People often ask me, “Why do you support Donald Trump? Why do you think he’s been a good president?” These questions are asked and are expected to be answered briefly in a text message or perhaps in a comment section on a Facebook post.

Although, what is often misunderstood is that an analysis of the Trump presidency or of its significance cannot be divulged by pointing to a specific event in time or a compilation of certain statements.

Instead, one must step back in time into a deep evaluation of America’s slow but certain decline throughout the events of the last decade.

The last eight years were silent witnesses to an unfathomable escalation of hostility both at home and abroad.

As silent observers, we’ve had to bear witness to a demonic plethora of unrelenting terror attacks culminating in the slaughter of innocents. We watched as carnage took place in nightclubs, as children’s lives were taken in celebration of a marathon, as families were killed by vehicle ramming attacks while attending festivals, and the almost daily occurrence of stabbing attacks taking place worldwide.

To the surprise of most, under President Barack Obama’s term, the country felt a reignited tension caused by a vehement decrease in our country’s race relations.

The media’s irresponsible reporting, as noted in the case of Michael Brown, escalated hostilities and perpetuated the narrative that he was killed with his hands in the air in an act of surrender (as eye witnesses purported). But ultimately this narrative was forensically proven to in fact be a lie.

The press’ head-over-heels acceptance of “Hands up, don’t shoot,” led to riots destroying none other than the communities of the protesters, along with the businesses of helpless bystanders.

After what should have been years of progress toward a singular American culture of mutual respect and love for one another, we experienced a steep divide in our path for wholeness. As a nation still reeling from the horrific Charleston Church shooting, we watched in 2016 as five Dallas police officers were assassinated for the crime of working to protect our citizenry.

Not long after, we heard of the torture of an autistic boy in Chicago, whose crime this time was simply the color of his skin.

America watched as an irresponsible foreign policy led to chaos and destabilization in Libya, creating an expanding safe haven for terrorist groups. Accordingly, President Obama’s unquestioned commitment to withdraw from the Middle East created an insurmountable vacuum in Iraq, which would soon become the home of Isis terrorists.

Four hundred million in cash was paid in a midnight flight to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, in what history will come to remember as one of the most inept examples of foreign policy. Not long after was another 1.7 billion dollars sent over. God forbid that money went toward helping homeless veterans.

Worst of all in the spectrum of foreign policy, the world watched as President Obama allowed Assad’s maniacal regime to cross the mystical “red line” and use chemical weapons as they annihilated their own people, creating the largest humanitarian catastrophe since World War II.

But the greatest betrayal did not come as misguided policy. Instead, it came as the unrelenting  quest of the Democratic Party to defend and deny the presence of broken policy.

The left refused to recognize radical Islam as the driving force of terrorism, refused to enforce immigration laws which could have prevented the deaths of innocent Americans such as Kate Steinle, refused to fix a failing Obamacare and refused to put the interest of the American people first.

Candidate Trump wholly envisioned the direct opposite of the direction the Democrats had chosen for this country. He represented the embracement of upholding the laws of our land and the importance of respecting law enforcement.

He stood as a divergence from the path of globalism that was devoted to the shipping of our jobs to other nations. He represented a contrast from the weak and misguided foreign policy that created an unbelievable migrant crisis along with the breathing room and space for terrorists to prosper.

Most important of all was Trump’s ability to speak the truth on the issues that faced our country and the fact that he did not cower in the face of political correctness.

As president, Trump has marked a staunch contrast between himself and the previous administration’s incessant indecisiveness in decision making abroad. President Trump’s swift and decisive strike on the Syrian airfield could not have been more contrasting from President Obama’s Red Line debacle.

Obama’s refusal to act when Assad gassed women and children sent a clear message to the world of American weakness.

In contrast, Trump’s strong but measured strike sent a stern message to the world’s purveyors of evil that the United States will no longer sit idle as civilians are killed in chemical attacks.

Such a message reaffirms our commitment to both our allies and to our unrelenting pursuit of a safer, more prosperous world. It was this commitment that toppled the Third Reich and brought an end to the Cold War. Our unrelenting fight to end evil must continue.

Such a commitment has been further represented by stronger sanctions enacted against North Korea and Iran, and an increase in the amount of funds allocated to our military.

It is also important to note that President Trump has made decisive efforts to end wasteful military spending, best exhibited by his accelerated negotiations that saved $700 Million in taxpayer dollars toward the F-35 jet fighter program.

Domestically we’ve seen national security initiatives designed specifically to put the interests of the American people first. Without a single inch of the wall on the Southern border being built, illegal immigration has decreased 60 percent since Trump’s inauguration. Accordingly, initiatives toward ending sanctuary city funding and increased vetting for foreign nationals are currently underway.

President Trump’s candor toward terrorism and commitment to revamp an inadequate vetting system for foreign nationals denoted much change from both his predecessor and from comparative European nations.

Unlike the Democrats, President Trump has learned from the mistakes of Europe, whose open door policies have allowed for quick jihadist infiltration (as recently demonstrated by the appalling attack at an Ariana Grande concert). Wittingly, Trump has refused to join the foolish European nations in their commitment to open borders and the heightened risk of terrorism that such a policy brings.

On the subject of jobs and trade, Trump epitomized the end of our country’s commitment to globalism when he signed an executive order on Jan. 23, withdrawing our country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

This partnership made it more attractive to move industry abroad: where cheaper labor is available and where our country is no longer allowed to create the tariffs necessary to punish companies for leaving. No longer does the development of other nations take priority over the advancement of our own.

Exuberant enthusiasm in American industry, best exhibited by a record-breaking stock market, led to 473,000 jobs created in the first two months of the Trump presidency. We have additionally seen four executive orders directly dedicated to helping minorities and women achieve further economic prosperity today and in the future.

While some may retort that the Trump presidency has been embroiled in controversy with regards to ties with Russia, let us not forget that to this day, there has been not one piece of empirical evidence purporting any efforts on behalf of the Trump campaign to collude with Russia.

Instead, what we have is an ongoing investigation, started by a superfluous flow of elites in Washington whose minds have already been made up without conclusive results. Trump’s strongest critics are so hell bent on his destruction that they’ll purvey any sensationalist story regardless of the fact that no definitive evidence has been uncovered.

Let us not forget that Democrats do not want change.

They have proven that they do not want to fix a failing Obamacare: a coverage that is enormously expensive to attain and provides insufficient medical coverage.

Nor do they want to fix a broken immigration system, which allows for the promulgation of sanctuary cities whose policies have undoubtedly led to the deaths of innocent Americans. Nor do they have what it takes to protect our youth in cities like Chicago, which has been run by Democrats for 84 years and has one of the worst murder rates in the country.

And of course, they have no intention of looking out for the jobs of our forgotten men and women. For if they did, then perhaps they wouldn’t have suffered such a crushing defeat in the 2016 election. The time for real change has come.

The Trump Era is upon us!

No longer does our president cower and pay ransom to state sponsors of terrorism.

No longer does our president’s executive branch disobey immigration laws to pander to illegal aliens while risking the safety of our citizens.

No longer does our president sit idle as Assad massacres the Syrian people.

No longer does our president turn his back on our allies in an act of appeasement.

No longer does our president’s executive branch take to the defense of criminals before defending our law enforcement.

No longer does our President wait helplessly as our jobs are shipped to foreign nations.

We will not know today, nor tomorrow, nor in a few years time whether the Trump presidency shall be one that will be cherished or admonished. History shall be the ultimate judge of such a question.

But no matter what the outcome may be, Trump has taught us all one thing: that even when everyone in the entire room disagrees with you, you do not have to be afraid to stand up for what you believe in.

To read contributing writer Thomas Chiles’ contrasting opinion, click here.

Ross Mellman is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].