LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Trump has avoided trappings of 'elite politician'

As we enter the home stretch of the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, the hysteria, nonsense and abject hatred shown our new president are unprecedented and a precursor to the dangers our society has not seen since the ’60s. He won the election. Now, give him a chance to initiate, negotiate, fulfill, and enact his campaign promises. If he doesn’t do what he promised, cast a different ballot in 2018; however, until that point in time, give the man a fighting chance. Mr. Trump is not one of our elite politicians who’ve made a career of enticing the citizens of this country with words, promises and programs they knew could never be delivered because of their eventual cost or societal implications. Who drained the Social Security fund, enacted more and more government entitlement programs, passed a health care law that is nothing more than the precursor to a single-payer system (and more entitlements!), and would open the doors of this magnificent country of ours to anyone, and more dangerously, create the concept of a sanctuary city/state? This past November, enough Americans voted to change the life of the elite politician, and now, both Democrat and Republican politicians are running scared. Good. For far too many years, the elite politician has found unique and sometimes dangerous ways to give the American population more, creating programs and promulgating regulations that control more and more of our daily lives. Unfortunately, it has created a society of individuals who feel “entitled” to receiving government funding/support. While we need to be concerned about those who are less fortunate, can we justify, especially after spending hundreds of billions on welfare, education, and health care, allowing the third and fourth generations of families to remain on government programs? What happened to personal responsibility and individual accountability? Obama was owned by the left wing of the Democratic Party, and for eight long years, foolishly led our country down the merry path of socialism. Our current president is beholden to no special interest groups and no expensive lobbyists, only to the American citizens who voted for him. Just look at what he’s accomplished, or tried to accomplish, in his first months. Has it been smooth sailing? No. However, he’s done exactly what he said he would do. How many of our elite politicians, using their wonderfully flowery language, have done that? The Fourth Estate and most news organizations have totally abdicated their role as the non-partisan voice of the American public. How many news organizations start their broadcasts or commentaries with anything but a negative tone about the president? Now, they are even promoting the possibility of violence, indicating it would be the fault of the president. Their function in our society is not to interject their partisan political beliefs into what they report, but rather, report the news from an objective perspective. Sadly, that is not happening. To that end, the new president is not helping himself by picking fights with them, but again, he isn’t the flowery-speaking elite politician who can speak out of both sides of his/her mouth, with each side saying something different. Making matters worse, we now have the judicial branch of our government entering the political fray. Their meddling in politics is extremely dangerous to the fabric of our society. Their function is to rule on the validity of the application of the law, not interject their personal beliefs. What happens to our form of government when the judicial branch enters the policy arena and obfuscates the concept of separation of powers as outlined in the Constitution? Maybe it’s time to debate the issue of appointing judges for life and term limits for members of Congress. I see the absolute fracture of the American public over political ideology, and ask, what happened to making the interests of the United States first? People and politicians are so afraid of losing either their government checks or cushy political positions (power), that violence has become the norm of protesting. Government buildings, private property, and personal property have become the targets of protesters who believe it’s OK to destroy while protesting. Obama’s enforcement of the hands-off policy by the police created this nightmare, and I am convinced our new president will quickly reverse the policy. NO ONE has the right to violently protest; once you cross that line, you are a criminal and should pay a criminal’s price. For everyone out there who has written, or continues to think, that President Trump is not their president, wake up and smell the coffee. He isn’t a Carper, a Coons, a Blunt Rochester or a Carney, all of whom are owned by the special interest groups (New Castle County) who fund their campaigns. Instead, he is a businessman who turned the political world of people like Carper, Coons, Blunt Rochester, and Carney upside down. He exposed their faults to the American public, bypassing the major broadcasters and White House reporters, speaking directly to the American public. You may not like him, and he definitely has his faults, but the message he sends is loud and clear: be honest with the American public. That is a trait forgotten by our elite politicians, and now, they are scrambling with language that will include anything and everything possible to bring him down. For those of us who voted for the president, we cannot and will not allow that to happen, as the cost to this great nation of ours is too great.

Frank Daniels Retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel Dover