RIDING THE TRUMP TRAIN as published in Lebanon newspaper on 12/03/16

Eating crow is not very pleasant but it can be tolerated if your only other option is starvation. And that’s where I found myself in the recent election. It is no secret that I got on board the Trump Train at the very last moment. I liked where it was going from the start, the scheduled stops along the way, i.e. his pro-life stand and his support for the 2nd Amendment, his strong belief in our capitalistic system, his business knowledge and acumen, his support of our military and his belief in a strong national defense, his belief that people of faith have a right to practice their faith without interference from the government. But I didn’t like the way he drove the train - the quick brakings that shook everyone up, the crazy exits over to a side track before coming back on the main line, and the constant questions about whether he even knew the way at all. But when he brought Mike Pence on board as the second conductor, I thought maybe it was safe to get on, too. Like many others, I got on the train so I could ride with Pence, a man of faith and integrity, with a calmness about him that managed to cover Trump’s blustery antics to some extent. But back to my basic premise. I knew that not voting at all was a vote for Hillary, and that was anathema to me. Some of the things Trump said were shameful and unsettling and rude. But when I got bogged down in the dirty mire of them, all I had to do was remember that Hillary Clinton supported the murder of innocent babies, that she would take my hard earned money that would be forcibly taken from me by the IRS in the name of taxes, and use it to set up Planned Parenthood facilities where tiny bodies with the full potential for life would be cut up and sold for research purposes. And what made it worse was that it was not enough that she supported these things from the beginning, but that she doubled down on them during this campaign, taking an even stronger and more wicked position. So, like many Christians in this nation I prayed that God would guide this train and bring it safely to the correct destination on November 8. And He did. I am pleased with the way things are going so far. I like the man with the strange name, Reince Priebus. He was loyal when taking a stand was not easy, and he was rewarded for that loyalty. I have problems with the possibility of Mitt Romney as secretary of state and I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision. I think we would end up dealing with two “alpha males” and while that usually takes care of itself in the animal kingdom, I’m not sure we want to watch it play out in the White House. On the other hand, the fact that they are meeting together shows that Donald Trump can put his personal feelings aside for the good of the country if necessary, and it also shows a forgiving spirit. I like that in a man. Over the years I have been a major observer of people. And I have noticed that the people (of both genders) who speak out quickly, and sometimes rashly, are the ones who are the first to admit they were wrong, or to extend grace in a loving manner if the other party was wrong. As I write this on Friday morning, I have been very impressed with General Jim Mattis whom Trump has chosen for his Secretary of Defense. He has been called a “closet intellectual”, a man with a library containing 7000 books, all of which he has read and studied over time and continues to do so. It has also been reported that after he retired, he spent two weeks driving across the country visiting the families of the soldiers who were killed while he was in command. And as to the issue of whether Congress will agree to let him serve in that position when he has not been retired for the requisite number of years, who ever came up with that dumb idea in the first place? I am not a military strategist, but I am a thinker, and I have always thought that someone with first hand experience as a military leader would be much more qualified to serve as the head of the Pentagon (or as President) than a civilian who knows nothing about such things. If we needed further proof of that fact, just look at our current Commander-In-Chief! I’m thankful for a president-elect who has enough sense to know what he doesn’t know, and find the right people to fill in the gaps. Representative Tom Price is a good pick for Health & Human Services. He appears to dislike the Obamacare fiasco as much as I do. But he also knows how to fix it. He is an orthopedic surgeon and has been working on a replacement proposal a long time. I like Trump’s choice of Betsy Devos who is the head of the American Federation for Children, and unlike HIllary Clinton who calls herself an advocate for children, Ms. Devos is pro-life. She also believes parents should have a choice when it comes to the education of their children, especially those who are unable to home school for whatever reason, and so she supports charter school education and the use of school vouchers. (And since I’m writing for a local readership, I want to say here that I believe Lebanon is blessed with great schools and very caring teachers but this is not always true in other parts of the country.) There is much more to come in the days ahead as we watch to see how the President-Elect’s plan for the country falls into place and how his world view continues to develop.