#ShePersists? No, The Swamp Does.

The more things change politically, the more they stay the same.

It’s been exactly a year since Trump was elected president on November 8, 2016. Although his surprise victory initially sparked a variety of reactions that included movements such as the Women’s March in Washington, DC, and a boost in the ratings for cable news networks like MSNBC, despite all the outrage, not that much has actually changed in America. We still have the electoral college, Washington is still grid-locked, and, most importantly, none of us have actually gone to hell in a hand basket.

In other words, we are left with politics as usual.

It is obvious that Trump is a polarizing figure. Whether one likes him or not, the point of this article is not to be pro- or anti- Trump; it is to show that, regardless of how you feel about his policies and his personal rhetoric, his Presidency involves much more ‘politics as usual’ than either his supporters or opponents believe.

For starters, after every Presidential election, there is a discussion about the modern relevancy of the electoral college. Although such discussions were not unique to Trump’s victory, they did become more pronounced due to the discrepancy between the popular vote and the electoral college outcome. Despite the proclamation of many political pundits that the electoral college is a “constitutional anachronism,” to date, there are no current proposals before Congress for its elimination, which would ultimately require a Constitutional amendment.

Efforts to repeal the electoral college have been unsuccessful in the past — notably in 1934 and 1979 — when such efforts failed in the Senate. And, given the highly partisan environment of the Senate today, in which our lawmakers can’t agree on routine tasks like setting a budget, it is unrealistic to think that they will reach consensus on something drastic.

Moreover, despite the momentum that initially resulted from anti-Trump movements such as the Women’s March, anti-electoral college movements such as the National Popular Vote movement have not gained the momentum that many who participated in such movements had initially hoped. Result: politics as usual.

Next, let’s talk about Trump’s policies. It’s not unusual for a candidate of either political party to campaign on a number of robust promises that may never come to fruition. Trump primarily campaigned on three things: (1) building a border wall; (2) repealing Obamacare; and (3) reforming the tax code. So far, we do not have a border wall, Obamacare remains intact, and the future of tax reform remains uncertain.

However, before we jump to conclusions about Trump, it is important to note that the first year of a Presidency often fails to provide an accurate glimpse of what a Commander in Chief’s legacy will be. Indeed, the true indication of a President’s legacy is often not what they accomplish during the tenure, but how their policy objectives fare under a subsequent administration.

To this end, some of America’s most popular presidents had their most memorable moments come after they left office; for example, as was recently noted by Ira Stoll in the New Boston Post, Franklin Roosevelt’s strategy in World War II didn’t result in victory until the Truman Administration; JFK’s push for civil rights reform did not take hold until the Johnson Administration, and Reagan’s Cold War policies did not see the fall of the Berlin Wall until George H. Bush’s Administration. So, again, regardless of how strongly you may feel about Trump’s presidency, jumping to conclusions about his legacy after his first year in office is premature.

More important than looking back on Trump’s first year, we should hold out hope that he learns to adapt his leadership style to the role of Commander in Chief in the future. This includes implementing better strategies to work with Congress, including bipartisan options when necessary, in order to implement policy objectives. It includes learning when to hold his tongue (or more accurately, his tweets) in an effort to rise above partisan bickering, rather than continuing to incite it. And, it involves truly working to “make America great again” rather than cementing a legacy that consists solely of an empty catchphrase.

Like many things, your view on Trump’s first year in office involves a matter of perspective. But, regardless of how you feel about Trump, the electoral college, or the past year, our perspective should remain focused on the future, and not over-analyzing the past.