Optimistic for ourselves and our communities, but less so for our country

Ace of Spades posts,

Poll: Americans Very Optimistic for 2020, Citing the Economy, and Often Crediting Trump
—Ace
Most elections in which the country is feeling good about the current situation and expecting even better in the future go to the incumbent party, of course.

A USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll this month asked Americans if they thought things would get better or worse in their own lives in 2020. By an overwhelming 80% to 11%, they predicted their lives would be better. That optimism stretched across demographic lines, although men had a more positive outlook than women (83% vs. 76%) and Southerners a more positive outlook than Midwesterners (84% vs. 74%).
...

By about a 3-to-1 ratio (63% vs. 22%), those surveyed also predicted things would get better next year for their communities.

One bit of data is less optimistic: only 54% expect things to get better for the country.

But that makes sense to me, actually. You'd have to be blind not to notice the country is disintegrating. But that's not really something most voters will say is Trump's fault; I think most people realize the left has gone insane and intends to destroy the country if they're not permitted to rule it.

And meanwhile: Trump has previously come in second in Gallup's poll of most admired men in America.

In the current poll, he ties Obama.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump are tied this year as the most admired man. It is Obama's 12th time in the top spot versus the first for Trump. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row.
Each year since 1948, Gallup has asked Americans to name, in an open-ended fashion, which man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most. This year's results are based on a Dec. 2-15 poll.

What caused all this optimism in November and December?

Vince Golle reports for Bloomberg,

Optimism among America’s small businesses soared in December by the most since 1980 as expectations about the economy’s prospects improved dramatically in the aftermath of the presidential election.

Read more here.

US Steel wants to hire 10,000 workers in America

Pam Key reports at Breitbart,

Wednesday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” the CEO of U.S. Steel Mario Longhi said after the election of Donald Trump, he has “felt an environment of positive optimism where forces are converging to provide for a better environment,” which he hopes means he can rehire up to 10,000 employees.

Longhi said, “I have not felt an environment of positive optimism where forces are converging to provide for a better environment in quite a while. And this is pretty widespread. Customer suppliers, you know, throughout the communities.”

He added, “I’m more than happy to bring back the employees that we were forced to lay off during the depression … It could be close to 10,000.”

If you have grown up with Obama as your president are you fabulously secure and optimistic?

Ann Althouse looks at that question today.

Co-opt him!

Roger L. Simon writes at PJ Media about conservative angst over OP front-runner Donald Trump,

The solution to conservative angst over Trump is simple: stop criticizing him, co-opt him.

If you want Donald Trump to be your friend, if you want him to be as conservative as Ronald Reagan, love The Donald to death. He will be your friend for life. And he will do what you wish, mostly. Praise every conservative statement out of his mouth and ignore the rest. It will probably change anyway.

And speaking of the fine art of ignoring, this leads me to something that Will, Charles Krauthammer and other of our best political minds seem to ignore themselves. Trump has kicked ideology to the curb for good reason.

Whether Trump realizes it or not, and I think he does, the situation in the USA has outgrown the finer points of political theory -- left, right and center or anywhere in between. It's far graver than that.

Barack Obama has murdered America's magnificent sense of optimism -- the very thing that made this country unique, that propelled this country, and therefore much of the world, forward in a generally positive way through Republican and Democratic administrations.

Now it's the reverse. America, the global leader, is a despondent, pessimistic country, leaving a void to be filled by the worst imaginable actors like ISIS. Donald Trump wants to make her great again. Bravo for him. That is something we should all be applauding this Christmas. In fact, it is the most important thing of all.

So if Donald does get the nomination, that's what I'll be focusing on. Indeed, I'll be focusing on that too if it goes to someone else. First, we need our country back. We can worry about the ideological implications later.

Read more here.

Which season are we in?