Trump: A Wrench in the Gear
by Jessica Joy De Jesus
As a policy analyst, Will Dominguez trusts his data. The recent American University graduate is a registered Republican in the blue state of New Jersey, and the data do not show the state going red. Dominguez said that he does not feel compelled to vote during the midterm elections because his conservative vote will not make an impact. However, Dominguez is confident in his party keeping the majority in the House and even gain seats in the Senate: “The Democrats look like they have a really good chance of getting the House, the best chance they’ve had in a while at least. [But] I think that the Republicans are going to maintain the House.”
“I started out as a Libertarian and I still firmly believe that when government is best is when government is least,” said Dominguez. Although he started as a Libertarian, he began to lose faith in the Conservative leaders, and became desensitized to politics.
And then came 2016.
“Trump for a lot of people was like a bull in a china shop. For me it was like a wrench in the gears,” said Dominguez. He said that leaders like Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton were one in the same in his eyes. For Dominguez, Trump was different — “Trump seemed like a candidate that was not only going to piss off all the people who voted for these people [past Presidents] in the first place but also slow down some of that [regulation] and I really saw that as a good thing.”
Although Dominguez supports the President, he said: “I don’t condone everything Trump says or does. It would have to be situational.”
Dominguez said he is pleased with what Trump has done for the American economy in the time being. He is hopeful for a second term for the current President, but he is also looking at the future critically: “Employment is up, the stock market is up, who knows if this is a trend that started in the Obama administration. That’s not really what I’m concerned about. What I’m concerned about is can we maintain it? And how can we make sure that it’s sustainable?”
