OPINION: Looking forward to approaching the Trump era with optimism

Life is lived forward but understood backward. It’s not my quote but I heard this once and think it is good advice for a nation so divided.

As the new year begins, I hear people in every venue say how tired they are of the divisive mood all around us. Then I turn on the national news and all I hear about are past events. The national news media has this incessant need to constantly drag up the past.

Case in point: Jan. 6. The national media has felt the need to revisit that sad day over and over again since New Year’s Eve. Actually, they have been harping on it the entire election. It didn’t change the outcome of the election as they hoped. I won’t belittle what happened. It was a tragic event. However, the politics of it remain. Could President Donald Trump have stopped it? We will never know. I personally think he did too little, too late. This was a case of a man delighted that there were others as angry as he was regarding the election outcome. Did he think it would turn violent? I doubt that. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi obviously didn’t either, or she would have acted on bringing in the National Guard as was recommended to her. Many in the crowd that day were surprised as it turned violent. But as we have all seen, it only takes a few bad apples to turn a crowd and all of a sudden it is a movement out of control.

Out-of-control behavior is what we all watched as the Black Lives Matters movement was infiltrated with those whose intent was to do nothing but cause chaos and destruction. We were all in horror as business after business was burned down and vandalized in Seattle and Portland by these groups. But I ask you: Has anyone seen the press replay those riots? They have not. It’s certainly not their best moment in nonpartisan news, nor was the coverage provided equal time.

This week, Mark Zuckerberg has announced he is canning fact-checkers for a community board to allow more free speech. He admits he was pressured by the Biden administration to bury and label the Hunter Biden laptop story as untrue, as well as all information regarding problems, symptoms and reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine. I haven’t seen much play on this on the national news; it is a buried story. If it had been the other way around, well, it is just too frustrating for words.

Can we move on from the polarization? I think so, but it can only happen if we insist upon it. We also have to choose to watch events with new eyes. Let’s see how this new Trump administration plays out. I expect it will be dramatically different than last time. If you are a Democrat, I don’t expect you to love it. But there are things that we should all want as Americans.

A better economy and groceries that don’t cost a fortune because we are fuel-dependent, for starters.

The Trump administration will make fuel more abundant, but it can’t control grocery chains that are price-fixing. As the price of delivery falls, we must make sure at a local and state level that we engage with these companies. As Elon Musk and his crew start looking at waste, I can guarantee the fireworks will fly on all sides. The bloat in federal agencies is extreme. I read a report recently that some federal agencies have as many as 60% of their employees still working from home (since COVID-19) and admit that they aren’t even sure what some of them are doing. It will be painful to downsize Washington, D.C., and for lawmakers to let go of the pork going to their states. But it must be done for the good of us all. At a minimum, it must at least be recognized and allowed to begin. Maybe that could begin with the executive branch bringing the budget and negotiating with Congress before we need to talk about government shutdowns, the way it was designed to be done. As waste is cut, fair coverage will be imperative for success.

Immigration is another hotbed the national media has helped to create. If one goes back to the early days of the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton presidencies, they were tougher on immigration. Obama couldn’t take the criticism and caved. All he needed to do was address how illegal families and children were detained.

One of the biggest exaggerations by the national media is the idea of mass deportations. I listened to the new border czar and he said he had three priorities:

Close the border to illegal aliens.

Round up hundreds of thousands of felons and gang members who are hurting Americans.

Find the 300,000 children who may or may not have been bought into this country for sex trafficking. These are, you know, the ones who we have no records on. When they are found, will the national media tell you how bad it was? I doubt it.

My kids in their 30s tell me it’s time we all stop listening to the national media and start shopping a wide variety of podcasts for balance. That might be my New Year’s resolution. Maybe then I can hear some truth and balance. I am determined to look forward with optimism.

Join me.

Agidius represented Latah and Benewah counties in the Idaho House. She lives in Moscow.