I didn’t go to the anti-Trump No Kings demonstration on Saturday, although I waved as I passed. I agree with the message, but I have my own way of protest.
We’re living in the midst of one of the biggest changes in United States history, but it seldom appears in my column that is supposed to be about things Close to Home. We see a lot of crisis and confrontation in the news, but here things seem pretty civilized.
We haven’t had masked secret police grabbing people off Bullard Street. The National Guard hasn’t been hanging out at Gough Park. Our partisan divides haven’t come out in city council elections. Our problems with homelessness aren’t much worse or better than anywhere else. We worry about the economy, but Grant County has no great depression or economic boom.
Is the good life going to last? Since last November, I have feared everything will fall apart. Inflation will go wild. The stock market will crash. Violence and chaos elsewhere will arrive here. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened. Yet.
But I’m going to list some of the reasons I’m concerned about the wealth, happiness and honor of our nation.
Trump has no expertise on energy, but is strongly opposed to free energy. He doesn’t like wind or solar, and is stopping projects that are already started and partially paid for. He’s enthusiastic about coal, even though it is generally recognized as the most expensive and dirty energy source. Basically, he is doing everything he can to increase electric prices.
You might argue for energy neutrality and oppose tax breaks for renewables. Let the market, rather than the president, decide what’s cheapest. If you do that, renewables win.
It’s expensive to build wind and solar infrastructure — which includes grid improvements and batteries or other energy storage. But after you build it, the energy is free. With coal, gas and oil, it’s expensive to build the infrastructure, and then you keep paying for the fuel.
China figured that out, and has gone in a short time from dirty energy pig to world leader in renewables and electric vehicles. If we continue on the Trump path, China is going to kick our butt. That’s just the economics — without worrying about the end of the world.
Moving on, Trump’s campaign against immigrants, even legal ones, is over the top. We need immigrants to harvest and process food (and much more). Republicans control both houses of Congress and the presidency. This is the time to pass legislation to regulate legal temporary foreign workers.
But no, we’re just going to get rid of them, no matter the cost. Trump is on the edge of war with Venezuela because their government is corrupt and illegitimate. At the same time, he’s deporting people who fled that government, with no distinction between gangs and victims.
I’m especially upset about Trump sending Afghans who fought with our armed forces back to the tender mercy of the Taliban. It’s dishonorable to break promises to the people who supported us. It’s also dangerous. Afghans beat the Russians, and then they beat us. We shouldn’t betray the ones who were on our side.
And then there are the tariffs. I’m paying higher prices for equipment I need for my business. It’s going to hit everyone eventually.
But what about the good things Trump has done? What about peace in the Middle East? I give Trump credit for getting the Israeli hostages released, but Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces haven’t changed their goals. The peace is already falling apart. Besides, everything he did could have been done a year ago. Ditto, Ukraine.
I could go on about what I don’t like about Trump: the congressional shutdown, gold baubles in the White House, the National Guard in Portland and Chicago, vindictive losing prosecutions, the George Santos pardon, the Jeffrey Epstein files.
My brother drives a truck, and talks to a lot of people in truck stops. He says many people who voted for Trump are now regretting it. I haven’t talked to any such people, but I assume they might include Midwest soybean farmers. China was their main market, but China now buys none from us and lots from Argentina and Brazil. Meanwhile, Trump bailed out Argentina with a $40 billion credit line.
I’m torn. I think Trump’s hold on Congress and his many supporters will end when his mistakes have a high cost for his supporters. But if it turns out that, after all, “you reap what you sow,” it’s going to hurt me and everyone else more than it’s going to hurt him.
