Top 10 Highlights of 2017

As 2017 comes to a close, I wanted to end on a high note by pointing out some of the best news stories of the year.   

Appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court: America really dodged a bullet by electing Donald Trump President.  Had Hillary won, she would have appointed a liberal judicial activist in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to replace originalist icon Antonin Scalia.  President Trump announced Neil Gorsuch as his choice to fill Scalia’s seat just eleven days after taking the oath of office.  In addition to Gorsuch, President Trump has also appointed twelve judges to serve on the appellate Courts and six judges to serve on the district courts.  The Federal Courts desperately need more originalist judges, as evidenced by the several liberal judicial activists who keep striking down President Trump’s travel bans.    

Democrats’ failure to win special elections: Throughout the first half of 2017, Democrats spent millions of dollars trying to win special Congressional elections triggered by House members vacating their seats to join the Trump Administration.  They spent the most money in the race to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price of Georgia’s 6^th Congressional District, which voted for President Trump by a margin of only one point.  Democrats rallied behind Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker who did not even live in the district.  They still lost.  I guess Rosie O’Donnell and Alyssa Milano could not help Ossoff over the finish line.    Greg Gianforte still won Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s old House seat in Montana even after tape surfaced of him assaulting a reporter the day before the special election.  Democrats had more electoral success in the second half of the year thanks to sexual assault allegations against Alabama Senate Roy Moore.  The fact that the two states with regularly scheduled statewide elections voted for Hillary Clinton certainly did not hurt their electoral fortunes.  They acted as if their victories in those races highlighted the success of #TheResistance; they did not.  Democrats barely picked up any seats in the New Jersey General Assembly despite Democrat Phil Murphy winning the gubernatorial election by a large margin and all but one of their pickups in the Virginia House of Delegates came from districts won by Hillary Clinton.     

Companies announcing they will return to America: Bringing back outsourced jobs from overseas is an important part of making America Great Again.  Earlier this year, Foxconn announced plans to build a $10 million factory in Wisconsin with a planned completion date of 2020.  Last month, President Trump held a press conference with Hock Tan, the CEO of Broadcom, who announced his intention to relocate the company’s headquarters from Singapore to the United States.  With the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, hopefully many more companies will follow in the footsteps of Foxconn and Broadcom and invest in America.     

Never Trumpers deciding not to run for re-election: President Trump has an opportunity to elect more allies in Congress during the 2018 midterms.  Steve Bannon had planned on supporting a primary challenger to Arizona’s pro-amnesty junior Senator Jeff Flake, who melted the mainstream media’s collective heart by writing a book criticizing President Trump and his agenda.  Bannon’s job got a little bit easier when Flake announced his decision to retire upon the expiration of his term.  President Trump also has an opportunity to elect conservative Marsha Blackburn to replace Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who immediately became one of the President’s harshest critics after announcing his intention to retire.   

The Solar Eclipse: This summer, Americans across the country got to enjoy a solar eclipse.  The path of totality passed through fourteen states while nearly the entire country got to experience a partial solar eclipse.  For those who did not have the opportunity to experience this year’s solar eclipse; another total solar eclipse will take place in the contiguous United States on April 8, 2024; less than seven years away.  Meteorological phenomena may serve as one of the last remaining pastimes that can unite a divided country.    

President Trump’s decision on the Paris Accord: Nothing quite gives President Trump and his base more satisfaction than giving the global elites the middle finger.  President Trump did just that by deciding to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord that allowed China, the world’s biggest polluter, to hold off following its provisions until the year 2030 while requiring the United States to begin following the provisions much sooner.  President Trump cites his concerns over the Paris Accord’s impact on the economy as his primary reason for deciding to pull out.  Just like with trade deals, America always gets the raw end of the deal. As President Trump put it, “The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers — who I love — and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.”  With President Trump in charge, the days of settling for second best have come to an end.  Making America Great Again requires Making America Independent Again.  By independent, I mean free from the demands of unelected bureaucrats who seek to undermine our national sovereignty.  Because of the red tape, the United States will not officially leave the Paris Accord until November 2020.  President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord also signaled that the United States government no longer sees climate change as the #1 national security threat. 

The Decimation of ISIS: The Islamic caliphate in the Middle East has lost 97 percent of its land area.  Eliminating the threat of radical Islamic terrorism will require much more effort.  Lone wolf attacks remain a problem, as the age of the internet allows people to radicalize online without actually travelling to the epicenter of the dangerous ideology.   The fact that many European countries have wide open borders, effectively rolling out the welcome mat for jihadists posing as innocent refugees, certainly does not help the situation.

Vice President Pence’s Appearance at the March for Life: Just one week into the Trump Administration, Vice President Mike Pence became the first sitting Vice President to ever address a March for Life.  Contrary to the pessimism that defined the “Women’s March” held six days earlier, Vice President Pence expressed his optimism for the pro-life movement in America, saying “Life is winning through the steady advance of science that illuminates when life begins, more and more, every day.” 

Decline in border crossings: While illegal border crossings dropped 76 percent during the first few months of the Trump Administration, President Trump should not rest on his laurels.  He must fulfill his campaign promise to build a long overdue wall on our southern border with Mexico.  America needs a proactive immigration policy, not a reactive one.

The Trump Administration Standing up to the United Nations:  The United States Mission to the United States announced that it had negotiated a $285 million reduction in the United Nations’ operating budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.  This comes as good news to the American taxpayers, who cover about 22 percent of the supranational organization’s annual budget.    The news comes after an overwhelming majority of the United Nations voted for a resolution to oppose the United States’ decision to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel.  The UN has developed a reputation for sucking up to the Palestinians, who would like to claim Jerusalem as their own, as well as for serving as a vehicle to advance Anti-Americanism, Anti-semitism and the anti-western ideology celebrated by the left.  The Trump Administration warned the countries that planned on voting for the resolution that the United States may start to cut back on foreign aid.  If the Trump Administration decides to follow through on that threat, the Federal Government may finally have an opportunity to achieve a balanced budget after all.    

 

 

The Washington Examiner has compiled an exhaustive list of 81 of President Trump’s accomplishments throughout the year 2017.  America First Policies, a political action committee supportive of the Trump Administration, has begun to run this ad highlighting the President’s accomplishments during his first year in office as well as the changing national climate that resulted from his election.  While the President has many impressive accomplishments, much more needs to take place in order to declare Operation Make America Great Again a success. My blog post on Monday will outline the top 10 priorities of 2018.  See you then.