WHATEVER the state of the Union, the State of the Union Address is sound. It was revived Tuesday evening by none other than the former Great Divider himself, the Hon. Donald J. Trump, who now says he seeks to unite us all.
If the fortunes of the Union have experienced a great change for the better lately, that turnaround is nothing compared to the one achieved by this reformed character, we hope, who stood before Congress and the country pointing with pride not just to his achievements but to the country’s. And asking the opposition to join him in pursuing a common agenda.
“Tonight,” said the president, “I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve.” His appeal is as old, and as ever new, as the ancient prophet’s call: Come, let us reason together.
If the president sounded as if he were bragging, then he’s entitled to bragging rights—for now. For if what he said was true, and much of it was, then it’s not bragging, just an examination of the record. Three million new jobs have been created on his watch. American’s wages are up, and unemployment claims are down. The stock market has set one new record after another as its rise continues. And citizens’ savings have gone through the roof in the wake of this administration’s historic tax cut.
The standard deduction on our taxes is almost doubling, and the child tax credit should follow suit. A complicated system of taxation will be replaced by lower and fairer income taxes. Henry David Thoreau had it right when he advised: Simplify, simplify, simplify.
This president has appointed a new and promising justice to the Supreme Court of the United States in Neal Gorsuch. The devil is still in the details, but the president seeks to protect Americans’ right to bear arms under the Second Amendment and our religious freedom under the First. He proposes to stop withholding funds that the armed forces need to defend the country and various outposts of freedom around the world.
This president used his State of the Union address both to loosen the country’s pursestrings for vital needs and appeal to our heart strings. By now help for American veterans, taxpayers and workers isn’t just on the way but is arriving every day in the form of lower taxes and higher take-home pay.
And this president is out to make a deal when it comes to those who dream the American Dream but find themselves still locked out: A path to full citizenship. In return for making the country’s borders secure. No more catch-and-release for dangerous thugs, but an embrace for those newcomers out to become productive members of our society.
His is a self-respecting proposal that also reflects the rights of other nations seeking to protect their own borders—like our steadfast friends the Kurds and the Israelis. They are half a world away but their troubles soon enough become our own in this inter-connected world. The announcement that the United States would finally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital may have outraged the haters in the famed Arab Street but it was welcomed by the Israelis, who have waited too long for an American president to recognize reality and fulfill his promise to move the American embassy in that country to Jerusalem. This president has matched his words with his deeds when it comes to this too long delayed decision.
SO WHAT’S not to like in this vision of a better America and a better world? The aginners we will always have with us. The usual critics and carpers will find plenty to grouch about. Some of the opposition seem to believe their only duty is to oppose. Note that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice, didn’t show up for the president’s first State of the Union Address, preferring to deliver a speech at a law school in Rhode Island.
But let’s give her credit. Once in a blue moon she does speak an unwelcome truth if only by accident, as when she let it slip that the high court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade was intended to keep lesser breeds from proliferating. Today they surely would be classed among Hillary Clinton’s deplorables and their right to life and liberty doubted. But now a pro-life president has taken up their cause. And about time.