RUTHFULLY YOURS

Although former president Barack H. Obama (D) campaigned and won the presidency twice on a slogan of hope and change, he left his office leaving Americans “frustrated and angry” according to an AP survey analyzed in Fortune, full of “fear and loathing,” deemed Michael Goodwin of the New York Post — both admittedly not Obama fans.  However, even the Obama-friendly Public Broadcasting System (PBS) could only sum up the two Obama terms with “achievements and setbacks.”

That was then; this is now.  Three years into the Donald J. Trump (R) presidency, ABC News, another media outlet hostile to Trump, reports:

US life expectancy rose in 2018 for 1st time in 4 years: Study

Drug overdose deaths are declining for the first time in decades.

Life expectancy in the U.S. rose in 2018, the first such increase in four years, according to a report the National Center for Health Statistics published on Thursday.

The average American man will live to be 76, and the average woman will live to be 81.

Those gains were driven by declines in 6 of the 10 leading causes of death between 2017 and 2018, and a notable drop in drug overdose deaths.

Overdose deaths, after increasing for decades, fell for the first time in 28 years, from 70,237 in 2017 to 67,367 in 2018, according to the report.

“It’s really the drug overdose deaths that are driving that trend,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at NCHS.

Drug overdose deaths, Anderson explained, have a profound impact on average life expectancy because many occur at younger ages than other leading causes of death — cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease.

“When folks die at younger ages, they have a disproportionate impact on life expectancy,” Anderson said. …

Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, praised the efforts individual municipalities have made to drive down drug overdose fatalities.

“These findings reflect overdose trends that we have seen in many jurisdictions in the last year, as overdose fatality rates have stabilized or declined slightly,” he said.  “This is the result of overdose prevention efforts like naloxone distribution, and access to lifesaving medications methadone and buprenorphine, [which] are finally reaching more people.”

This is not the only instance in the Trump presidency where hope and change “are finally reaching more people.”

“Americans More Satisfied With Economy, Security, Race Relations After Three Years of Trump,” headlines PJ Media.  Yes, they’re-Trump backers there, but they were reporting the results of the more presumably neutral Gallup poll, which phrased its findings as follows:

Americans’ Take on the U.S. Is Improved, but Still Mixed

• Most Americans satisfied with country on the economy, national security
• Dissatisfaction still runs high on numerous domestic issues
• Average satisfaction across 27 issues is higher than when Trump took office

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s upbeat view of the nation’s economy, military strength, economic opportunity and overall quality of life will likely resonate with Americans when he delivers his State of the Union address to Congress next week.  Most Americans say they are satisfied with each of these aspects of the country as 2020 begins.  The majority also feel positively about the positions of women and gays in society. …

At the same time, the majority of Americans are dissatisfied with a host of issues that Trump would do well to address. These include a variety of domestic issues such as public education, healthcare, abortion policies and guns — as well as the economic issues of poverty and the distribution of income and wealth.

In just three years of the Trump presidency Gallup discovered this (emphasis added):

Changes Since Trump Took Office

As Trump enters his re-election year, Americans are more positive on eight key issues than they were just before he took office in January 2017.

• Gallup records double-digit increases in public satisfaction with the nation’s economy, security from terrorism, military strength and the state of race relations.
• Satisfaction is also up by between six and nine points on crime, the position of blacks and other racial minorities, the distribution of income and wealth, and the opportunity for a person to get ahead through hard work.

Over the same period, Americans have grown slightly less satisfied on three issues: abortion (down 7 points), the level of immigration (-6) and the environment (-6). (snip)

Americans’ average satisfaction rating for the 27 issues Gallup has tracked consistently since 2001 is now 47%. This is up three points from a year ago and is the highest since the January 2005 poll.

And Trump accomplished all this in spite of or because of the overwhelming negative coverage from most of the media and the farcical impeachment hearings.

Gallup summed up its findings on the current attitudes of Americans as follows:

While large majorities applaud the nation’s economy and military strength, they remain critical of the federal government on several dimensions and see room for improvement in numerous areas related to the health and wellbeing of Americans.

Well, just give Trump five more years — one year remaining in his first term and four more years of his hopefully sure to be second term — and those problems certainly be overcome.

Making America Great(er) Again!  MAGA!