Writing this as we read of the immense success of President Trump in the meetings with North Korea and wonder what the leftists can possibly say now ...
Naturally, I don't watch Bill Maher's show on ... OK, I actually don't know what network he is on or what time, except I think it is late, and I don't stay up late. Plus I really don't like him, and disagree with him most of the time. And he is a contemptible snot, if that matters.
That disagreement varies from "nearly-totally" to "totally-totally", depending on how insensitive Maher gets in saying whatever it is he says, which normally I don't know what it is ... since he is on late and I am, well, not. However, apparently Maher is trying to reach those of us who don't watch him, by saying truly stupid things and hoping that the networks will pick it up.
That was the case a few days ago, when Maher was talking with a panel on his show. Unfamiliar with how economics works, meaning that he doesn't understand that lowering tax rates increases tax revenues to the government, he made the following comments while talking about the economy. Mind you, it is going quite well because of the removal of superfluous regulations and the lowering of the rates, so he had to acknowledge that. Then he said this:
"I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point. By the way, I'm hoping for it because one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people, but it's either root for a recession or you lose your democracy."
Let's dissect that, please. He "feels like the bottom has to fall out." He is hoping that it will collapse, because that's the way to "get rid of Trump." And he believes that keeping Trump as president (and I assume he is talking about the 2020 election) means that we will "lose our democracy."
I'm not going to tell you that the 3-4% GDP growth that we're experiencing is going to last as long as Trump is president, because I'm not psychic. But since not once did the economy respond to Barack Obama's presidency by growing at 3% -- in fact, his people told us it would never happen again -- I'm thinking that as far as the economy is concerned, Trump is far, far better for it than Obama ever would be, would have been, and could ever have been.
Obama bad for economy, Trump good for economy. The track record certainly says that.
But what exactly does Maher want? Does he want the economy to succeed so that people have jobs, unemployment is minimized, and the country can afford food, clothing and shelter? Well, no, and he couldn't have been more explicit, even to the point of apologizing for his view. He is hoping for the economy to fail.
And he is hoping for failure, for businesses to go under, for people to be out of work and all the other things that happened, well, under Obama, because he finds the presidency of Donald Trump more onerous to him than a recession. He even uses the odd phrase that suggests that the USA will "lose its democracy" if President Trump is reelected.
So two things. Bill Maher, you have got to explain what you mean by "losing our democracy." What is it, exactly, that you expect the president to do that constitutes "losing our democracy"? Is it different from what FDR did when he ran for a third (and fourth) term although no one ever had? Is there anything you expect to happen that would change our system of free, representative elections? And, if so, what exactly do you expect President Trump to do that would?
The other thing, though, is far worse. A man who is worth millions from talking on a TV show, who has been renewed through 2020 and so will continue to make a ton of money, is willing to say that he believes that not keeping President Trump is preferable to an economic crash that would affect most of the country (though not Bill Maher), even though under the current administration the economy has strengthened greatly in a way that it never did under his predecessor, the unlamented Obama.
Why does Maher feel that way? And more important is this:
We are in a roaring economic recovery that is clearly being caused by the actions of President Trump in pulling job-killing regulations and cutting tax rates. There is no question that this is Trump's economy and Trump's doing.
Why, Bill Maher, are you unwilling to consider that perhaps you are wrong, and that this presidency is a really good thing for the economy (and, based on this morning, the world)? That maybe, just maybe, Donald Trump is no manner of dictator at all, and that not only is he not going to cost us our democracy (having done nothing to suggest he would), but that economically his approach is actually the correct one?
This is the part that gets me. We have a great economic rebound, and people are working. There is solid growth. Why would you rather have that stop, than allow the president who led us to that success to remain in office? Are you unable to look at this objectively and say that, you know what, maybe Donald Trump is actually doing a great job? That maybe if the same outcome had come from anything a Democrat had done, you would be cheerleading like mad?
This is called TDS -- Trump Derangement Syndrome -- at its peak. Maher's hatred of the president is such that not only will he concoct some baseless notion that he is a "threat to democracy", but he will ignore the fact that the cause-and-effect of economic success in the USA ought to suggest that Trump's approach is actually the right one. And that he would rather see people in the flyover states starve than admit he was wrong.
Well, Bill, you are wrong.
Copyright 2018 by Robert Sutton