By STAN ESCUDERO
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. -- Today our new president, Donald John Trump, delivered a fiercely nationalistic statement reaffirming his campaign promises, informing foreign foes and allies that under his leadership the United States will deal from a position of strength, and leaving no doubt that his government will reflect his populist movement.
Seeing their Marxist dreams flushed away, the libiots of the Democrat Left are predictably attacking the president’s inaugural speech as tyrannical, even “Hitlerian”. Coming off eight years of an imperial socialist president who ruled their way - largely by decree - the Left can perhaps be forgiven for fearing that they are about to get some of their own medicine.
Speaking personally, I was delighted to see Obama sitting quietly to one side as President Trump promised to blow away virtually everything Obama had accomplished over the past two terms. Talk about Karma!
Reaching out to all, our new president also called out to the inner cities, promising their mainly black populations, who have suffered under their hero Obama, that their lives would also be improved under his leadership. His recognition of the need for national unity and his promise that he will help all Americans is the essence of good leadership. But he also made it perfectly plain that our nation’s renaissance will take place on his terms. By listing the nation’s problems and his solutions for them, in effect he said, “Liberals, do you remember all my campaign promises? I meant every word of them.”
To the rest of the world, President Trump stressed that America will look first to its own national interests and well being, as any well-run nation should. To be effective in foreign affairs we must first rebuild our military and economic capacities – and we will. Those who seek help from us must be prepared to carry their fair share of the burden. But this was not an isolationist sentiment. That should be evident to ISIS, which he promised to eradicate from the face of the earth. That bespeaks active military/political/economic involvement along with allies. This is hardly isolationist. It connotes a wise recognition that the United States cannot and should not be the world’s policeman; rather it must choose its battles carefully.
Reaching out to all, our new president also called out to the inner cities, promising their mainly black populations, who have suffered under their hero Obama (shown here during President Trump's inauguration address), that their lives would also be improved under his leadership. His recognition of the need for national unity and his promise that he will help all Americans is the essence of good leadership. But he also made it perfectly plain that our nation’s renaissance will take place on his terms. By listing the nation’s problems and his solutions for them, in effect he said, “Liberals, do you remember all my campaign promises? I meant every word of them.”
To the rest of the world, President Trump stressed that America will look first to its own national interests and well being, as any well-run nation should. To be effective in foreign affairs we must first rebuild our military and economic capacities – and we will. Those who seek help from us must be prepared to carry their fair share of the burden. But this was not an isolationist sentiment. That should be evident to ISIS, which he promised to eradicate from the face of the earth. That bespeaks active military/political/economic involvement along with allies. This is hardly isolationist. It connotes a wise recognition that the United States cannot and should not be the world’s policeman; rather it must choose its battles carefully.
There are foreign policy adjustments to be made in Washington and abroad. Under Donald Trump the U.S, is already regaining some of the stature and respect it lost under Barack Obama but it will be some time before all of the complexities involved are played out.
At the core of his address was reassurance to his supporters that the populist candidate they elected is exactly the President who will govern.
Donald John Trump is not an ordinary president and his inaugural address was equally extraordinary. He consciously drew a line in the sand and Mr. Trump is a president who will honor his red lines. He attacked the national political establishment, Democrat and Republican alike, for losing contact with and failing to support the people who, in this country, are sovereign. No globalist he, but a true, red-blooded American, the president emphasized and re-emphasized that his policy will always be “America First”. He, and for at least the next four years the government, are on the side of the people. Those who wish to cross to his side of the line are welcome. Those who do not must seek accommodation as best they can.
The direction the country will follow under our new president was made clear even if the great mass of the specifics of governance have yet, unavoidably, to be addressed. The heart of his testament was patriotism and the core of his assurance to the nation was that “government of the people, by the people and for the people” HAS NOT “vanished from the earth.”
For the past eight years and more, our nation has been in need of a government which would take stock of itself, of the many sacred cows of Washington, and of the foreign and domestic policies which have been set in concrete over the decades since 1945 with a view to eliminating those that no longer work and either reforming or replacing them with ones that meet the requirements of the American people in the 21st century. Finally, we have a government in Washington which promises to do exactly that. Now it remains to be seen how those promises are kept.