Has Trump done anything good?

[mahagonny]

Easy answer: yes. He has opposed lunacy. Not because he is exceptional, but just because he can see the obvious.

If I may, I will post a quotation from a NewYork Post article. I know you may not think it's a great newspaper, but it's a mover and shaker in our culture, so ignore it at your own peril.     https://nypost.com/2020/07/16/obscene-federal-diversity-training-scam-prospers-even-under-trump/

"Critical race theory — the far-left academic discourse centered on the concepts of "whiteness," "white fragility" and "white privilege" — is coursing through the federal government's veins. Under a GOP ­administration, no less.

'Last month, a private diversity-consulting firm conducted a training titled "Difficult Conversations About Race in Troubling Times" for several federal agencies. The training called on white employees at the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller to pledge "allyship [sic] amid the ­George Floyd Tragedy."

According to a trove of whistleblower documents I've reviewed, the training begins with the premise that "virtually all white people contribute to racism" and hold narratives that "don't support the dismantling of racist institutions." Therefore, the trainers argue, white federal employees must "struggle to own their racism" and "invest in race-based growth."

The trainers then ask "white managers" to create "safe spaces," where black employees can explain "what it means to be black" and to be "seen in their pain." White staffers are instructed to keep silent and to "sit in the discomfort" of their racism. If any conflicts arise, the trainers ­insist that whites "don't get to decide when someone is being too emotional, too rash [or] too mean." Whites are told they can't protest if a person of color "responds to their oppression in a way [they] don't like."'

President Trump's response (according to this article: https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/10/20/top-down_white_penitence_is_shaking_up_the_workplace_125684.html

"Trump's order, which goes into effect Nov. 21, has wide reach. It applies to all federal contractors, which includes many universities, nonprofits and businesses. But the White House was already moving against anti-racism activities before the executive order. When Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber issued a letter in September declaring that anti-black racism is spread deeply throughout the Ivy League school, the Trump Education Department evidently called Princeton's bluff by treating the mea culpa literally – announcing an investigation under federal anti-discrimination law.'

And from https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-race-sex-stereotyping/

excerpt, the Executive Order:

"Thanks to the courage and sacrifice of our forebears, America has made significant progress toward realization of our national creed, particularly in the 57 years since Dr. King shared his dream with the country.

Today, however, many people are pushing a different vision of America that is grounded in hierarchies based on collective social and political identities rather than in the inherent and equal dignity of every person as an individual. This ideology is rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors; and that racial and sexual identities are more important than our common status as human beings and Americans.'

Right on Mr. President. Of course President Biden will immediately rescind the order. But wouldn't it be interesting if he didn't? He nearly got his head handed to him during the debates for working with segregationists of the other party in some fashion... at the time I was certain I'd vote for Joe. I thought, 'yeah he puts his foot in his mouth, but racist? I sorta doubt it.
We live in interesting times.

[Parasaurolophus]

If you read the actual text of the order, you'll see that it's straight-up government censorship. So, no, I wouldn't count that as a good thing. The free speech brigade has been conspicuously silent on this front.

The First Step Act was a mostly good, if insufficient thing. I don't think he deserves much of the credit for it, but he did sign it.

[Hegemony]

Well, my own opinion is that if this country has traditionally erred in either paying too much attention to racism, or too little, the answer is" too little.  Of course it would be white people who insist that the answer is "too much." Ask some people who are targeted by racism, and I think they will have a different answer. And their answer counts too.

[mamselle]

Re: question in the title:  I imagine we'll soon have a plebiscite ruling on that; I suspect in the negative.

M.

[ergative]

I've been thinking this week that if Obama's justice department had launched a similar anti-trust case against Big Tech as the one Barr announced this week, I would probably be in favor of it.

[mamselle]

But one can't help suspecting "the right thing for the wrong reason, " as Eliot put it.

Somewhere back in there is a stock investment interest, campaign donation potential, or both... (Transparency: I once worked at Oracle, Larry E's political proclivities were well-known).

M.

[downer]

But one can't help suspecting "the right thing for the wrong reason, " as Eliot put it.

Somewhere back in there is a stock investment interest, campaign donation potential, or both... (Transparency: I once worked at Oracle, Larry E's political proclivities were well-known).

M.

Exactly. On a Kantian view, one has to have the right intentions. Trump personally only cares about himself, so he never acts well.

One might suspect the same about many politicians -- they seek power and personal gain, and their political actions are just instrumental to that end. But they do end up doing some good anyway, to become popular. Trump's instrumental approach is to cater to the rich and nationalists, so again he won't be doing any good.

Any good that comes of the last 4 years of presidential mismanagement and corruption is just accidental, a side effect of something else. There's no "doing."

[writingprof]

'Last month, a private diversity-consulting firm conducted a training titled "Difficult Conversations About Race in Troubling Times" for several federal agencies.

The trainers then ask "white managers" to create "safe spaces," where black employees can explain "what it means to be black" and to be "seen in their pain."

"Difficult conversations" is one of those buzz-phrases that alert the listener that malarkey is forthcoming.  (Thanks for breathing new life into the m-word, Joe.)  The phrase "be seen in their pain," meanwhile, is such meaningless, passive-aggressive psycho-babble that the earth should simply open up and consume whomever uses it. 

[polly_mer]

Well, my own opinion is that if this country has traditionally erred in either paying too much attention to racism, or too little, the answer is" too little.  Of course it would be white people who insist that the answer is "too much." Ask some people who are targeted by racism, and I think they will have a different answer. And their answer counts too.

No one ever reads the whole background story on the situation that prompted the Executive Order. 

A muckraker report (but factually correct based on reports from my colleagues at Sandia): https://christopherrufo.com/national-nuclear-laboratory-training-on-white-privilege-and-white-male-culture/

A web search for the program listed turns up several more local articles in various places, including Seattle, indicating that these programs have been problematic for several years, but now stuff hit the fan because a government contractor spend good money on these activities and it became public.

If the goal is to reduce racism, then the types of programs being discarded are not at all helping, although, yes, the Executive Order is much too broadly written and the lawyers for the national labs are already pushing back for clarification.  The targeted programs are caricatures (although real in this case) that educated people generally say something along the lines of "No one is stating that all white males everywhere in the US are bad people just by going about their daily lives.  The term 'white privilege' does not mean that all white people are so privileged at the expense of all other people that merely being white is oppressive."  As it turns out, there are indeed people exactly saying those things and getting paid good money to deliver trainings focused on those things.

The diversity literature that crosses my desk is increasingly filled with exhortations to discard certain types of trainings as at best a waste of everyone's time and at worst causing more harm than good.  An overview published out of Harvard in 2018 is a fairly neutral example:  https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dobbin/files/an2018.pdf .  The behaviors don't change and some undesirable behaviors are reinforced.

[marshwiggle]

The title of this thread and the responses to it indicate how extremely polarized society has become. A few decades ago, this sort of question would only be asked by the sort of "non-elite" masses. Academics and journalists could be counted on to provide the nuanced and dispassionate analyis of which actions of the current administration can objectively identified as "good" and which cannot. This they would do for any administration.

Now, even in this forum for academics, as "activism" has replaced "analysis", instead of nuance and attention to detail being valued, moral outrage and bombast are not merely tolerated but expected. (And this happens on both ends of the political spectrum. People saying "Obama was the worst president of all time!" are just as tedious.)

[polly_mer]

From the title, I expected a true list of accomplishments like:

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/opinion/fact-check-trump.html and I have only selected items listed as true.  I have reordered the points from the original list for better grouping and better impact on folks whose eyes will glaze over.

Criminal Justice Reform:

* In 2018, President Trump signed the groundbreaking First Step Act, a criminal justice bill that enacted reforms that make our justice system fairer and help former inmates successfully return to society.

* The First Step Act's reforms addressed inequities in sentencing laws that disproportionately harmed Black Americans and reformed mandatory minimums that created unfair outcomes.

* The First Step Act expanded judicial discretion in the sentencing of nonviolent crimes.

* In 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismantled an organization that was the internet's leading source of prostitution-related advertisements resulting in sex trafficking.

* Trump signed the "Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act" (FOSTA), which includes the "Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act" (SESTA) which both give law enforcement and victims new tools to fight sex trafficking.



Healthcare:

* President Trump signed the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act that provides funding for states to develop maternal mortality reviews to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions & largely focuses on reducing the higher mortality rates for Black Americans.

* Trump signed a law ending the gag orders on Pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving information.

* Trump signed an executive order this year that forces all health care providers to disclose the cost of their services so that Americans can comparison shop and know how much fewer providers charge insurance companies.

* Under Trump, the FDA approved more affordable generic drugs than ever before in history.

* Signed Right-To-Try legislation allowing terminally ill patients to try an experimental treatment that wasn't allowed before.

* He created a White House VA Hotline to help veterans and principally staffed it with veterans and direct family members of veterans.

* Issued an executive order requiring the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to submit a joint plan to provide veterans access to access to mental health treatment as they transition to civilian life.

* Trump signed measure funding prevention programs for Veteran suicide.

* Signed the most comprehensive childhood cancer legislation ever into law, which will advance childhood cancer research and improve treatments.

* In 2019 President Donald Trump signed the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support Act (CARES) into law, which allocates $1.8 billion in funding over the next five years to help people with autism spectrum disorder and to help their families.

*  In 2019 President Trump signed into law two funding packages providing nearly $19 million in new funding for Lupus specific research and education programs, as well an additional $41.7 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the most Lupus funding EVER.

* Trump signed a bill making CBD and Hemp legal.



Addressing Racism, Supporting Education and the Environment, and Improving General Welfare:

* Trump recently signed 3 bills to benefit Native people. One gives compensation to the Spokane tribe for loss of their lands in the mid-1900s, one funds Native language programs, and the third gives federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Montana.

* Over 90% of those benefiting from the retroactive sentencing reductions in the First Step Act are Black Americans.

* Trump received the Bipartisan Justice Award at a historically black college for his criminal justice reform accomplishments.

* Trump signed legislation forgiving Hurricane Katrina debt that threatened HBCUs.

* Signed the first Perkins C.T.E. reauthorization since 2006, authorizing more than $1 billion for states each year to fund vocational and career education programs.

* Executive order expanding apprenticeship opportunities for students and workers.

* In 2018, President Trump signed into law a $2.4 billion funding increase for the Child Care and Development Fund, providing a total of $8.1 billion to states to fund child care for low-income families.

* Trump's EPA gave $100 million to fix the water infrastructure problem in Flint, Michigan.

* Trump's U.S.D.A. committed $124 Million to rebuild rural water infrastructure.

* Trump signed the Save our Seas Act which funds $10 million per year to clean tons of plastic & garbage from the ocean.

* Trump signed a bill to require airports to provide spaces for breastfeeding Moms.

* Trump signed a law to make cruelty to animals a federal felony so that animal abusers face tougher consequences



Diplomacy and Trade:

* Companies have brought back over a TRILLION dollars from overseas because of the TCJA bill that Trump signed.

* NATO allies increased their defense spending because of his pressure campaign.

* Reached a breakthrough agreement with the E.U. to increase U.S. exports.

* Made a deal with the European Union to increase U.S. energy exports to Europe.

* Secured $250 billion in new trade and investment deals in China and $12 billion in Vietnam.

* Imposed tariffs on China in response to China's forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices, has agreed to a Part One trade deal with China.

* O.K.'d up to $12 billion in aid for farmers affected by unfair trade retaliation.

* Moved U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

* Trump appointed 5 openly gay ambassadors.

* Has had over a dozen U.S. hostages freed, including those Obama could not get freed.


Taxes:

* The tax cuts signed into law by President Trump promote school choice by allowing families to use 529 college savings plans for elementary and secondary education.

* The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by Trump doubled the maximum amount of the child tax credit available to parents and lifted the income limits so more people could claim it.  It also created a new tax credit for other dependents.

* President Trump's historic tax cut legislation included new Opportunity Zone Incentives to promote investment in low-income communities across the country.


Reforming Government:

* Record number of regulations eliminated that hurt small businesses. 

* Trump signed into law up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for millions of federal workers.

* Trump finalized the creation of Space Force as our 6th Military branch. 

* Trump signed the Music Modernization Act, the biggest change to copyright law in decades.

* Trump signed the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund into law.


One can quibble about exact credit allocation for many of the accomplishments, but people who care about some of the individual items and followed closely are not morons for being happy that Trump kept campaign promises to fix certain specific items.

[Cheerful]

Pre-pandemic, the economic numbers were impressive.  From Annenberg:

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/01/trumps-numbers-january-2020-update/

A few reputable sources also provide compilations of promises made and delivered.  Not listed here.  Many in polly_mer's list.

Not taking a position here, just posting some data.  A lot happened in the first three years.  Whether each thing was "good" or "bad"?  No comment.

[mahagonny]

Well, my own opinion is that if this country has traditionally erred in either paying too much attention to racism, or too little, the answer is" too little.  Of course it would be white people who insist that the answer is "too much." Ask some people who are targeted by racism, and I think they will have a different answer. And their answer counts too.

Let's listen to a few then...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVIoC5ROaHk

Then there's Jason Riley, Larry Elder, Glenn Loury, Coleman Hughers, John McWhorter, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Sowell, Candace Owens, Jason Whitlock who all think we dwell on America's self identity with racism way too much and in negative, destructive ways. Can we recommend anyone listen to them, or is that rude?

There is someone on our faculty, a black person, who advises his colleagues that a white person quoting any of these black conservatives is tricking you. He's 'using them to talk to you.' This strikes me as odd and lazy, because their claims should be analyzed, and the finding should be they are either accurate or not, irrespective of who makes them. If you're not allowed to mention them and their thoughts, then we are refusing to examine our world, which is just plain stupid.

It's possible also to agree to put lots of attention on racism, but disagree on what to do, or not do, about it. That would be conversation I could bear without bristling. But the current climate is 'if you question the need for our corporate anti-racism training, you do not understand that racism is a problem, or you are outright racist.' Which is interesting, given that we are all presumed to be racist even if trying hard not to be. I guess you can still call someone racist because he disagrees with you about what to do about racism and what you're really accusing him of is having an anti-social nature.

I have a white friend my age minus 5 or 6 six years who was very smalll for his age and attended a black public school where he learned to run really fast. Talk about his experience, anyone?

[mahagonny]

"Difficult conversations" is one of those buzz-phrases that alert the listener that malarkey is forthcoming.  (Thanks for breathing new life into the m-word, Joe.)  The phrase "be seen in their pain," meanwhile, is such meaningless, passive-aggressive psycho-babble that the earth should simply open up and consume whomever uses it.

They're not difficult for those purveyors of this stuff...they are riding high. They do not like difficult conversations. They like conversations that they think will be difficult for people they hate, and getting paid a bundle for inflicting them on us.

Vincent Price, Duke University President [great name for a scary white liberal in a position of power, BTW]:  "I cannot as a white person begin to fully understand the daily fear and pain and oppression that is endemic to the Black experience."
So, Mr. Price, i recommend you give up trying, and we'll all be better off.

[little bongo]

There's a terrible, horrible, and probably necessary lesson that Trump has taught America. There are many citizens who don't care how their leader presents himself to us or to the world. They don't care about politeness, grace, poetry, art, or "class" (in the sense of doing or saying the "classy" thing). And they don't care about building friendly relationships with other countries. Indeed, they don't really care if he's a decent human being or not (and he's not). What they do care about, quite understandably, is action and results. Can you, the president, show me (not just tell me) that you care about my family, my job, and my existence? Can you help me put more money in my wallet and more food on my table?

Trump has convinced many people that he has and he can, which is the other big lesson he's reinforced for us: to paraphrase one of the president's heroes, you can fool some of the people all of the time. There's a brilliant editorial cartoon that features Trump exiting a rest room all in disarray, toilet paper everywhere, water dripping, and it's strongly implied that the smell is awful. And Trump yells from the exit, "Look what Joe did to the bathroom!" It's a perfect metaphor for Trump's legacy and accomplishments. And he is fooling many people--they believe what happened in the metaphorical bathroom is Biden's fault. If he fools enough people, he will be our president for another four years.

And then? Well, I don't think the republic will fall. I don't think democracy will die. I'll be scrambling my soon-to-be-retrenched self into another line of work and bringing my family with me irrespective of the election result. I can't speak for the rest of the country, or the rest of the academic world. But I will miss poetry. I will miss art. I will miss grace. And I will miss "class." And on some level, I will be the lesser for it.