I’ve been hearing this week about the funeral of John McCain, former Senator from Arizona. Yet much of the rhetoric from the funeral services (that I’ve caught) has been about how much McCain is a patriot, even the uber-patriot, while the present occupant of the oval office is a farce, a sham, a pretender to the throne. The comparison was made that while McCain was suffering in a Vietnamese prison camp, Donald Trump was in the lap of luxury. Surely on this basis, Trump is the villain and McCain the hero. Yet I lived through the 2008 presidential election. I remember the hatred poured out upon the Senator from Arizona who dared to run against the first (actually second) black presidential candidate in history. Why, to vote for McCain was to vote against history!
Something more telling. Do you all remember when Billy Graham passed away and a state funeral was given for him? He up to this time is the only non-government individual to be given such an honor (to my knowledge). Donald Trump was the only President to attend the funeral. By contrast, McCain specifically prohibited Donald Trump from attending, while simultaneously inviting both President Bush (whose policies he denounced during his presidential run) and President Obama to speak on his behalf.
Donald Trump has been decried as a philanderer, a liar, born with a silver spoon in his mouth kind of man. It is said he was born into privilege and so doesn’t know what it’s like to live like a real American (not unlike Mitt Romney), but unlike Mitt Romney, Donald Trump could connect with the common man. And while he has certainly not been a saint, he is getting better.
Many people despise Trump, and they have their reasons. I don’t hate him. I can’t say I like him either, because I’ve never met him. But he seems like the sort of man who did not know what he was getting into, the complexity of the office, the depth of the forces arrayed against him, but one who is learning. Trump is politically inept. That’s why he was elected. He is a straight-forward, plain-talking man who means what he says. He is the kind of man with whom you know where you stand, because he will tell you. He seems like the kind of man who has learned that time is more valuable than anything else, so he doesn’t waste it, not anymore.
Many decried that Trump is not a Christian, that his history is too black, he’s done too many things to be forgiven. And this is coming from Christians. It seems to me that while Trump may not be a Christian (who am I to judge another man’s servant?) he is definitely trying to act like one since he’s entered the oval office. I don’t know if he has been baptized, but then again, I don’t know that George Washington was either.
My point is, while Donald Trump may have been a man who lived for himself when he became President, I believe he has matured. While he still tweets, he doesn’t tweet nearly as much as he did to start. While he still has obtuse remarks, they is more time between them. America elected an outsider to take the fight to Big Government. They didn’t expect any less. And he has not disappointed them. I don’t believe any man knows what being a President is like until he is sitting in the chair. But I believe that Mr. Trump has grown into it, and will continue to mature as he works for the American People.
Meritt Musings 