Trump Successes List

Is Trump getting anything done? Is Trump keeping his promises?

Automation of everything

Since politics is often driven by popular issues, or issues that are often otherwise unimportant to the overall governance of the country, Roderick Edwards attempts to steer the focus back to the real issues. However, since I know many people only have time to follow the sound bite news of the day, it is important that they know my position even on the most insignificant but current issue. I will post in somewhat a chronological order. Please note that if an issue appears here, it may or may not be considered insignificant but only that I'm giving a brief response. This page will be updated periodically throughout the election cycle


HOMOSEXUAL / GAY / SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Until the 1970s, the Medical community considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder. Starting in the 1970s, homosexuals infiltrated the medical community and began changing the official stance. While my position is that homosexuality is abnormal in human culture, we allow and tolerate other abnormalities and even people with other mental disorders to freely live among us. As a Christian, biblically I know homosexuality is as much a sin as drunkenness, gluttony and bestiality. However, as an American that upholds the contractual foundation of American society, I must consider that any person may enter into a contract with any other person, and so long as that contract is not illegal, the government should have no say in the contract. Lastly, I oppose special rights for homosexuals, where they can sue religious-based organizations for refusing to participate in their "life-style". Further, I believe the issue is hypocritical because it claims to be for "marriage equality" but doesn't consider the logical consequence of "equality" for polygamy, incest, consensual pedophilia and other forms of "unions". Which I also oppose.
CONFEDERATE FLAG
While I am no Confederate, having been born and raised in Indiana, I wonder about the attempt to wipe out a part of American history, even if that history contains negative elements. Further, the Civil War was not ONLY about slavery, but also about the imposition of the growing centralized federal government on the states. Ever since the Civil War, states' rights have greatly diminished. This has been further deteriorated with the passage of the 17th Amendment, which took away the states' representation in the centralized federal government. Lastly, while I respect the right of states to decide if they want to continue to fly the Confederate flag on state property, the mass hysteria that has people trying to expunge from America every mention and appearance of the not only Confederate flag but of Confederate history and heritage; this hysteria does a disservice to what it took to create this fine nation, negative and positive. The old saying is that those who refuse to know or learn history are doomed to repeat it, may come to fruition. To conclude, we should also consider that many of the Confederate flags were hoisted up over America's capitals, by Democrat governors, not Republicans as many suppose.
DONALD TRUMP ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Our media has a tendency to highlight the negative. It is the old "whatever bleeds leads" in reporting and news. So, while some people may be shocked by Trump's comments that many of the illegal immigrants entering America are criminals of some sort; the truth is that EVERY illegal immigrant is by definition of being illegal breaking our laws at the very moment they enter. It is only common sense that if these immigrants were successful in their home countries, they would not be coming to America. So, the people who feign outrage over Trump's comments either don't care or have not considered the truthfulness of his comments. That many of the Republican candidates are criticizing Trump, shows they are not serious about the issue and will not fix it if elected. Lastly, both Hillary Clinton in 2003 and Harry Reid in 1993 said similar things about illegal immigrants without people becoming outraged.
TRANSGENDER / SEX CHANGES
Sometimes, the things Americans are concerned about are called "first world concerns" because unlike other countries, we have time to be worried about or concerned with what would otherwise be considered trivial or well... weird. So-called Transgenderism or people seeking and getting so called sex changes is an issue within America. With the recent high profile story of Bruce Jenner's attempt to become a woman, people are talking about this issue more and more. But let's step back for a moment. The word "trans" is short for transition. This is important because it highlights that the person attempting to become the other gender is always in transition; because at the moment, they aren't able to genetically change their gender no matter how many hormones they take or operations they have. Further, could you imagine a future where say 10-20% of the population is a transgendered person? Think about that future. You meet someone of supposedly the opposite gender. A sexual relationship develops. Will they ever tell you about their real gender? Anyhow, while I'm a big advocate of a person's freedom to do to themselves whatever they like as long as it is not harming others, I wonder how many Pandora's boxes we can open as a society before it has dramatic consequences.
LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA (POT)
There is already much hypocrisy in many of our current laws. For example, requiring the wearing of seat belts in automobiles to supposedly protect the driver and passengers from injuring themselves yet in many states you can ride a motorcycle without a helmet and many school and public buses have no seat belts. Not to mention that abortion allows a woman to kill her unborn child but if she attempts to dispose of it herself at the moment of birth, she will be arrested. So, when we get to the legalization of drugs in general, I wonder where it stops? Marijuana advocates will claim it is natural or that it is harmless or no more harmful than consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes. Studies show that while alcohol may temporarily affect mental factuality, alcohol's potential damage is more to the organs whereas pot damages the brain. That said, I'm having difficulty squaring my love of freedom with our need to keep our society from imploding. How many people do we really want walking around doped up. The White House has an entire site dedicated to the issue. I'm still hesitant to think it is something we want wide spread in our society, but then again, we allow other personally harmful things, and prohibition didn't work so well.
TRUMP/MCCAIN FEUD
I have great respect and appreciation for people who honorably serve our country in military and civil service positions. As a matter of fact, I think we should work toward a requirement that certain political positions, including the presidency have a requirement of past service. But just because a person has served in our military does not make that person forever beyond critique. John McCain has a long record of calling his fellow citizens hobbits, wackybirds, and crazies. While service should be applauded, it is true that many more heroes go unnoticed because they did not succumb to capture or malady or even death. I understand that Americans have an urge to laud the underdog. We see it in our culture, with shows like the Biggest Loser where people who have allowed themselves to gain more weight than they should are praised because they had to go to the extreme step of having a trainer force them to take care of themselves. But isn't it just as praiseworthy that a person never fall into that situation. I believe this is the intent of Donald Trumps words; spurred on by McCain's constant disrespect for others. So, while I salute McCain's service, I do not appreciate his hostility toward successful Americans. It is time he stopped egging people on.
GUN VIOLENCE
While I labeled this issue as gun violence, it is important to acknowledge that the issue is really about violence in general. What are we going to do about the apparent increase in violence? Will banning guns really stop violence? Will it even decrease violence? So-called gun-free zones are simply telling the would be criminal that there will likely be no resistance to his brutality. We certainly would not place a sign in our yard advertising that our home doesn't have an alarm system. We want the criminal to know up front that we are a difficult target. How about a sign in front of our schools that reads; "Threats will be met with armed resistance and perpetrators will be shot". But the issue is deeper than whether we make buying and owning a gun more difficult. It is deeper than saying it is a "mental illness" issue. There is something fundamentally wrong, not only with American society but the world in general that people consider massacring many people; be it with a knife or a gun or a bomb. There is a kind of cultural rot going on that causes a person to devalue life. While I don't have a quick fix to turning this around, I certainly will be a person that speaks of the value of human life; over all else. Pretending "womens' rights trump human rights is just plain wrong. To pretend that darter snails are more important than humans is wrong. We need to get back to valuing and defending life and the respect of human life and dignity.


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