“It all depends on what the definition of is, is.” And with those words Bill Clinton went into the annals of history as a classic linguist. George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” and thumped his chest at the demise of both Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Nation. Hillary Clinton laughingly said “We came, we saw, (we conquered) he’s dead,” about Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan Nation.
If you are a world leader, especially the American kind, you just have to proclaim it to make it so. Regardless of whether the reference is to sex or nation building a simple utterance, with certainty, is all that is needed to make the mass believe you have accomplished the goal.
After Candidate Trump dissed the record stock market highs under former President Obama as illusory, President Trump now proclaims the current new highs are the result of his good works. In addition the unemployment rate, previously described by the candidate as numerical fantasy, has now, magically, become the president’s go-to point of reference for his successful jobs creation. It seems the president is a quick study and has learned from his predecessors that all you have to do is say it has been accomplished and the mass will believe it is so, regardless of the truth.
After suffering several “repeal and replace” failures, a legislative victory is sorely needed by the White House. It is now very obvious that Trump will utilize the historic tactic of proclaiming victory regardless of the facts. It started with DACA (the Dreamers) and now will progress to tax reform.
It is irrelevant whether taxes go up, as some like Matt Drudge proclaim, or go down as the Donald has promised. The only thing that matters is that the president sits in the Oval Office and signs something that is entitled TAX REFORM BILL. Upon signing he will proclaim, like George W., “mission accomplished.” He will state that he has delivered on a campaign pledge, will create millions of jobs (not in the field of tax accounting) and is on the road to making America great again. All this by simply saying it is so.
Next we will see Trump move into infrastructure. You can expect to see an unusual amount of hard hats in your neighborhood looking very carefully at the pot holes. You know the scene, 6 guys standing around the pot hole with coffee in hand. After thirty minutes there will be unanimity of agreement that it is a pot hole and it should be fixed. This will not be the massive American rebuild that has been promised by every president since Jimmy Carter but most politicians will sign on and after all a pot hole repair is a step in the right direction. Infrastructure is still infrastructure whether large or small.
The third of the campaign trifecta, after tax reform and infrastructure, will be defense. Threatening a third rate nuclear power like North Korea or continually sanctioning Russia and China will grow old and cold to an electorate that demands action. I sense that something like an attack on a boarding house in non-nuclear Venezuela, which is reputed to harbor socialist loving Maduro-ite terrorists, will do the trick. This will give the Donald another opportunity to proclaim a victory and another fulfillment of a campaign promise. He then could tweet- Don’t mess with the big boys, our military is back.
No longer will the 45th be thwarted by the truth of failed campaign promises and exaggerated expectations. He will simply declare “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,” have a Rose Garden celebration, and tweet that he is making America great again. Once again the facts will be in the eye of the beholder.
Tax reform, infrastructure, and defense accomplishing exactly what the president had promised. How do we know? Because he said so.
Mission accomplished.
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