At least give him a chance to lead nation

Is the glass half full, or is the glass half empty?

How many times have we heard this question in our lives?

Each time I’ve heard it, that phrase was often used to determine whether someone was an optimist or a pessimist. After all, it was implied that a pessimist always saw that proverbial glass as half empty while an optimist thought the opposite.

When someone directs that question at me, I tend to reply from a different perspective just to throw them off guard. My response states that, regardless of how much is in that glass, there’s always room to improve what’s in there by adding something good to the mix.

That’s how I’ve looked at the outcome of this presidential election. As soon as Donald Trump became the president-elect, there were people who were immediately on the “glass half empty side” that were convinced that the country was going, in their words, straight to Hell.

Then there were others out there that were absolutely delighted that their optimism had paid off and Kamala Harris was defeated. In their minds, their glass was half full because the person they despised or simply didn’t trust wasn’t elected.

From my perspective, I saw the election of our president and the other lawmakers on Capitol Hill as an opportunity for this country to have the room it needed to make some needed improvements and to “fill the glass” so to speak with something new and perhaps better than what we’ve seen in recent years. Many of us out there, me included, have directly felt the impact the recession had on our lives, and it’s clear that our elected representatives have a chance to set things right and to improve our lives, even if it’s just a little bit.

However, it appears that about half of the people in this country don’t want things to change. They seemed quite content with the direction the country took over the past four years.

When these people didn’t get their way, their actions remind me of a child throwing a temper tantrum in the toy department of the local Wal-Mart because they didn’t get a toy they wanted.

But in this case, their actions were a lot worse than a child yelling and screaming. In years past, we’ve had people staging riots, blocking roads and setting things on fire because their person didn’t win.

That doesn’t include the young man who deliberately went out of his way to shoot and wound Trump during a rally in the months leading up to the election. While some of his opponents at least provided a message to speak out against this attack, it seemed what they did was just the minimum.

As I’ve said in the past, let’s try reversing the narrative. What would those same politicians have done if that alleged assassin targeted their candidate?

I’d bet good money these people would be up in arms and decree that the nation needed to ban firearms and other weapons – the same people who have armed security guards that protect them 24/7.

I’m still trying to figure out the last time Republican supporters did the same thing when their candidate wasn’t elected.

Thomas Jefferson was once quoted as saying, “that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing.” Perhaps that’s what we saw during the November election.

About half of the people in this country were sick and tired of what they saw happening in the White House and on Capitol Hill. They decided they needed to take action by staging their form of rebellion that took place at voting polls across the United States.

Whether or not you support President Donald Trump, the simple fact of the matter is that he’s now in charge of running our country. No amount of whining or complaining is going to change that fact.

It remains to be seen what he will actually accomplish over the next 100 days, because he has some very lofty goals. The question remains when reality will force him to adjust those plans.

But for now, let’s at least give the man a chance.

* * *

Having said all that, I needed to take a minute and vent my frustrations regarding the final actions our outgoing president made while in office.

One of his greatest blunders, in my opinion, involved the actions he took to withdraw military forces out of Afghanistan, which continued to deal with the ongoing threat posed by the Taliban. For years, the Taliban’s actions represented what many people will contend were terrorist acts.

As I mentioned in a previous editorial, Biden’s orders seemed eerily similar to what happened when the United States withdrew its forces from Vietnam in 1973. I still remember the news broadcasts in which people of that nation scrambled to the top of a building and forced their way into a helicopter as they tried to escape the oppression the North Vietnamese presented.

Sound familiar? It’s eerily similar to the news reports we saw in which people from Afghanistan rushed into the airport in Kabul as they desperately tried to climb aboard military aircraft to escape the oppression the Taliban presented. I remember watching videos reporters captured that showed many of these Afghan people chasing after these jets down the airport taxiway, which led to an undetermined number of deaths.

In addition, the United States military left behind 73 military aircraft and nearly 100 combat vehicles, all of which fell into the hands of the Taliban. With these terrorists now in charge of all of these weapons, they wasted no time imposing their cruel will against those left behind.

This oppression specifically targeted women and girls, who lost their fundamental rights. In addition to following restrictive dress codes, these women no longer have the freedom to go where they want in addition to now being forced to marry those they never chose.

How did the Democrats in Congress and the national news media handle the coverage of what happened? From my perspective, it was another case of, “oh nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.”

As I’ve said in the past, let’s “flip the narrative” and ask how these lawmakers and news networks would’ve handled this if Trump were in office at the time. I’d bet good money they would’ve demanded he be impeached and removed from office.

But since Biden did it, well, that was apparently okay.

Looking ahead to the next four years, I sincerely hope the nation’s new president takes steps to fix what Biden broke. If anything, Trump needs to send a message to the leaders of nations waging war against others that the United States will hold them accountable for this inability to promote peace and a willingness to help others versus thinking they’re entitled to do what they want simply because they have power because they were voted into office.

As I’ve said in the past, too much power in the hands of one individual can sometimes be a very bad thing if used for the wrong purpose or for direct personal gain.

– Brian S. Orban