I’m Grateful for Trump, You Should Be Too

For the last four years, no matter where you look, there is an article about what Donald Trump has said, done, or tweeted. Whether it be right-wing media or left-wing. The story is either “Orange Man Good” or “Orange Man Bad”. I assume most of us know that things are more complicated than this and that mainstream media does whatever they can to get ratings and to push the agenda and opinions of their higher-ups. As time has gone on alternative media sources and people who know how to use their minds critically have slowly pieced together the real story of Donald Trump. The story of his rise, his ability to win, the state of the nation during his time, and what enabled someone like him to be president. As those who never quite bought into the narrative that his election could simply be attributed to a combination of deplorables, Russian interference, Hillary Clinton’s emails, Facebook, and racism started to narrow in on what allowed the country to arrive at where it is today one thing has become clear. A president like Donald Trump was either inevitable, necessary, or both. Make no mistake, I’m no fan of the president. I didn’t vote for him, I won’t vote for him in 2020, and I empathize strongly with the concerns over his character, his ability to manage true crises, and the threat to a sort of stability and safety in the nation that so many worry about. What I mean when I say I’m grateful for Trump has nothing to do with wanting him to be the president but rather with the understanding that without someone like him our nation may have slowly crumbled in the shadows until a physical revolution broke out or until the lower class was completely suppressed and had no ability to fight for themselves. This isn’t to say that Donald Trump has put an end to that path or that he has intentionally done anything to change the course of the nation in that regard but instead to say that he has brought important problems to light that may have been kept in the coffee shop conversations instead of in the national spotlight.

So much of his campaign centered on corruption in politics and as a recent poll shows this is the largest concern among voters over any other issue, be it healthcare, gun control, or climate change.

What problems do I mean? To start, the problems that got him elected in the first place. The fact that job loss across the country has been changing the lives of millions for the worse and that our government hasn’t done anything about it. The fact that people were fed up with political correctness and the way D.C. does things. The fact that so many people have been seeing through the establishment on both sides for decades but haven’t had a choice outside of it. The fact that so many people in our country have been disenfranchised with politics for so long. Or that the media pushes its own narrative, skews the facts, and slips in charged words to bring people to their side. All of these problems were what built the platform that Donald Trump ran and won on in 2016. While he may have been wrong in his diagnosis of the problems, for instance relating job loss to immigration, his analysis of the problems themselves were spot on and hit a core with the American people in a way that no candidate had done in decades. So much of his campaign centered on corruption in politics and as a recent poll shows this is the largest concern among voters over any other issue, be it healthcare, gun control, or climate change. It also vastly helped that he was going against who might just be the largest face of political corruption of our time, Hillary Clinton.

I am also grateful for everything he has exposed in his time as the president. That he has shown the loopholes in political correctness and the processes on the hill. This, no doubt, wasn’t an intentional display but rather a display of what a president can truly do and what power really lies with someone who knows how to capture the media’s attention with everything they do and knows how to play everything off cool. For the first few months of Donald Trump’s presidency, everything he did was a big story because it was so out of the norm. Some mainstream media platforms have held onto that reaction these whole four years. He exposed the problem with political correctness front and center. What was supposed to be an unbreakable code of conduct that would have dire consequences if broken was proven to be a sham meant to mold the behavior of everyone on the hill. And worse yet, because no one thought it could be broken once it was everything that could be done outside of it was made clear. For all of these things, I am grateful that we may have a chance to really reform the powers that exist within our federal government.

I am grateful for what really happened because when looking at these options in hindsight: on one hand having our system rot while the rich get richer and on the other having the underbelly of the beast exposed in an ugly show I would rather sit through the ugly, cringeworthy, and, at times, unbearable show in hopes that people will realize what has been happening and that it will spark change and that maybe, just maybe, we will get a good choice for president in the near future.

I imagine what it might be like if Hillary would have won. Nothing would have changed and the state of all of these problems would have gotten worse than ever. The slow-moving systemic problems that didn’t catch the spotlight would have been allowed to fester for another four to eight years. I am grateful for what really happened because when looking at these options in hindsight: on one hand having our system rot while the rich get richer and on the other having the underbelly of the beast exposed in an ugly show I would rather sit through the ugly, cringeworthy, and, at times, unbearable show in hopes that people will realize what has been happening and that it will spark change and that maybe, just maybe, we will get a good choice for president in the near future. This hasn’t stopped those in power from clutching and clawing to keep the power they hold though. The most unfortunate thing is that mainstream media has still been sticking to the old stories and so many people still listen to it.

The most obvious evidence of this is Joe Biden. The majority of the left clearly did not learn or ever understand what really happened when Hillary Clinton lost. Sure, maybe you can attribute some votes to whatever claims they make for Trump’s election but the fact that Trump would have ever been able to get so close in the first place is something that shouldn’t be ignored but is. In light of this gratefulness, I am starting to realize some rising concerns. I was oddly comforted feeling like Trump was going to win again this year. Feeling like that might really show these people that their understanding of the problems is wrong and that something needs to change. But as the polls have responded to Trump’s reaction to George Floyd’s death and the reaction that broke out because of it, which was truly horrible, Biden has taken a significant lead. I fear things going back to the ‘normal’ that so many people are talking about right now. I fear people forgetting everything that has happened and been made clear in the last four years. In no way am I excited at the aspect of another four years of Trump but I’m equally unexcited, and have no reason for hope, at the aspect of a Biden presidency that could potentially last eight years ending with another massive rejection of the establishment and leading to another Trump creating a loop that should never start but instead should be prevented with a realization and seizing of the current moment.

I am grateful for everything the Trump rise and presidency has exposed and I can only hope that if Biden wins it was enough and that Biden winning isn’t a signal of loss but instead just a symptom of the crazy year we’ve had and that in 2024 things will actually change.

My thought is that, while Trump could really cause some damage in the next four years through his radical tendencies and his failure to actually fight the establishment, another four years of the media getting called out, of the democrat's corporate favoritism also being exposed behind the veil of caring about the people, and the amplification of the political polarization could actually lead to real change. It could be the massive wake up call that’s apparently necessary for anyone in this country to actually want and stand to make change. I fear that if Biden wins everyone may go back to sleep under the illusion that things are back to normal, are under control, and that we have someone who is presidential when really the people are being shafted at every decision because the truth is we haven’t really had a good ‘normal’ for decades. No matter who wins the presidency there isn’t much hope for the next four years but I’m thinking about after that. What effects, intentional in Biden’s case or unintentional in Trump’s case would be better for us in the long run? I don’t expect this question to guide the decision of many at the ballot box but I think this is the question of the moment. I am grateful for everything the Trump rise and presidency has exposed and I can only hope that if Biden wins it was enough and that Biden winning isn’t a signal of loss but instead just a symptom of the crazy year we’ve had and that in 2024 things will actually change. I know that others have seen what has been shown and it’s something you can’t unsee. I am grateful for the Trump presidency, I just hope it was enough.