During Friday’s inauguration, we witnessed a few firsts for the country. President Donald Trump was sworn into office as the first man to become president without any government or military background. He’s the oldest president ever sworn into office. His inauguration speech, which was written by someone else, was the first time that many of us ever saw him stick to a speech and not ramble on incoherently.
Regardless, it was nice to hear a normal speech from Trump before he actually walked into the Oval Office. Obviously, there was lot said that I and the majority of Americans didn’t agree with. I was just happy to hear a speech from President Trump that had a point to it.
Of course, that’s just leading to the part of this where I point out that I feel no more confidence in him than I had when I first learned of his campaign.
As his supporters likely hoped for, he maintained his campaign themes. The U.S. is supposed be the best country on Earth, someone has stolen its glory, and he is going to restore it.
His administration will put an end to the perceived apocalypse that has loomed on the horizon United States since the 20th century, and make the middle class stronger than ever. As with the campaign, the solution was to always put America’s goals ahead of the rest of the world’s. On the face of it, there really isn’t anything wrong with that.
Scratching past the surface though, it’s not all great.
Firstly, this speech was not unifying, and unity concerns everyone. People know that there are problems with the United States, but presenting the country as this dystopia where nobody is safe is not helpful. We won’t accomplish much if everyone thinks that it is them against the world.
The fact is that America has problems and we can solve them. We are not on the brink of apocalypse.
Secondly, while towards the end of the speech (which become surprisingly poetic) he talked about the future, he spent a portion talking about bringing jobs and factories back to the U.S. and getting people working again. Basically, he talked about returning America to what it has been in the past.
The problem with that is that unemployment is already significantly lower than he seems to imply. Our economy is already stronger than it was eight years ago.
It’s a little dangerous to assume that all our problems will be solved by bringing back factory jobs. While it’s possible, bringing them back by force would probably do more damage to our economy than simply recognizing that we aren’t a factory economy anymore.
We need to understand that, while it’s not bad to produce in America, we simply aren’t competitive. Other countries can provide lower wage labor, no matter what we do. There are jobs in America, they just aren’t factory jobs anymore.
Of course, these are simple criticisms. Frankly, this speech probably wouldn’t gather much criticism if someone else were giving it.
Ignore my criticisms of these plans, that’s fine. I can’t know for sure whether or not they are going to work (an in the interest of America, I hope they do).
The fact remains that Donald Trump is a bad person. His first speech inspired no sense of security in me. I was one of the many who paid attention during his campaign, one of many that doesn’t understand how he was electable. Anyone who believes that sexual harassment, prejudice, and lying to the country is acceptable behavior is not worth respecting.
