What’s in a name?
From The Seattle Times
Although it won’t be easy for some, it’s time for Americans to get used to the sound of President Trump. We must now accept his presidency and press him to follow through on his promises to grow the economy, strengthen America and revitalize its middle class.
This will require faith and engagement. This editorial board, which endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, and other citizens will be challenged to look beyond Trump’s rhetoric — and troubling tweets — to assess actual policy changes by his administration.
Changes that should be encouraged include the increased antitrust enforcement Trump called for during his campaign. He notably opposed AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner because it would concentrate too much power in a single company.
This scrutiny of mergers is appropriate for a populist president: they reduce choices for the public and usually lead to higher prices and fewer jobs.
While Trump’s foreign policy pronouncements have been distressing, especially the isolationism touted during his inauguration speech, America may benefit from a firmer stance toward China’s mercantilism.
For trade-dependent states, it’s disappointing that Trump appears hellbent on trade wars and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
But our dealmaker in chief should pursue new and better trade agreements that are needed to sustain and grow industry and jobs across the country.
More infrastructure investment is a worthy goal, as long as the public remains the primary beneficiary of such spending and owner of its critical assets.
Addressing violence in cities like Chicago is another good goal of Trump’s — if it’s done with modern, enlightened policing, and not an excuse for oppressive tactics and disproportionate incarceration of minorities in for-profit prisons.
Trump’s policy moves on such fronts must be evaluated on their merits, without being prejudiced by Trump’s personality and past behavior.
This is especially hard given the unacceptable misogyny and malicious behavior Trump demonstrated during the campaign.
Even so, that does not relieve us of our civic duty or elected officials — of both parties — of their obligation to pursue solutions and compromise.
The parallel is with those who refused to accept President Obama and obstructed him at every turn. Obama deserved an open mind and a chance to prove himself and at this point, so does Trump.
Accepting the Trump presidency does not mean giving him carte blanche, endorsing his bad ideas or forgiving poor behavior. It’s about making the most of the situation. Vigilance is needed to prevent the Trump administration from diminishing essential rights and liberties, or further disrupting international order that has prevented world war for 70 years and improved global health and living standards.
Patience is needed, to give Trump a chance to prove whether he will live up to his better promises and develop a coherent and viable strategy to improve the country.
We don’t yet know whether Trump will bring a fresh perspective or give in to the special interests and Beltway insiders he vowed to clear from the swamp. Optimism on this front is harder, given all the lobbyists, ideologues and tycoons on Trump’s transition team and cabinet list.
At the same time, there are flickers of moderation. Trump has hinted that he’ll be less extreme about climate change, healthcare reform, immigration, the Iran nuclear deal and prosecuting Clinton.
These minor drifts to the middle, away from bombast and toward reasonableness, should be coaxed along like the first sparks when building a campfire in the rain. Trump may go low, but the rest of us need to go high, and show our novice leader the best way forward.
Americans elected a president who promised change. It’s time for us to engage and encourage President Trump to make those changes for the greater good, while holding him accountable to his promise of prosperity and greatness for all. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Everyone stands when the president enters the room. It’s protocol, a deserved sign of respect for the office and the American people who select its occupant. Donald J. Trump, who stood at the West Front of the Capitol on Friday and swore an oath, deserves every ounce of that respect — for as long as he is in office.
He won’t be everybody’s friend or hero, but he is now everybody’s president. Plenty of people have reason to doubt and distrust. Dozens of members of Congress planned to boycott the inauguration after Trump disparaged civil rights legend and Georgia Congressman John Lewis.
Hundreds of thousands of women plan a march in Washington on Saturday — while perhaps as many more show solidarity in similar marches in cities across the U.S.
Organizers say marchers want to express “concern and fear” about campaign rhetoric from Trump that “insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us — immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault.”
Others still disagree with, even dispute, the results of November’s election. But the election is over.
Trump’s a businessman and a showman. All we’ve had to judge him by are his business (he’s done very well for himself) and his words — which, like those of any showman, are crafted to draw attention.
Having taken the oath, his deeds from this point forward push everything else to the background.
What he says still counts, but what he does or fails to do counts even more.
No one should take that to heart more than the nation’s news media.
Trump has been openly hostile to the press for many months. He has clashed head to head with reporters from some of the nation’s largest news organizations.
Trump doesn’t need the news media to transmit his words to the public, long a traditional role of the press. He has Twitter and other social media for that.
Far more important is the news media’s role in reporting the accomplishments, mistakes, deeds and misdeeds behind those words.
Trump may label unfavorable stories as fake news, but the people of America can judge by his deeds whether they will still respect him four years from now.
My first seminary degree was in 1973 from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminar in Louisville, Kentucky. Less than two miles down the road was Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. A consortium agreement meant that students from one school could take classes at the other.
On the Baptist campus I considered myself to be on the liberal wing of the student body. However, a very strange thing happened when I went to class at Presbyterian — I became very conservative. It was a kind of Alice in Wonderland experience but one that burned itself into my brain.
I did not change and my beliefs did not change in that 2-mile drive from one school to the other, but the way those beliefs might be labeled changed dramatically. I learned that “liberal” and “conservative” pretend to be descriptive. In reality, they are lazy and smug assumptions about a person’s identity and/or his beliefs.
The practice of labeling people and their beliefs is deeply involved in the religious, cultural and political conflicts that divide us.
Southerners have long resented being portrayed in movies and media as backward hicks with funny accents. Racial and ethnic labels have a long and vicious history of portraying minority groups as being inferior and/or dangerous simply because of skin color, language or religious differences. Theological labels have caused people to be burned at the stake (the Reformation, the Inquisition), tried as witches (Salem) and sent to mass executions in gas chambers (the Holocaust).
In my personal experience, I have seen gentle and deeply spiritual professors slandered and hounded from their teaching positions because they were labeled as liberals.
It has been an eye-opening experience since I last wrote and invited “let’s talk” about the political situation. Several friends took me up on my offer and helped me to realize that I was wrong to assume terrible things about everyone who voted for Donald Trump.
Another friend insightfully recommended that I watch a recent episode of the TV sitcom “Blackish” in which a work group needed to deal with their disagreements and move on. I have read numerous articles from Christian thinkers who have challenged me and others to move away from meanness and name calling toward a respect for differing perspectives and a recommitment to build bridges of love.
On the other hand, an article in the Jan. 5 New York Times considered “Why Rural America Voted for Trump.” In the article was an especially troubling quote from a Baptist minister: “The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans believe people REV. DR. GARY BATCHELOR Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press are fundamentally bad, while Democrats see people as fundamentally good.”
Though I may respond to this idea in more detail at another time, I offer it as an example of the truly superficial and arrogant outcome of labeling. The statement may make a good sound bite but it is amazingly superficial as theology or as politics.
In many ways, things have not changed a lot for me. In the context of my church and my Baptist denomination I am still pretty much considered a liberal. In the context of my more activist friends, I am still pretty conservative. So much for labels…
As we all continue to try and figure out how to live together as Americans, retaining cherished beliefs yet respecting friends and neighbors with very differing beliefs, I offer some suggestions:
Please quit using either “conservative” or “liberal” as a curse word. A clear message from Trump supporters has been that they resent being considered in the worst possible light because they voted as they did. My own experience from the other side of that divide is to read and hear vicious accusations about alleged evils of liberalism.
Please move out of your comfortable “bubble” that exposes you only to people and ideas you know you agree with. Seek out someone you are pretty sure voted differently from you and have coffee together. Do not settle for sound bites or tweets as a way to address complicated issues. Try a news source other than the one to which you typically turn.
Get over the accusations that ongoing political disputes can be dismissed as simply an issue of who won and who lost. Trump supporters and Trump challengers have real concerns and real differences of opinion about how to deal with those concerns. Only partisans acting from self-interest or blinded by anger benefit from simplistic thinking about winner/loser.
I have not changed many opinions about the issues nor the persons that dominate our political life. What I am changing is my attitude about the facts of that political life. Labels flung in self-righteous anger only invite equally angry responses. We will come together and make progress only after we recognize the futility of those labels, after we learn to listen to one another, and after we are respectful enough to seek common ground.