Work to be done

In his second term, President Reagan focused more on foreign policy. It was during this time that he had several meetings with the Soviet leaders. He once complained that he couldn’t seem to get anything done, however, because they kept dying on him. Indeed, that was the case until a man named Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet Union’s leader in 1988. It was while Gorbachev was the Soviet head of state that President Reagan gave his famous “Tear Down this Wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. While it still took years for the wall to come down, Reagan’s speech was certainly the impetus for it happening. His policies also brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union, freeing the Russians from the grip of the communists, as well as Eastern Europe.

Without going into detail of how America’s military was strengthened during the Reagan presidency, suffice to say, the three simple goals he set out to accomplish in his 1980 campaign, he had done. Even critics of Reagan would have to admit, he was a man of his word and he was a man who loved America.

President Donald Trump is, in many ways, a lot like Reagan, albeit they have different styles and different personalities. However, President Trump also set out a few simple goals when he ran for president in 2016 and, as pointed out above, put them all under a similar umbrella of “Make America Great Again.” It is my belief that Trump’s presidency was on a similar trajectory to Reagan’s, until maybe recently.

Like Reagan, President Trump has focused his first term in office on domestic matters and fixing America’s economy. When he took over the helm from President Obama, the unemployment rate was 5.7%. Before recent events surrounding COVID-19, it was a little over 3%, statistically non-existent. Despite being dogged by the Democrats’ impeachment efforts, President Trump had achieved one of his campaign goals: to make the American economy great again.

In a second term, was President Trump ready to focus more on foreign affairs as Reagan had done? Was he also going to focus on a communist regime? The table had certainly been set with trade negotiations and agreements already in place with the People’s Republic of China. President Trump had also shown his hand in this regard with statements he had made about the Chinese government and how they failed to do business fairly.

While COVID-19 certainly has caused a lot of disruption, not only in the United States, but also in other countries, I can understand why President Trump is ready to lead us back to work and back to living our lives. We are not a people known around the world for living in fear. We are not known for hiding in our homes or shrinking from challenges. We Americans, after all, fought a revolutionary war while small pox ravaged our infant country. We Americans tested our still young republic over the bane of slavery. While the Spanish flu raced around the globe, we Americans entered the trenches of World War I to bring about victory. In World War II, we did it again.

President Trump knows it is time for us to put aside our fear of the “invisible enemy” and to replace it with our faith in God. He knows there is work to be done and there just might be another great population of people who need to be freed from a communist regime.

A former member of the San Carlos City Council and mayor, Matt Grocott has been involved in political policy on the Peninsula for 17 years. He can be reached by email at mattgrocott@comcast.net.