I've gone from really disliking Trump in the election to really thinking he has a chance to do something great here. I am beginning to think he approached this like a fight. During the election, he lied and insulted people a lot. And yes, all politicians lie, but he would say something, have it on tape, and swear up and down the next day that he didn't say it. And then insult the person who called him on it. And it aggravated me, especially because before Trump got into politics, I actually liked him.
But since he has gotten elected, he's changed. He has had nothing but nice things to say about both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He has completely flipped on the gay marriage issue (which I knew he would because Trump has always been fine with the LGBT community). He has opened his mind to climate change.
So I think Trump was just doing what he thought he had to do to get elected. And now that he has been, he can do what he thinks he needs to do as president. Honestly, I think he will probably end up pissing off a lot of his supporters, but I think he honestly wants to find common ground and he honestly wants to unite the country. Unfortunately for him, I don't think uniting this country is plausible at this time. The fact is that the liberal and the conservative sides of this country are so polarized and unwilling to find compromise with the other side that it is going to take a lot more than Trump to bring it together. The simple fact is that the solid left and the solid right do not want to get along. They both want everything completely their way and fuck the other side. I've been saying since I was a teenager that I feel this country is headed for an eventual second Civil War or a possible second Revolution. Every passing year, the divide becomes deeper and we seem to be seeing that there are just two sides of this country who do not want to be together. I hope I am wrong, but I haven't seen anything in the past 25 years that proves me wrong.
One of the reasons I like the Linda McMahon appointment and some of Trump's other appointments is because they have NO political experience. I think that is Trump's strong point as well. Our government is set up so that ANYONE can hold elected office, regardless of not having held it before. However, we've gotten to this point where we seem to think holding office is a perquisite to higher office and that's just not what the founding fathers of this country intended. Hell, George Washington, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses Grant, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower never held an elected office before becoming president. While three of these men were generals and two others were cabinet members, we still seem to think the president should have held office before. Donald Trump has broken that, and I think that's good.
As to what will happen with these appointments, I don't know. Honestly, I think the Trump administration will realize the same thing the Obama administration realized when they got into office... it's a lot harder to change things than you think. Our government is set up in a way that nearly deliberately makes it difficult to really accomplish anything because there are scads of way to check and balance. But at least I've decided to give the guy a chance. He wasn't my pick, I definitely didn't vote for him. But he's there and he has shown signs of promise since being elected.
