An outcomes-based presidency: I like what Trump’s done | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

I’m finding my friends on the left in a celebratory mood after President Trump’s former attorney pleaded guilty to violating some more federal laws last week.

Following the summary conclusions of Democrat leaders, their relentless allies in the national media, and Trump haters everywhere, their collective certainty is that they have finally succeeded in canceling the results of the 2016 election.

With special counsel Robert Mueller and his band of Democrat partisan investigators in Washington and New York – where he referred part of their case – having concluded that payments to a couple of women to buy their silence about alleged affairs with The Donald is a crime, they eagerly anticipate his removal from the White House.

All that is left now is whether the ultimate goal will be achieved through impeachment, resignation, imprisonment, or throngs of villagers carrying torches and pitchforks descending on the Oval Office to haul him away.

My preference is that Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi will authorize impeachment proceedings and finally get even with Republicans for doing that to Bill Clinton in 1998.

Maybe the Democrats won’t remember what happened next – a quick 10-point rise to the highest approval ratings Clinton had ever achieved.

All that aside, let’s just say that it’s curtains for Trump and he’s gone.

So, what has been achieved in the past two tumultuous years by the first president in our lifetime to have never held any elective office before voters handed him the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

We’ll begin the review with the most important thing of all – he defeated Hillary Clinton. Everything that has followed would not have happened had she gained the office she was certain would be hers.

Instead of a passionate devotion to embracing our system of self-government that has made us the most successful nation in all of human history, we would have seen the continuation of the unmistakable Obama-style march to Socialism.

Those two Supreme Court vacancies would have been filled by liberal appointees bent on revising our Constitution because they would see it as outdated, instead of the two men who promised allegiance to its fundamental principles of personal liberty and freedom for all.

Tax reform? Probably, but not the kind of restructuring that would have allowed Americans to keep more of their hard-earned wages, driven the economy to new heights, and saw more people employed than ever before in our history.

Illegal immigration would be overwhelming our country as borders became more irrelevant instead of measures taken to preserve the safety and security of our country while welcoming those from afar with good intentions of becoming productive, legal citizens.

Industry has been relieved from record numbers of burdensome regulations holding back opportunities for a higher standard of living for workers – the opposite outcome had Hillary won and delivered on her promises for more government control of American lives.

While we still have Obamacare, we don’t have the individual mandate penalizing those who didn’t want the government deciding if they should be insured or not.

Much of international trade reforms have resulted in winning for our country instead of allowing other nations to continue to rely on the largess of the United States.

The U.S. has become a net exporter of oil, significantly reducing our dependence on foreign sources that can hold us hostage and threaten our national security.

I’ve run out of space, but you get the picture. There’s credibility in the claim that Trump has achieved more in two years than predecessors had in four or more. Lives have been changed for the better – many in profound ways otherwise never to be known.

Not bad for a guy I have a lot of problems with, but whose outcomes I do like.

Voters will have an opportunity to reinforce their 2016 decisions in just two short years. We’ll see what happens then.