Webb: Trump’s creative solutions

After President Trump’s successful nine-day foreign trip, a good question is what can the Democrats, the progressive left and the European left possibly do to slow or halt his “America first” agenda? 

One of the questions many ask is, will former President Barack Obama play a more active role behind the scenes or publicly? I suggest we put this aside for now and wait until there is some, if any, consistency by the former president to preserve his waning legacy. 

{mosads}For the left, the “resistance” must survive and thrive, if eventually only in perception, at all costs.

The Democratic Party has put itself into a box when it comes to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. In both the House and Senate, they must continue to hold hearings and conduct political parlor tricks, as evidence directly linking President Trump does not materialize. At the same time, very little, if any, attention is paid to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Clinton foundation during the election. Even though they’re in the minority, has there been any serious policy proposal by the Democrats to address issues that affect everyday Americans? The answer is, no.

The progressive left, many of whom are in control of the Democratic Party and driving the narrative, are bound to the resistance and work with any and all who oppose President Trump.

At its most extreme, they will resort to violence as we have seen in Berkeley and have many of the so-called antifa riots. In a search for relevance, even former secretary of State and failed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has come out of the woods and joined the resistance, as she puts it. Giving her level of credibility on the left to such a movement only enables them more. 

An effective arm of the democratic left, aka the corporate-owned media, face their own challenges to survive. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in a recent analysis slapped down liberal intolerance and close-mindedness. True liberal exchange of ideas, he states, has been replaced by shutting down the opposition rather than a free and open exchange of ideas. CNN reporter Dylan Byers in diagnosing the problem with the mainstream media arrives at a similar conclusion in different words. 

The European left and a largely socialist democratic leadership is disconnected from the needs of the very citizens they are supposed to serve. Forget about the left or right and focus on sovereignty, self-determination at the local level and their growing discontent and disconnect between the people and elected officials. Their leaders may seemingly snicker as President Trump spoke to them in Brussels about paying their fair share, but it does not change their new reality in the relationship with the United States. While they build a new headquarters — a palace to big government in Brussels — they ignore the plight of the people who pay the bills for their failed European Union experiment.

I haven’t forgotten about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), other lifelong Republicans in Washington and the long-running establishment wing of the Republican Party that do not like the disruptive effect of a Trump presidency. Too many of them rest on their laurels or a past event or achievement that they seek to use as definition of a long time spent not delivering enough solutions for the American people. There is a big difference between one-term experience and the perspective of longer-term service and just maintaining position. Many of these long-running elected officials are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the country sinks further into an ocean of spending and debt.

There is also the bureaucracy and federal government behemoth which includes all the support systems outside of government. Put aside the good people who do exist in government and look at an institutional bureaucracy that is highly inefficient and lacks true accountability in many aspects. Much like the disruptive technology of Uber to the transportation industry, a businessman president who looks for results and often in politically in-artful ways is a direct threat to their comfortable existence. 

Much of what will come from President Trump’s recent overseas trip was done before and more after by the professionals with no cameras present. This is the true work of governing. If successful, some results will be obvious and some not to the general public. For now, I agree with Bob Schieffer of CBS News that the optics of this American president on the world stage was a good one.

At this point many will ask, what can be done about it? There simply isn’t a linear or cookie-cutter answer to this. We must all be vested locally, regionally and nationally if your platform is such to combine efforts wherever possible. If creative solutions solve business problems, the same can be done in the political system, a much more difficult system to reform. 

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot ’25, a Fox News contributor and a frequent television commentator. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.