Trump Gold

            I had an interesting guest at my home this past week, a niece I hadn’t seen in over 15 years. She lives in California now and is defined by it. She loves California living, even as she bemoans the high taxes, the cost of housing, and the homeless who can’t afford either. Like so many of her neighbors, she loved Obama, voted for Hillary, and hates Trump. In her opinion, the President’s relations with Russia are treasonous, even though she can’t support her position with facts.

            Actually, her antipathy for Donald Trump dates back several years when she was working in New York and met with him in Trump Towers on two separate occasions. She told me how she had been repulsed by the opulence of his residence, to the point of even refusing to use the gold toilet in the powder room. A spunky young woman, she must have impressed Mr. Trump, because he offered her a job. She turned him down.

            Now we have retired Vice-Admiral Robert Harward refusing President Trump’s offer to replace the disgraced Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor. The reason for the turndown, according to the buzz on the street, is that he was told he couldn’t pick his own staff. That doesn’t sound like the Donald Trump who has insisted repeatedly that his picks for top jobs would have a great deal of independence in running their departments. Was the President being insincere when he made those assurances, or is someone else in his entourage calling the shots?

            I voted for Trump and I support most of his policies. But I worry that he is not showing strong leadership in resolving the impasse on taxes and health care, and I fear that his lack of experience in foreign affairs may not provide an effective response to North Korean, Russian, Chinese, and Iranian provocations.          

            Among President Trump’s best qualities is his ability to surround himself with great people. The events of the past week have begun to cast doubt on that ability. But there’s hope that they were nothing more than a hiccup.

            There’s also hope in California: my niece has announced she is moving to Nevada.

           

             

What Manners?

            I grew up in a family that placed a value on good manners. As a boy, I was taught to keep my elbows off the dinner table, to take my hat off in a restaurant, to hold the door open for a lady, and never to curse. But there was more: we were taught that respect and civility were marks of a cultured people. Class, my dad insisted, was not defined so much by knowing the difference between a salad fork and a pitchfork, but more by courtesy, kindness, and modesty.

            It would appear that many people never learned, or have conveniently forgotten, basic lessons in proper behavior in a civilized society. Or maybe they were taught different lessons. Where, we might ask, did the women marchers in Washington learn to wear hats suggestive of a vagina? Who taught the hysterical mobs that shouting “Nazi” and “Fascist” at Trump supporters and pasting four-letter words on their placards are acceptable forms of expression? Who said that students encouraging black-clad and masked thugs to break windows, trash cars, and light fires is a sanctioned form of protest?

            Of course, President Trump’s intemperate tweets are no model of decorum, nor are Senate Democrats’ despicable assaults on the character of presidential appointees. Elsewhere, Steve Bannon was certainly being uncivil when he told the media to “Just keep your mouths shut,” but then the media returned the favor with lustful retorts of their own? Didn’t these people have parents to teach them manners?

            Freedom of speech is a cherished right protected by our Constitution. But people who abuse that right with vulgarity, slander, boorishness, and civil unrest debase themselves, our society, and our culture.

Forever Blowing Bubbles

            We often hear that people live in bubbles. This is particularly true of the Left: the intelligentia, academia, Hollywood, snowflakes, and a significant portion of the mainstream media. I think it was Pauline Kael film critic of The NewYorker who once said she couldn’t understand why Richard Nixon was elected president, because she didn’t know a single soul who had voted for him. She definitely lived in a bubble.

            Here’s another example. The cover story of the January-February issue of The Atlantic was a 22-page mini biography of Barack Obama entitled, “My President Was Black” by a fellow named Ta-Nehisi Coates. As one might imagine, the article was totally one-sided in promoting Obama to nothing short of sainthood, while beating up on whites, especially those who voted for Trump. “For eight years Barack Obama walked on ice and never fell.” Nary a mention of the multiple scandals of his administration nor of his catastrophic domestic and foreign policies. The best word I can come up with to describe the piece is “emetic.”

            I was interested in the responses to this article in the following March issue of The Atlantic. Sure enough, the letter-writers were gushing in their compliments for Coates’s work; one went so far as to describe Trump voters as “the worst monsters that humans can conjure up.”

            Speaking of monsters, what really caught my eye was a boxed feature of the answers to a question asked of the magazine’s readers, “Who is the worst leader of all time?” The top vote-getter, No. 1, was Adolph Hitler. OK. It’s not hard to argue with that pick. Now I’ll skip to No. 3, Napoleon Bonaparte. Really? Napoleon was one of the greatest military leaders in history and a marvelous administrator. Maybe I’m biased because of my French ancestry. Incidentally, my grandfather was named Louis-Napoleon, and his first-born son, my godfather, was christened Napoleon. Obviously, my ancestors didn’t think Napoleon was that bad.

            No. 4 on the list is Nicholas II of Russia, a leader who was replaced by a Communist regime. But Joseph Stalin, a monster who killed over 20 million of his people does not make the list, nor does Mao, another famous Communist who exterminated untold millions. No. 5 is Neville Chamberlin. What? The readers couldn’t find anyone else in the history of the world that was worse than Neville Chamberlin? Incredible.

            But what is even more incredible is the man in the No. 2 spot. Yes, I did skip this slot for effect. Because it proves my point about the people in the Left’s bubble. Are you ready for this? Sit down. The readers’ pick for the second worst leader of all time is none other than George W. Bush.

            ‘Nuf said.

A Genuine Political Revolution

       The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States has sent shock waves through the European Union, and his inaugural speech has energized the movement of anti-establishment political parties in Europe.
       On January 21, the day after the inauguration, leaders of these parties from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Austria met in Koblenz to discuss and plan political strategies to mobilize disillusioned voters in those countries.
       Brexit was the first crack in European unity. There is sure to be more to come.

Unemployed and Unemployable

            It’s awfully difficult to make sense of some numbers. How, for instance, can the official unemployment rate be 4.7%, which indicates the country is close to full employment, when the labor participation rate is under 63%, the lowest in 40 years? The answer is that millions of people of working age have stopped looking for work. But then the Wall Street Journal reports that 44% of small businesses can’t find qualified applicants for job openings.

            Two possible explanations: 1) people who have stopped looking for a job don’t live where companies have job openings, and 2) too many would-be applicants lack even the most rudimentary skills to fill those jobs.

            Some have suggested that people who live in depressed areas that have no jobs and little hope of attracting new businesses should move. But that’s hardly a solution for people who have deep roots in their communities or lack the resources to relocate.

            Government job retraining programs, many overlapping and redundant, have not proven to be effective and are bound to be slashed by an Administration looking to cut costs. On-the-job training by companies is growing, but it is too often a costly and desperate solution, and inadequate for the huge numbers of potential workers with little or no skills.

            The focus, it seems to me, must be on education. The highest percentage of unemployed is among 16 to 24-year-olds. Too many of them never graduated high school. Even many who did were never taught the skills needed to enter the workplace. Some can’t even fill out an application properly. Test scores of American kids in Math, Science, and English, compared to those in other developed countries, is a national scandal.

            Let’s face it. The worst-performing schools are in urban areas with a high concentration of minority students. Yet, organizations like the NAACP and ultra-liberal mayors like New York’s Bill de Blasio oppose proven solutions like school choice, charter schools, and vouchers. Meanwhile, teacher unions will do anything to protect their public-school turf, even in the face of catastrophic results.

            My hope is that Betsy DeVos, upon confirmation as Secretary of Education, will be able to shake up the education establishment, in spite of obdurate opposition from union-funded Democrats and some misguided Republicans.