This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017

Statistics?

Donald Trump overwhelmingly won the election back on Nov 8. To be specific, Trump won 84 percent of the counties in the country, 60 percent of the states, 57 percent of the electoral votes, and, if you take away the votes of the ultra-leftist state of California, he won the popular vote. Since the election my most enjoyable activity has been to watch the Democrats and other leftists do a meltdown, which has gone into overdrive as we get closer to the inauguration. The Democrats simply refuse to accept that most of the country soundly rejected the extreme, leftist ideology that Hillary Clinton wanted to advance.

If you recall, prior to the election and convinced that she would win, Clinton and the Democrats demanded, shouted and screamed that Trump accept the outcome of the election. Once the election didn’t go their way, the meltdown of Democrats, academia, the media, and Hollywood began. The Democrats demanded recounts, snowflake college students started protesting and rioting on college campuses, the liberal media pressured Electoral College electors to change their votes to Hillary, and all of them demanded that the popular vote should trump (pun intended) the electoral vote.

Now, in the last month, all we have heard is that Russian hacking was responsible for Hillary’s defeat. The media has even gone so far as to publish fake news about Trump in an attempt to discredit him. It is very ironic that no Democrat complained when Hillary and the DNC used nefarious means to defeat Bernie Sanders. And none of them have disputed any of the information disclosed from the “hacked” DNC emails. The Democrats only have themselves to blame for their election defeat because they picked a corrupt, dishonest, unethical politician who should have been indicted for crimes committed instead of nominated for president. Jan. 20 cannot come soon enough.

Religious Freedom Day

Each year on Jan. 16, the United States recognizes Religious Freedom Day. Designated by Congress, this day commemorates the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. It was written by Thomas Jefferson, was shepherded through the legislative process by James Madison, and is widely regarded as the framework for the Constitution. Not only was the Anglican Church disestablished as the official state church, but provision was made that no one can be compelled to underwrite any religious institution with taxes. The statute proclaimed that individuals are free to believe as they will and that this “shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” You can view an archive of presidential proclamations down through the years from 2017 back at whitehouse.gov.

Look at the facts

Judging by the unsubstantiated vitriolic outpouring in Mike Smith’s latest diatribe (Missing Obama? Jan. 15), I am not surprised he surmises his previous letter must have been too controversial. He may be entitled to his puerile opinions, but not to his own facts — or lack of facts (“too many reasons to detail here”). All the issues he mentions on the Trump platform are far more complicated than he would have us believe.

For example, reducing the size of government; as Americans have demanded big government becomes smaller yet provides more services with a reduced civilian workforce, successive governments have increasingly promoted the idea of an alternate workforce employed through private contracts, grants and mandates to state or local governments. Participation in this obfuscation continues to be practiced by both parties.

Another example is shoring up the economy and getting people back to work. A look at the U.S. Edition of the Financial Times notes that U.S. employment levels have recovered significantly since the depths of the financial crisis with American companies adding 15 million jobs since a 2010 low. How did we get to a 2010 low? Answer: A lack of employer confidence brought on by the financial drain of two wars, the failure of government to stem the subprime mortgage crisis, excessive household borrowing, the housing bubble, the stock market crash, etc. And who was holding the reins at that time? It certainly was not President Obama.

I agree with Smith that Trump is a vulgar, immature braggart, but contrary to what Smith asserts, Trump does not have a plan. It appears he simply makes it up as he goes along, leaving irresponsible tweets and mayhem in his path. We all in this country now have to hope that Trump listens to and takes note of experienced politicians of whatever persuasion, other business leaders, the military, and the voice of the common people, if he is not to be impeached during his tenure, or simply written off as an unfortunate blip on the presidential horizon.

MLK Jr. Day

In 1970, I was a young idealistic person working with Economic Opportunity Atlanta, the poverty program. MLK Sr. was on the board and I happened to hear him speak to that board.

Since my time with the poverty program, I have done many things, retiring as an senior vice president with a national publicly held corporation. But, every year at this time of year, I reflect on the state of civil rights in our nation. In large part, my desire to do this is based on hearing MLK Sr. speak about his dead son and what he stood for. MLK Jr’s death is real to me.

Since then, we as a nation have made great strides in civil rights. The election of our first black president was one example. We have also had many setbacks. Our recent election was one example. As someone from a blue collar family, I understand the frustration of white lower middleclass whites. I also understand the deep-seated prejudice that exists in that segment of America.

The election of Donald Trump reflected both frustration and bigotry. However, the selection by the Democrats of an cold, elitist, corporate shill was also a major factor.

Trump’s nominations for his cabinet have been very disappointing from the standpoint of equity and equality, especially for attorney general. Sen. Jeff Sessions has a poor civil rights record and Tom Price with his desire to abolish the ACA (Obamacare) which enables 22 million Americans (many of them minorities) to obtain health insurance. Hopefully, our President-elect will change course. We will just have to see over the next four years.

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017."