This year was a long and bumpy year in politics. And this article is meant to show that... unlike most articles in the media about how terrible the year went. This year wasn't terrible... it was just a little different.

We all know that we got a new president in the oval office in January, Donald J Trump. He has done a lot while serving in the position most notably his executive orders on immigration. My parents came to this country 18 years ago from India and they were forced to go through a horrible immigration system and I agree with what Trump is doing. While millions of Mexicans and illegal immigrants get protection, people who come here to help our country, attend universities, and work to make a family legally are left waiting in a long line. His policies on "merit-based" immigration is what legal immigration needs.

Another political influence this year is our economy. Unemployment has steadily dropped while the stock market has boomed up by almost 25%. Our GDP has grown by almost 3.5% or a few trillion dollars! I am proud that this year our country is coming out strong and standing up for itself to other world powers.
Another big factor this year is the Russian Collusion in our election. If you would like to check a bit about this please click: http://www.teenink.com/opinion/current_events_politics/article/976818/Muellers-Investigation/ explains a lot. Please check it out.

However, I do have to say that everybody constitutionally is innocent before lawfully proven guilty, even the president. There is also a new Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch. I hope that the Supreme court will now be able to stay at nine members and rule out unconstitutional rulings by the lower courts.

There has also been a lot of bickering in the legislative branch as well. With a 2 member majority in the Senate, the Republicans have had a lot of conflict with passing major legislation. The "skinny" repeal wasn't able to make it through the Senate however the "Tax Bill" was passed just before Christmas. After reading through about three quarters of the actual bill, I have concluded that if you live in a state that does not have high state taxes (high tax states: CA, NY, NJ, etc) and you are a middle income family (70K to 115K per year), you will get about an extra $2,000 in your pocket every year.

There have been many elections this year... most notably the Alabama Special Election where Doug Jones (D) unexpectedly won against Judge Roy Moore (R). Although many political pundits predict that this will lead to the loss of the Republican majority in the Senate and House in 2018, I think the circumstances of this election was different (Roy Moore was a shady character). When Americans get an extra two grand back and see their retirement portfolio double, they will definitely vote for their Republican legislators.
As you can see, this year has been very shaky (Especially with our country getting more and more divided while most news agencies become more and more biased). Let's hope that 2018 becomes a great year and makes our country a better place!