If you voted for Trump because you wanted him to enact certain policies, I think you have to ask yourself not just whether he has enacted those policies, but whether he has showed any interest in enacting them, or whether he has been effective at arguing for them.
He has done high-profile speeches and press conferences touting his intention of boosting the coal industry and thereby saving jobs, and indeed restoring lost jobs in that industry. If you work in the coal industry and you don't own a coal company, has his presidency helped you?
He promised to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Obviously he couldn't do that singlehandedly: Congress had to pass legislation that he could sign into law, and Congress famously failed to enact such legislation despite trying repeatedly during 2017. Did Trump help those efforts?
He repeatedly proclaimed his intention of ending immigration of Muslims during the campaign. He has issued multiple executive orders trying to do just that, and multiple federal judges have ruled against those orders. At least some of those judges cited Trump's campaign speeches and his tweets after becoming president as evidence of his animus to justify blocking those executive orders. The Supreme Court overruled some of those lower-court rulings to give partial effect to one of those executive orders. That counts as at least a partial victory for him. But was he helpful to this effort?
I think you're getting my point here. If you wanted Trump to bring your concerns front and center, he may have done that: he is a master at drawing public attention. But has he actually been helpful at addressing those concerns?
It's possible to blame any number of other people and institutions for Trump not accomplishing more than he has. But look back on his time in the presidency and ask yourself: has he done a really good job of advancing your concerns?
If you have concerns about his effectiveness as an advocate, you should consider the present moment an unrecognized opportunity.
Fair-minded opponents of Trump (and yes, they exist) are coming around to the idea that his electoral victory was a rebuke to the existing political order. It wasn't just Democrats, but Republicans too, who ignored you who propelled Trump to the White House. A pox on both your houses, your votes said. Some of you probably felt that he was a flawed messenger, but Americans have a long history of voting for the lesser of two evils and hoping for the best.
Now, acknowledging all of this, do you think he's doing a good enough job actually getting the rest of us to listen to your legitimate concerns?
You have an historic opportunity here to force a real and productive conversation on where the country is going and why you feel left out. But Trump is a terrible spokesman for you. He doesn't inspire anybody to listen.
If you think that as a country we can work together to arrive at solutions that are more positive, that work for a lot of us, is Trump really the best guy to make that happen? Don't you think that your legitimate concerns about your own lives deserve a spokesman (or spokeswoman) who not only genuinely shares them (which I doubt Trump does) but who makes the rest of us respect those concerns by making us respect him?
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