Evaluating A President On Their Promises
Any Republic in which the citizens have a direct and periodic hand in the selection of the political leadership should should lead those citizens to pursue a sober and skeptical evaluation of their leaders, whether of their opponents’ party or their own. Imposing a culture of “team politics” on themselves does not serve the citizen well, for it leads to holding loyalty to the leader as more important than competency, fidelity, or national loyalty; or, as former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (I) once observed concerning elections, “This ain’t a horse race!” In an honest and healthy democracy, the backer of a candidate might win the office pool, but after that they should share in the general security and prosperity that a competent leader can help facilitate. That they belong to the winner’s party should not exempt the winner from an evaluation by their own party members; not only is such an exemption, or a poorly done evaluation, irresponsible in the abstract, but in many cases will impact the citizen directly in several tangible ways, ranging from monetary to existential.
So, and to that end, the promises which are often the general currency of a candidate for office, and the efforts of that candidate in connection with those promises, seem an important topic in the evaluation promise. Of course, there are other topics, such as competency, ability to compromise, and perhaps one or two more topics that currently elude me. This section of the blog is dedicated to the evaluation of the campaign promises of President Trump, his performance in regards to them, and my thoughts on the matter.
Promises
Promises are a funny thing, a concept perhaps underserved in the English language. Promises can come with a variety of nuances:
I promise to try to achieve this,
I will do this,
I will do this but it’s not measurable,
and several other minor variants.
In my evaluations, I plan to keep these variants in mind and apply them during the analysis. In a similar vein, the actual meat and potatoes of a promise fulfillment is of importance. For example, a Speaker Paul Ryan boast in his final term was that the House, under his leadership, had passed a great deal of legislation, but, as I and others noted, very little of it was of significance. Naming a Post Office is legislation, but it’s of little importance except for those family members of the person so honored. Being blinded by sheer numbers is a constant problem when evaluating the claims of a politician.
Biases
Long time readers know this, but for new readers, I shan’t conceal my distaste for President Trump. I promise, however, to attempt to take an impersonal approach to these evaluations.
Evaluations
So, with the caveat that I’m just a working dude with little expertise and not a lot of time, here are the areas I hope to cover. I will update this page if and when updates are developed.
JUDICIAL NOMINEES: Here.
THE SOUTHERN WALL: Here.
THE SWAMP: Here.
COAL MINERS: Here. Murray Energy bankruptcy here. 2019 energy consumption here.
FEDERAL DEFICITS: Here. Updated! Executive Summary – annual deficit climbs another 26% in 2019.
TAX RETURNS: Here. A Bloomberg report is here, my commentary here.
SOCIAL SECURITY: Here. Chief Actuary of Social Security’s letter detailing the disaster if the payroll tax is rolled back, even temporarily, is here.
HIRING THE BEST: Here.
