From 'Not Trump' to 'Why not Trump?' to 'Let's go, Trump'

I was not an early Trump supporter — as I said many times, I preferred Sen. Rubio — nor was I enamored with his adolescent behavior and thin skin during the campaigns.

I also don’t believe he shares my core values, but rather in the past has changed his beliefs to the advantage of his personal gain as a businessman. However, after he won the primary, I said on this page that we should give him a chance and see what he is able to accomplish ... certainly better than a future with a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Virtually all of the liberal media and a significant percentage of conservative pundits on FOX, sensing a Trump defeat, and trying to remain relevant in what they believed would be a certain Hillary presidency, joined the attack, belittling his rhetoric as well as his proposed policies. We were also warned that Trump better accept the results of the election (certain that it would be a Trump defeat) and warned that there might otherwise be rioting in the streets.

Instead, now that we have a President-elect Trump what do we see from our oh-so-reasonable left? Likely-Soros-funded riots and destruction, behavior that has become the hallmark of the left beginning in Ferguson, Missouri. Or perhaps you liberal wackos and conservative RINOs believe that thousands of people just magically materialized in areas of Washington, Portland, New York and several cities in California with pre-printed signs urging violence rather than the “peaceful transfer of power” all the liberals thought so important when they felt certain that their Hillary would win.

Add to this pathetic now-standard liberal behavior, the despicable statement of Harry Reid calling the next president, “a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled the campaign with bigotry and hate.” No, Harry, the one filled with bigotry and hate is you, a small man who has enriched himself and his family, trading on his government connections and who has lied over and over again to achieve his personal and political goals. Old Harry (he does not deserve the title of senator) is giving up his Senate seat and will hopefully melt into obscurity in his Nevada desert.

And I am tired of hearing how Hillary won the popular vote. Trump didn’t compete in California. Why should he? With the large influx of Latinos (and probably some illegals who through voter fraud were allowed to vote) the state hasn’t voted for a Republican president in nearly 30 years. But if one excludes California, Trump would have won the popular vote by over two million! And if one looks at the presidential vote by counties, the vast majority of the land mass of the United States voted for Trump, just not the heavily populated liberal bastions on the two coasts.

More importantly, what should President Trump’s first year look like legislatively. I have a few suggestions:

(1) Deport not jail all illegal felons. Why should we pay to house Mexico’s trash?

(2) Build a wall where it makes sense, fences and electronic surveillance where it does not, and if necessary, put troops on the border instead of in Germany and South Korea. Enforce E-Verify and reform the visa system — if you do not return home when your visa expires you are deported and not allowed to return. Expand our legal immigration programs.

(3) Get rid of most of Obamacare (especially the name) and keep pre-existing conditions and perhaps children to age 26 (since the precious snowflakes don’t seem to be able to get their own insurance in this bustling Obama recovery ... just cars, flat-screen TVs and iPhones!). Set up Health Savings Accounts, allow insurance purchases across state lines, foster inexpensive catastrophic coverage and take care of the poor at Community Health Centers with supplements from block grants of Medicaid to states rather than federal programs.

(4) Eliminate the IRS and the arcane thousands of pages of tax codes. Have a simple three-tiered federal income-tax system and eliminate most deductions, leaving a few like mortgage interest up to a certain amount to help the middle class not those purchasing multi-million dollar estates. Allow businesses to return their overseas profit accounts at a modest tax and reduce corporate tax while eliminating corporate loopholes and deductions.

5) Get the Fed out of our stock market and allow interest rates to gradually recover, giving seniors a chance to earn some interest on their savings without risking it in the crap shoot that is Wall Street.

(6) Expand fossil fuel development and get the EPA and the global warming nuts out of our energy production by gutting the EPA and returning their mandate back to clean air and water.

(7) Though some prices might increase, renegotiate trade deals, assuring fairness and tough penalties for intellectual property theft and threaten tariffs on those who cheat (just the threat should do it).

(8) Work with Israel to tear up the Iran deal and impose new sanctions, though that ship has probably already sailed, with the Europeans looking to make money with their new BFF, the Ayatollah.

(9) Finally, he should repeal many of Obama’s harmful executive orders and accept no compromise in appointing truly conservative justices to the Supreme Court. No more Kennedys ... only Scalias.

Will he accomplish all the above? Unlikely. A few would be nice. I am hopeful, but not convinced it will happen.

I am glad that Mr. Zinke was reelected by a wide margin and saddened that Mr. Gianforte lost the governorship to a typical politician, Steve Bullock. The state had a chance to move ahead and the people failed to act. We are left with an empty suit governor, surprisingly one of only 15 Democrat governors in the country. Shame on us.

In closing, let me remind my liberal friends of a famous statement in 2009 by a newly elected President Obama, “Elections have consequences.” Quit whining!

Myerowitz is a resident of Columbia Falls.