Donald Trump's first 100 days have been a big success - at least when it comes to vicious racist...
SUNDAY, APR 30, 2017 10:00 AM EDT
Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been a big success — at least when it comes to vicious racist policies
Amid all the failures, Trump can claim a big win: He has pursued overtly racist policies that will shape our future
SEAN MCELWEE
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been defined by failure. After signing a flurry of Congressional Review Acts that will accomplish key goals like poisoning streams and reducing worker protections, he has done virtually nothing through the legislative process. His major initiatives have gone down in flames: the travel ban is in legal limbo and the repeal of Obamacare has been consigned to the ash heap, despite several attempts to revive it. Tax reform continues to be shoved further and further into the future, along with the border wall. All the while, the debt ceiling still looms in the background. Trump still has hundreds of open positions to fill across the government.
The president’s most touted accomplishments have been the appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court (no small feat) and his incoherent bombing campaigns, which have been met with salivating press coverage. But, while progressives cheer on his failures and pundits chide him, Trump’s 100 days have a dark underside. Where Trump has been most successful is his campaign to reshape the demographics of the United States and roll back progress on racial justice.
Trump’s Key Success
Since becoming president, Trump has quickly moderated his stances that were at odds with GOP orthodoxy. He won’t be withdrawing from NATO, nor will he label China a currency manipulator. He won’t be melding economic populism to racism, as have Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (who nationalized the energy sector), Polish conservative leader Jarosław Kaczyński (whose Law and Justice Party endorses a child tax credit) or French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Infrastructure seems to have fallen off Trump’s agenda for now, and contrary to his promise to provide health insurance for all, Trump pushed for Paul Ryan’s health care bill, which would have left millions uninsured. He backed cuts to Medicaid (despite his promise not to touch it) and has proposed massive tax cuts for the Republican donor class. Far from pursuing a non-interventionist foreign policy, Trump has been sucked into the Blob and embraced interventionism. The only area where he has distinguished himself from the GOP establishment is his aggressive pursuit of deeply racist policies.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/04/30/donald-trumps-first-100-days-have-been-a-big-success-at-least-when-it-comes-to-vicious-racist-policies/
