This time period will be interesting to look back on with the benefit of hindsight, but it will be hard to remember what it felt like in the moment, which is that value of recording it in writing. With 25 Democratic challengers competing in the presidential primary, it is anyone's guess who the nominee will be. Trump had barely entered the race at this point four years ago.
Twitter conversations continue to be a popular topic in the media, continually escalating the partisan dialog to new lows. It is hard to tell whether Trump is impulsive and lucky, or a cunning mastermind. Either option can be comforting or scary depending on how you look at it. Part of me thinks he is too inept to effectively do to much damage to the country, while another part of me recognizes that he succeeds at half of what he sets out to do. Fortunately I agree with more of what he has done than what he has said, and what he has done matters more in the long run.
Racism is the topic of the moment, even though it's definition has been expanded beyond the point of recognition in order to apply it to recent events. Most of the incidents it is applied to have less to do with race than nationality or culture. But their has been an interesting distinction made between "Go back where you came from," which implies making a choice to leave, and "send her back," which implies unilaterally doing something by force. Having a high value for Freedom, it makes a significant difference to me how these possibilities are framed. Fortunately everyone, including Trump, has come out against the latter, which was heard from the crowd, not from him, at a campaign event. But it is a natural extension of "Lock her up," which was a popular slogan of the first race.
Part of me wishes Trump would shut up and focus more on getting work done, but he seems to have figured out how to feed the 24/7 media what they need to stay in business manufacturing partisan hysteria for profit. And that may be a key ingredient in shifting attention away from the actual issues that are getting worked on. Only time will tell how effective that approach is.
