Late Friday the world received news that the Robert Mueller report was completed and sent to the Attorney General for review. Before anyone other than the justice department has seen any of the report or its primary conclusions, the speculation has been all over the place. Fox News is saying the report has vindicated the President and his family, and comedian Chelsea Handler says she has fallen in love with Robert Mueller. Here is my prediction; for those on the left who have been waiting for “Mueller the savior”, both the report and the following months will be a disappointment. The Mueller report will almost certainly contain information that will show substantial ethical violations and other wrongdoing by Trump and his team. The wrongdoing (at least as it relates to Russia) will fall short of criminal activity. The report will prompt congressional and media investigations that in the end will result in exactly nothing.
Mueller is not a savior and neither is Trump. Trump promised to build a wall and that Mexico will pay for it. That will not happen. Trump said he would wipe out the national debt in eight years. Not only is that not happening, the debt last month grew $234 Billion, the highest monthly budget deficit in U.S. history. Trump said he would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a system that would be cheaper and better. That won’t happen. Trump is not a savior.
Oh, and by the way, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are not saviors either. We idolize personalities and are ignorant of the issues.
Politics is about policies more than anything else. It’s about ideas and creating solutions to our problems, but policies can be complicated and people tend to focus on saviors rather than policies because they are lazy. It’s easier to put all your trust in a person than educate yourself on the issues and policies. I see the same thing in business. People think that business gurus are the answer to achieving their financial goals and they spend thousands of dollars on books, seminars, and coaches. Once again, they do it because it’s easier to put all your faith in a person rather than doing the work on your own.
Hero worship is part of the reason we are so divided as a country. We choose a leader and believe his or her opponents are evil. We allow our saviors to divide us from our friends and families. Bottom line: We don’t need saviors in politics, we need good policies. We don’t need saviors in business, we need a good plan and hard work. We don’t need saviors, period… because our earthly saviors will always let us down.
Inflation has impacted all of us. The price of almost everything has spiked faster and harder than at any time since the 80s. Few things can obliterate a modern economy more than out-of-control inflation.
For most people, there is little upside to writing about the January 6th hearings, but as you probably know by now, I don’t worry about those things. We all must stand for something. The hearings have almost everyone taking sides before a single witness is called. Democrats believe that the events of January 6th were a calculated effort to undermine our democracy by demolishing two of the most sacred tenants of our nation, free elections, and the peaceful transition of power.
Most people consider themselves either a conservative or a liberal. I think if we forget political parties, which flip their positions on things all of the time, and instead focus on the actual definition of what it means to be a conservative and what it means to be a liberal, we might be able to temper the emotional reactions some of us have with political discourse.