Donald J. Trump is the duly elected president. Not everyone is happy, but he won in what might have been the fairest major election in history. It looks like the popular vote was very close. The Electoral College, an institute designed to protect small states, like Rhode Island and Delaware, from the tyranny of the majority put him in the position, like it or not.
Some people are ecstatic and some are despondent but the majority are pragmatic and willing to wait to see the results, as should we all. Very seldom does anything turn out as well or bad as predicted. All candidates make promises, often outrageous, and predictions whose outcome is hard to foresee. The media have traditionally given new presidents a 100-day ‘honeymoon.’ Biden’s went horribly wrong with the disorderly and tragic withdrawal from Afghanistan, reminiscent of Nixon’s chaotic withdrawal from Vietnam or Carter’s botched Iran hostage rescue. We have to stop embarrassing ourselves that way. Such failures are remembered, and debated, long after victories of a similar magnitude are remembered, unless commemorated with a holiday.
Regardless of our personal feelings about the new president it is in our best interest to show respect and encourage his administration to do what’s best for America, even if policy does not meet our approval, maybe sometimes he is right! There will be mid-term elections in 2026 that will give the people another chance to express satisfaction or regret. The campaigning has already started.
Congress has a big job to do if they do not want to become irrelevant. The House still holds the purse strings and the Senate the right of refusal on treaties and appointments. They can guide a president with their powers or frustrate him with distractions like the first attempt to impeach Trump. The case was weak and circumstantial. It should have died in the house and it made the second impeachment which was more pragmatic look vindictive. Every member of Congress has their own agenda based on what their constituents want. They need to do their job instead of spending half their time campaigning.
Those who disagree should not be jumping ship or off bridges. Nor should they self-deport. They need more than ever to faithfully execute the laws. There is an incalculable amount of wisdom in the civil servants we like to complain about as bureaucrats but they keep the airplanes running on time, mostly. They keep the military fed, the roads maintained and thousands of other things on track so that we don’t notice them. Utilities and services that are always there, like sunrise. There are many countries where the systems we take for granted barely work, if at all. Inspectors general can step in if a department is too far off mission, and the president’s immunity does not apply to others.
China is propagandizing about their magnificent public works. Mostly they are catching up with what America has been doing for 200 years. Things like building a transcontinental railroad across wilderness in 1865 or the world’s still tallest dam in 1936. Chinese are the world’s greatest copyists, it’s in their culture. Over half the patents in the world are held by Americans including immigrant Americans.
It is difficult to operate any government size activity in perfect efficiency because things change every day. Fire departments have to be there every day, fire or not. Once the fire is started it’s too late to plan for it. Wars and disasters are hard to budget for and things happen that cannot be ignored simply because they are off budget. Efficiency comes when the rank-and-file notice that something they are doing, or buying is overpriced, or irrelevant, with over-specified equipment, unnecessary forms, and obsolete divisions. The reader can think of several examples. A business can quit, and if their service is necessary someone else will provide it. Government has to do some things that do not directly pay, cannot be ignored, and are too big a job for anyone else, like police, fire protection, and public roads that everyone pays for somehow and everyone uses as needed. Accept the things you cannot change; fix things you can change and have the wisdom to know the difference.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Feedback encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com.