Actually, in 2016 it was more than the spectre of "electability" it was about the spectre of "doing", of "accomplishing". I never heard anyone wearing the conservative label tell me what he would accomplish, actually DO as President. I heard a lot about bad Donald Trump, American history, Ronald Reagan, Christian principles, but precious little about anything else.
Trump was different. He saw a problem, he had a plan to fix it. He promised he would not let us down. And he hasn't. President Trump has accomplished more in three years than any conservative candidate running in 2016 even considered in the entirety of his/her political career.
For instance, which conservative candidate running in 2016 would have pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords, the Iran "deal", renegotiated trade deals around the globe to secure mutual benefits for American workers, gotten our allies to open their wallets for their own defense because American taxpayers deserved not to be taken advantage of?
Which conservative candidate running in 2016 would have negotiated with Mexico to keep asylum seekers until we were ready for them, negotiated agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras requiring migrants on their way to the US to apply for protections in those countries first or face immediate deportation back to their home countries --- essentially ending catch and release? Which conservative candidate running in 2016 would be building a wall along our Southern border by using every creative means available to secure the money to fund it?
Which conservative candidate running in 2016 would have the economic acumen to put the pieces together to usher in an economy and jobs environment that left even CNN gobsmacked?
And name the conservative candidate running in 2016 who would accomplish all of this, and more, by plowing through an unrelenting resistance from the opposition party, his own party and the media?
No, @Smokin Joe 2016 wasn't just about winning. It wasn't about shiny objects. 2016 was about finding the right man who could "do" and turn this ship around. And we did. We found Donald J. Trump. This is why we voted FOR him, and will do it all over again in 2020.
A nice retrospective, but I'm not buying it. Donald J Trump had pretty much zero on his track record as an elected official. It wasn't "doing it", it was promises, and there are plenty of those spoken in any election year, generally worth the paper they aren't printed on.
Actually, 2016 was about defeating Hillary.
That's it, in a nutshell.
Obamacare might die in the courts, but the Congress didn't touch it.
Instead they "cut" taxes so I now pay taxes on over $20,000 of expenses a year--money I have to spend to make a living. That has been signed off on by someone who doesn't do his own taxes.
Hillary is now gracing the world with her new chipmunk cheeks, free of interconnected 'jewelry', and wears orange only if she wants to. Her minions walk among humanity unrestrained, enriched by their experiences.
The invasion waves have slowed down. They had to, or people would have been at the border turning them around, and the government would fight our own folks defending our border, no matter who is in the White House.
There is no shortage of promises in an election year, like increasing the ethanol mandate (regardless of percentage in the fuel, there is a set amount that must be blended in).
But I would think there was at least one more candidate in the pool in 2016 who would have done the things which have been done, without lighting up twitter feeds.
I'll be the first to say that Trump has helped lift some of the damaging red tape and needless nonsense the Obama Administration imposed on my industry (oil and gas), and that has helped put America in the position to be a net exporter of energy, breaking the stranglehold OPEC had on world supply, and undermining even Russia's energy hegemony. That's good, but I don't recall him promising that.
As for the future, in 2020, , we have a panel of gun-grabbers, alien invasion enablers, and anti-energy industry types on the Democrat side, all issues which are deal breakers for me, and things to vote against.
Any conservative candidate would have to do something about the hordes of invaders thrown at our border in well-orchestrated waves, regardless of what they had promised. The wall was something Cruz had been talking about well before I ever heard it from Trump.
Regardless, we fight with the army we have, not the one we wish for.
