President Trump walks out to speak at a “Keep America Great Rally” at U.S. Bank Arena on Thursday in Cincinnati. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Your garage is intended as the storage place for your car. For many of us, it becomes the storage place of everything we no longer have use for in our homes. Raise your hand with me if there’s no longer enough room in your garage for your vehicle. Cleaning out the junk from time to time is a good and necessary thing.
Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, without mentioning Joe Biden by name, was a rhetorical cleaning out of the nation’s garage. Junk policies, which have served the nation poorly, are being swept away. Open borders, limits on energy exploration, electric car mandates, the green new deal, rising crime, failed responses to natural disasters, diversity equity and inclusion, gender identity – none of those policies have served our nation well. And our new president said, as quickly as he can, he’ll sweep them away.
President Trump is correct to move forward aggressively. None of the ideas he presented yesterday are surprises. Trump campaigned on them, and he won majorities in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. And political power is perishable. Trump arrives in office with small but manageable majorities in Congress. That is just a few special elections away from changing. Midterm elections two years from now are unknowable. The time for Trump to move his agenda is immediately.
His opponents will criticize Trump for a sledgehammer speech: everything for his supporters, little or no consolation for his opponents. And why should he? His political opponents were unprecedented in trying to deny him the office he now holds. They tried dubious impeachment cases, twice. They tried to tarnish him with a partisan January 6th commission. They tried to keep his name off the ballot in several states. A federal special prosecutor dogged him. A novel state accounting case may have tagged Trump as a felon, but ultimately didn’t bear the fruit they were hoping for. Even an assassin’s bullet failed.
Donald Trump’s second term will be different. Would the Washington Post dare re-start its lie counter? Only if they are tone-deaf to public opinion. Will the mainstream media be as unfair as they were before? Only if they want to alienate their ever-shrinking audience. Will members of Trump’s own party work against him? Not if they intend to run for and keep the offices they hold now. Oh, for sure, there will be country club Republicans, but their voices have faded to irrelevance.
For Donald Trump the time is now. Time to deliver the goods that were promised.
Chris Conley
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