Brenden Curry

Sports Editor

This semester, I’m taking Dr. Adam Lawrence’s Introduction to American Government class. Not only do I find this class to be an easy general education class, I find it to be very applicable to how President Trump is governing the country. Thanks to Dr. Lawrence, I learned that the State of the Union address is in our Constitution.

Donald Trump gave his first State of Union address as President of the United States last Tuesday night at the House Chamber in the Capitol Building. To me, his address to the nation showed optimism, despite year-long pessimism and criticism from the Democrats and members of the liberal media.

I applaud the writers of the speech. His articulation reflected pride in being an American and having faith in our country. President Trump’s optimism for America’s future was the main idea that hit me. The use of “the new American moment” has lingo that has not been heard since Reagan.

When President Trump said, ““My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream.” Which clearly aligns to what I’ve learned about how the framers of our Constitution wanted American government to be.

Another quote, “Americans are dreamers too,” means that his accomplishments from last year show that he is fulfilling campaign promises and his American first agenda. To me, it is nice to have a president who understands and sees the dreams that American citizens have.

To make America dream again, President Trump and the Republicans successfully pass tax reform legislation. I am relieved to see tax reform instituted before the end of his first year. President Trump managed to lead the Republican charge to pass tax reform for all Americans, especially those in the middle class, like my family and I.

To me, seeing businesses like Walmart, Comcast and AT&T invest in their employees with bonuses allows Americans economic freedom. It is about time that the American citizen is given extra cash for his or her life endeavors. According to the Trump administration, American should be noticing a difference in their paychecks this month. I shall see if I get a nice pay raise from the super market I work for.

Obviously, there was no surprise that the congressional leadership of the Democratic Party did not stand in applause for the President. The looks on the faces of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer showed their apprehension about the November midterms. To me, this shows that the Democrats have no concrete platform other than hating Trump.

The one Democrat that stood and applauded for the president was Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. His backing of blue-collar American workers who work in West Virginia’s clean coal mines make him a black sheep amongst congressional Democrats. Truly, Manchin’s job is threatened this November because he is running for reelection in a state where Donald Trump won by 41.7 points.

Another Democrat who I think is at risk of losing his seat is Senator Bob Casey, who is the Pennsylvania’s senior senator in the U.S. Senate. His home county, Lackawanna has notoriously voted Democrat over the last few presidential elections. Donald Trump only lost Lackawanna County by a narrow three points. The fact that Donald Trump almost won Lackawanna County shows Senator Casey’s vulnerability.

If the Democrats want to get something done before the midterms, I suggest they focus on President Trump’s vision of needed infrastructure projects. Infrastructure can produce compromises and bipartisanship, but ultimately it can produce jobs. More American jobs correlates with a strong American economy. I’m sure Sen. Casey can help his re-election bid by creating jobs that fix the potholes in our beloved Keystone state.

That way, their reelection campaigns for November could have something other than hating Trump.

I do have a weird feeling that this midterm cycle will break the trends of the minority party gaining control of the legislative branch. American citizens will vote based on their wallets, pocketbooks and paychecks. It remains to be seen if the higher wages expected by the tax cuts will determine whether the Republicans maintain control of the House and the Senate.