Actually, 2018 Was a Pretty Good Year

Victor Davis Hanson

Aside from the Washington hysterias, 2018 was a most successful year for Americans.

[Christmas] shoppers at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania

"The year 2018 will be deplored by pundits as a bad year of more unpredictable Donald Trump, headlined by wild stock-market gyrations, the melodramas of the Robert Mueller investigation, and the musical-chair tenures of officials in the Trump administration.

"A quarter of the government is still shut down. Talk of impeachment by the newly Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is in the air. Seemingly every day there are sensational breakthroughs, scandals, and bombshells that race through social media and the Internet — only to be forgotten by the next day.

"In truth, aside from the Washington hysterias, 2018 was a most successful year for Americans.

"In December, the United States reached a staggering level of oil production, pumping some 11.6 million barrels per day. For the first time since 1973, America is now the world’s largest oil producer

"Since Trump took office, the U.S. has increased its oil production by nearly 3 million barrels per day, largely as the result of fewer regulations, more federal leasing, and the continuing brilliance of American frackers and horizontal drillers. It appears that there is still far more oil beneath U.S. soil than has ever been taken out. American production could even soar higher in the months ahead." . . .

Mr. Hanson sums up with this:

Europe’s three most powerful leaders — Angela Merkel of Germany, Emmanuel Macron of France, and Theresa May of the United Kingdom — have worse approval ratings than the embattled Donald Trump. In sum, the more media pundits claimed that America was on the brink of disaster in 2018, the more Americans became prosperous and secure.