This week marks the first full year of Donald Trump’s presidency. While the media would have you believe he is the worst president in history and his policies are literally destroying the world, the fact is, like him or not, the American people have had some really big wins this first year—and the biggest winners are moms!
For those of us who determined it a complete waste of time to try and navigate through the sea of nonsense to find the real news, I, as a mom, thought it prudent to give a true accounting of Trump’s first year—and why it was such a big year for moms.
Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is a carefully crafted name which in practice did the exact opposite of anything neutral. In spite of the claims that is was about fairness, freedom, and low prices, it actually regulated something that was already free and restricted it—allowing the government to determine who succeeded and failed; who was allowed to use it and who wasn’t. This was a direct hit on moms who have become the biggest beneficiaries of the worldwide web.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution women often used their skills and talents to earn income. It helped support struggling families and allowed them opportunities to do what they enjoyed. It was the best anti-depressant for a tough life—doing what you love and sharing the rewards with your family. The Industrial Revolution brought new innovation and cheaper prices for products which made selling hand-made soap door to door less appealing to for the seller and less practical for the buyer. It wasn’t the end of homemade businesses but it certainly stunted the growth. Rosie the Riveter put a new face on women earning incomes and the sexual revolution thrust women outside the home to “make their own money”—often times doing things they didn’t enjoy—but it was income.
The internet changed all that. With Facebook, Etsy, Pinterest, EBay, and the myriad of other platforms available, the mom market has literally exploded. The little guy—or little gal in this case—was suddenly given a powerful platform to compete with the big boys—and win! Despite what Hillary Clinton and the radical feminists would have us believe, what mothers want most isn’t the right to kill their own offspring, but the opportunity to be with them.
When we founded HomeMakers for America in 2004 we would receive at least two to three emails a week from women wanting to know if we knew of any opportunities where they could work from home. Since then the internet has grown to epic proportions giving mothers the opportunity to use their talents, market their skills, and earn their own income, while still being home with their children. Net Neutrality was a government mandated mass of regulations with a bunch of people sitting around a table deciding who would and wouldn’t succeed, who could and couldn’t open businesses, and what those businesses could and couldn’t do. Of course big companies loved Net Neutrality—it allowed them to use the government to stifle competition. Brick and mortar stores are closing and downsizing all over the country because moms are highly successful in selling everything from clothes to candy from their kitchen tables via the internet. Brick and mortar stores are being driven to the internet by the market and forced to compete with moms like Victoria Molyneux who started selling dresses on Facebook so she could stay at home with her daughter and now runs a multi-million dollar label with A-list fans.
You know something hinky is going on when the big supporters of Net Neutrality are the government and big established corporations. Even my millennial son realized the fraud of Net Neutrality when he received an email from Netflix stating without Net Neutrality they wouldn’t have become the business they are today—even though they grew into the business they are today before Net Neutrality was ever conceived.
Ending Net Neutrality was a big win for the American people—especially the millions of mom bloggers, shoppers, and business owners that now thrive on a—once again—free and open market through the internet.
Taxes
No matter what anyone says or how the media tries to convince us otherwise, the American people pay way more than enough taxes! While the Tax Reform Bill passed by congress doesn’t come close to reaching my ideal tax plan (which includes repealing the 16th Amendment) it is a big step in the right direction (especially in today’s political climate) and another huge win for moms.
A few years ago I spoke with a mom from Ohio who was extremely frustrated after receiving a bill from her children’s public school for mandatory school fees and a list of supplies she was required to provide for each child. She had just returned from paying an accountant to help her navigate through an overcomplicated tax form. After calculating all the taxes she and her husband paid that year—federal income tax, state income tax, county income tax, property tax, and a tax to the city her husband worked in simply for the privilege of driving into work every day, they found they still owed $350. She was obviously frustrated and perplexed to receive a bill from the school. After paying all those taxes, and barely making ends meet, her obvious question was, “what exactly am I paying taxes for?”
Saying families are taxed to death is an understatement and moms really feel the pinch. Especially hard hit are single moms struggling to be everything for everyone. Many moms feel forced into the workplace to supplement a struggling family income and those who choose to work outside the home often have to work longer hours and harder shifts to make enough money to make it worth it.
The bottom line is, it’s our money. It is our life, time, and energy spent to earn it and our right to own it. Any policy that takes less tax money from families is a good policy that directly benefits moms. That makes moms the biggest winners of the Trump Tax Reform. And I personally am very much looking forward to spending half of that $1,000 bonus my husband is now getting.
Transgender bathrooms
When President Obama mandated schools in America to provide transgender bathrooms and locker rooms, moms came out in mass protest. We’d already been bombarded with Common Core and Comprehensive Sex Education. Forcing open-sex bathrooms on our children was the final straw.
It is important that we use correct language and empathy weighed against Constitutional authority when discussing this issue. Case in point, there is no such thing as a transgender bathroom because there is no bathroom with a transgender label on it. There are, however, unisex and family bathrooms available in many places which those struggling with gender identity can use. An open-sex bathroom policy is one that allows men to use women’s bathrooms and women to use men’s. It is as simple as that. If stores like Target want to create an environment that makes moms and children feel unsafe that is totally their right as a private business—just as it is my right to choose not to shop there. But when you are required by law to send your children to a publicly-funded, government-mandated school where you can be jailed and/or have children taken away for not sending them (unless you have a government-approved alternative) that is a much different issue.
Open sex bathrooms and locker rooms put all children in an unsafe environment where the potential for compromising situations increases dramatically. While President Obama decided to use our children as political pawns, President Trump decided to support moms and their children and revoked President Obama’s mandate.
It is important to understand that no president has the right or authority to force any school, school district or teacher to do anything. All the president can do is bribe or blackmail schools with our own tax money. Which is why we need to completely disband the Department of Education but that’s an article for another day. Bottom line is, President Obama threatened to withhold tax-payer money from schools that didn’t comply to his will and President Trump stated that would not be a requirement to schools receiving tax-payer money. Now the battle of the bathrooms is back in the local districts where it belongs and where we as moms are close enough to fight it. That is a huge win for moms.
I have a hard time believing President Trump hates women when he’s already done more to support women and women-owned businesses his first year in office than Hillary Clinton or feminism has done in my entire lifetime.
Let’s be clear (to coin a phrase) Trump is neither the savior nor the devil. He is just a man serving in a constitutional office. He, like anyone serving in public office, should be evaluated by his policies, not how many cokes he drinks, who enters a door first, or what shoes his wife wears.
Like him or not, whether you voted for him or not, you can’t deny there are great things happening in America. So let’s focus on the real news, measure Trumps performance in fairness and equity—weighing his policies next the Constitution, and give credit where credit is due
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