Not-so-great expectations anymore

Had Trump not intruded before Hillary could complete the "fundamental transformation" of America, which Obama had promised eight years before, I would not now be writing. Solar panels would take forever to power up my computer.

Trump's election, and the prospect of an America awash in oil and bulging with coal led me to a state of quiet eagerness. I thought that with a Republican Congress and a pragmatic nationalist in the White House, surely Obama's progressivist vision could be jettisoned. Not so. I have lowered my expectations.

The swamp is not so easily drained. Obama seeded it with a multitude of GMOs (governmentally minded operatives), who resist Trump's efforts at every turn, like thick mangroves. Obamacare, like a zombie, refuses to die - principally because it is, in fact, already dead, and only a system of elaborate subsidies and mandates keeps it from breathing its last.

Wherever he could, Trump has reversed Obama's brave-new-world social directives. Regulations have been cut asunder, freeing the stock market to climb stratospherically. Like a hot-air balloon, the stock market may rise to its own prudent level, or like a cannon ball, it may fall back to earth. It all depends on whether tax-reform legislation passes Congress. If the "ayes" win, America will be on its wobbly way back to greatness; if the "nays" prevail, the economy will sputter and retreat, the media will write Trump's political obituary, and nothing new will have happened since the heady days of Trump's accession.

My guess is that the Senate will fail to pass the tax-reform bill. My expectation is that the Republicans will accomplish exactly nothing. Forget greatness, or even mediocrity; I will settle for futility.

In 2018, I will vote Republican to make futility inevitable and permanent.

Alexander Lee

West Chicago