What Trump accomplished defied the long odds against him.
Welcome to the January, Business & Nonprofits: A Winning Partnership issue of NorthBay biz. We’re proud to say that 2017 marks the beginning of the magazine’s 42nd year of publishing. Celebrating another milestone is always fulfilling and exciting—and the past year of creating new content and features was especially rewarding. Now, with more than 40 years as backdrop, we feel we’re just hitting our stride serving the best interests of the North Bay business community. As we go forward into the New Year, stay tuned as we plan to debut new features, platforms and multiple ways to help you grow your business. The best is yet to come.
Well the presidential election is over—finally—and I have to admit I was more than a little surprised by the outcome. Watching the election returns that evening, I kept switching channels to see if every station was reporting the voting returns the same way. They were…and not without a measure of increasing disbelief in their collective voices as the night wore on. Apparently, the reality of the coastal-based media elite, who unanimously predicted a decisive Clinton victory didn’t synch up at all with the realities of the folks doing the voting in fly-over country.
And now Donald Trump is the country’s president elect. I’m still not sure exactly how I feel about that fact. I know I’m not sad that Hillary Clinton wasn’t elected. Despite a lifetime of experience and responsibilities at the highest levels, she became her own undoing by leaving a trail of seriously questionable decisions and behavior behind every position she left. The mistrust this engendered in the electorate manifested itself most obviously in the lack of enthusiasm and the minimal sized crowds that attended her campaign rallies, especially when contrasted to the big, high-energy crowds visible at Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump events. This voter malaise reduced voter turnout and made it possible for Trump to turn several blue states red and totally surprise a confident democratic party with his election victory.
What Trump accomplished defied the long odds against him. With his too-often, over-the-top rhetoric and egocentric bluster managing to offend a different group in every speech, early on he was a one-man wrecking crew and an easy target for criticism. Yet his popularity continued to grow; every down cycle was followed by a longer and bigger upswing that showed him growing in popularity.
I guess he was the right type for this moment in time. He’s the ultimate outsider, but with national name recognition. The media took him on and did their best to beat him down or expose his weaknesses, but somehow he often controlled the news cycle. In the end, people voted for him because they were fed up with the entrenched political establishment. Traditional democrats and republicans had alienated too many voters for too long with broken promises and sweetheart deals for seemingly everyone but them. So the timing was perfect for a brash, politically inexperienced, politically incorrect outsider to first surprise the republicans by winning the nomination and then the democrats by ultimately winning the election.
For many, observing this long-shot maverick actually get elected was fun because it’s not very often you get to see the political elite unnerved and pissed-off, helpless as some politically unconnected outsider gets elected and messes up their self-serving, rigged crony system. But the part that concerns me is now that Trump’s been elected, he actually has to do the job.
I became less skeptical and more encouraged about the country’s future after reading an email a reader sent me recently regarding Trump’s published plans for his first 100 days in office. In it, Trump lays out a strong and thoughtful policy agenda organized around three major goals: “On the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, D.C.” That’s a good start. Next, Trump states: “On the same day, I will be taking the following seven actions to protect American workers.” And finally his 100-day agenda concludes: “Additionally, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law.”
Those 18 individual actions in support of his agenda will go a long way in earning trust from his supporters and, perhaps, be the beginning of building support from his detractors that this guy actually wants to grow the economy, create jobs, reduce the debt and secure the border to lift all Americans. Let’s hope this is the beginning of better days to come.
That’s it for now. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and our best wishes for a healthy and prosperous New Year to you and yours from everyone here at NorthBay biz.
