domains, the domestic and international environment, chances are that a real
Republican (I call it ‘my kind of Republican’) would have better advanced
America’s interest than the nativist, populist, narcissist person the Electoral
College placed into the White House in 2017. In the first place, any 45th
President would have enjoyed the fruits of the Obama era policies that brought
the strength of our economy back coming out of the recession of 2008. Job
creation was as strong in the last two years of the Obama administration as it
has been in the first two years of the Trump reign.
Equities are
now enjoying their ninth year of a record strong bull market, a trend that
started long before Donald J. Trump was even running for office. The Trump tax
bill, may have spurred the market to new heights, but how long is it going to
be before the resulting deficit increases will start hurting the prospects for
the future, for Wall Street as well as Main Street? Any President will always
take credit for a booming economy and will always be blamed for a failing one,
but how much of the up or down is really directly attributable to the actions or
omissions of the person in the Oval Office?
Arguably,
the economy could easily have been stronger and more sustainably growing if it
was not for the misguided Trump policies that stand in the way of free trade,
smart and compassionate immigration, fiscal restraint and entitlement reform.
Does anybody
believe that, if the GOP had nominated my kind of Republican rather than the
imposter who bullied himself up onto the platform in 2016, America would not
have enjoyed, at least for the time being, the relative prosperity the nation
as a whole experiences? My kind of Republican would have taken advantage of the
favorable economic conditions by beginning to solve some of the problems that
the predecessors have failed to address, like the out of control national debt,
our crumbling infrastructure, our unfunded entitlements, our defense against
cyber threats and the consequences of global warming and, most of all, our
ever-increasing inequality in income and wealth.
The Clinton
administration has rightly been chastised for squandering the post-cold war
prosperity by not reinvesting in the American people and infrastructure and, rather than praising Trump for the superficial and unevenly divided prosperity
of today, he should be chastised for not making hay while the sun shines. Is it
coincidental that both Presidents have exhibited serious character flaws and
struggles with morality?
My kind of Republican
would have joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a constructive counterweight
to the Chinese influence in Asia; called Mexico and Canada to the table to
review, after almost 25 years, how NAFTA could be strengthened; stayed with the
Paris Climate accord and the Iran Nuclear Deal; and called our NATO partners to
the table to reassess the mission and the burden sharing formula for the
defense of Western Alliance. My kind of Republican would have done all of that
in a collegial, non-threatening, way, confident in America’s soft power and
guided by the belief that the world is better off with an alliance of all
democracies, lead by a strong, principled and disciplined United States of
America.
That which
we call America would be greater if the name plate on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW said something else than Donald J. Trump.
