Whether you miss the “Old Time Conventions” the political parties stage every four years or not, they are gone. Last week’s Democratic gathering was a virtual thing. As a Democrat myself, just let me say it was not a very inspiring event. The speeches were flat and nothing new was said. Our platform is to undo everything Trump did in his first four years and take the country back to the wonder years of Obama.

I see the continuation of a sickening trend at this point. Is the country simply going to go back and forth of doing and setting up policies and programs by executive decrees and then electing someone else to take office and kill the previous decrees by their own decrees. It seems the Trump years were spent trying to nullify “Obama Care” and other socialistic ideas. It makes me wonder if this is wise.

America has always embraced “progressive” ideas and ideals but are we wanting to pay taxes to make them come alive? Since the days of Franklin Roosevelt, it is the way we have gone. Who can say the social security act was bad? Not me. Yet it has caused large tax increases and criticism over its long life. And we need to remember that Social Security was phased in. Slowly. We need to remember this. Also, if we Americans want to increase these programs then let it be decided at the ballot box. Not by executive orders.

This week the Republicans do their thing. Not much either party can do (in my opinion) in these “Virtual” conventions to win an election. However, when you get down to it this next election comes down to a referendum on Donald Trump. Never (except for Reagan) has anyone been elected on a platform of plain old conservatism. This time, Trump wanted some “patriotic” things. More respect for our flag and our religious foundations. He promised to rebuild our military—which he said Obama had placed on the back seat. He promised to obliterate Obamacare and many other programs Obama had installed. In fact, Trump promised a whole lot of things. Let us have a look.

He promised to build a big wall between Mexico and the U.S. Well, he sure did—most of it. But he was not able to make Mexico pay for it. But in general, most Americans sort of liked the wall. Trump also promised to never take a vacation. But he did. My grandpa J.T. Bullard hated Eisenhower because he played golf “all the time” and according to him, “the taxpayers are not paying him $25,000 a year to play golf.” But alas. Trump has been caught playing golf several times. My favorite promise he made was “I’ll take that army deserter Bowe Bergdahl up in an airplane and throw him out without a parachute.” He never did that. That, I would have enjoyed seeing.

Trump promised never to take a vacation and I do not think that worked out either. His promise to not take a paycheck, he honored. But I did not think too much on that. He is a billionaire. His promise to not take any more guff off China and bring jobs back home worked out well but Democrats did not like it. Ending other multilateral agreements with foreign governments also created a stir but again, his supporters (the core) praised him. He did rebuild, as promised, our armed forces and, as he promised, the economy went crazy with unemployment virtually vanishing. Trump claims “no one ever did so much for minorities.” Well, that was in dispute. Big time. And the Stock Market reached new highs every year. Well—that happened. Could not dispute that. It was in the papers and everywhere.

Fortunately for my Democrats, the Pandemic arrived. Just in time. The economy took a nosedive. Unemployment shot up and OTEFA was able to move in and create race riots, arson, and other lawlessness across the plains. The blame? All on Trump. Many of Trumps achievements were swept away and now he is lagging in the polls. A whole bunch.

Have a good week and go to church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard,

DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com