16th March 2017, 10:55 PM
... So, this Trump administration sure is going great...
And with how dysfunctional and divided the Republicans are, there's even a real chance that some of their horrible major policy pushes will fail, too! Their party is tearing itself in multiple direction without a large enough majority to just push through anything, and Trump is incompetent and has no idea how to push congress members to vote for bills he wants, the way an actual politician would. Gutting the ACA? Might happen, but it seems less and less likely every day. Distracting people away from Russia? Maybe for the moment, but that's not going to last, the story is not going away. And anyway, this absurd "Obama wiretapped me" lie is surely reminding people of Russia too, as, well, it is a false and made-up story, but why would Obama be supposedly doing such a thing? It's not just because Trump was the other party's nominee after all, it's another sign of Trump's insecurity and weakness.
He is succeeding at one thing, though -- making the government not work. After all, by not nominating people to fill most of the empty spots in the executive branch and then nominating people who despise those departments to lead them, you start tearing apart the bureaucracy, which, if successful, would be one more of those steps towards the dictatorship he so badly wants. Poor little baby Trump only wants everyone to agree with him and do whatever he says without argument, why must all these people -- people who oppose him in the bureaucracy, judges, Democratic members of congress, Republicans on occasion, etc -- oppose him?
And that is the real worst thing about Trump's ascendancy to power. Yes, the damage he's doing to our government, in making it stop functioning, is awful. The potential environmental damage from his administration's global warming denial is incredibly dangerous. If Gorsuch gets through that'd be a disaster for the court. If they repeal the ACA a lot of people will die who shouldn't have. Etc. Those are really bad things... but seeing America slip towards authoritarianism and against the democratic values that are so important to this nation is an incredibly bad sign for the future. Even if we get through the Trump administration with democracy intact, unless the right accepts again that democracy and compromise are essential values, things will stay really bad. (They wouldn't be as bad if liberals would actually vote of course, but that's another issue...) Trump's ignorance, lack of interest in the details about how government works, etc. have so far led to chaos and no major accomplishments. I hope that continues until either the Republicans lose in 2018 and we try to impeach Trump after winning the House (if liberals vote... again, I'm not betting on it, but here's hoping?), but we'll see, maybe the Russia scandal will eventually get bad enough to take Trump down even before that. We will see.
... But seriously, the direction this nation is going in right now is so sad. There is a lot of hope, as the nation is steadily getting more friendly to Democrats demographically over time, but so long as Republicans can gerrymander themselves into majorities, as they currently can as we all know, that may not matter, as we saw in the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections, or in the gerrymandering that helps Republicans hold the House with as many seats as they have, even when they lose nationwide popular votes by wide margins. I hope that we can get past this, because challenges like how horrible global warming is going to get, how to deal with how many jobs computerization is removing from the workforce, etc. require very serious focus. The best of America is when we advocate for ideals like democracy, human rights, civil society groups, charity, immigrants, and more. Of course there have been many failings along the way, many of them because of persistent racism, but I do think that America is a great nation... one that Trump does not respect, because none of those things that make us great bring people to worship his eminence. Again, seeing people elect as leader someone who explicitly rejects the entire basis of what makes this nation what it is, from being a nation of immigrants (think of The New Colossus, the poem that is on that plaque in the Statue of Liberty) to the moral and political values that America has aspired towards since the very beginning is tragic. That Americans would even consider giving such a person so much power, again, is a really bad sign for that future. Will the so far atrocious performance of this administration break people from this trend against government and world leadership, or will it continue? We will see, I guess. Trump is not responsible for it all, he just appeared at just the right time with just the right message. Those forces were building regardless, it is now just even more obvious than it was before. Much like Brexit, it's just insane to see great nations destroy themselves because of unforced errors and racism.
(On a related note, one of the oddest things about Trump's budget is how he boosts up military hard power spending so much, while absolutely gutting everything that gives America its soft-power leadership around the world -- foreign aid, the State Department, immigration, etc etc etc. What is the point of having such a large military when we are simultaneously surrendering our leadership of the world over to Russia, our main rival? It doesn't make much sense. I know Trump himself is probably not smart enough to figure this out, but seriously, what are the people working for him thinking?)
And with how dysfunctional and divided the Republicans are, there's even a real chance that some of their horrible major policy pushes will fail, too! Their party is tearing itself in multiple direction without a large enough majority to just push through anything, and Trump is incompetent and has no idea how to push congress members to vote for bills he wants, the way an actual politician would. Gutting the ACA? Might happen, but it seems less and less likely every day. Distracting people away from Russia? Maybe for the moment, but that's not going to last, the story is not going away. And anyway, this absurd "Obama wiretapped me" lie is surely reminding people of Russia too, as, well, it is a false and made-up story, but why would Obama be supposedly doing such a thing? It's not just because Trump was the other party's nominee after all, it's another sign of Trump's insecurity and weakness.
He is succeeding at one thing, though -- making the government not work. After all, by not nominating people to fill most of the empty spots in the executive branch and then nominating people who despise those departments to lead them, you start tearing apart the bureaucracy, which, if successful, would be one more of those steps towards the dictatorship he so badly wants. Poor little baby Trump only wants everyone to agree with him and do whatever he says without argument, why must all these people -- people who oppose him in the bureaucracy, judges, Democratic members of congress, Republicans on occasion, etc -- oppose him?
And that is the real worst thing about Trump's ascendancy to power. Yes, the damage he's doing to our government, in making it stop functioning, is awful. The potential environmental damage from his administration's global warming denial is incredibly dangerous. If Gorsuch gets through that'd be a disaster for the court. If they repeal the ACA a lot of people will die who shouldn't have. Etc. Those are really bad things... but seeing America slip towards authoritarianism and against the democratic values that are so important to this nation is an incredibly bad sign for the future. Even if we get through the Trump administration with democracy intact, unless the right accepts again that democracy and compromise are essential values, things will stay really bad. (They wouldn't be as bad if liberals would actually vote of course, but that's another issue...) Trump's ignorance, lack of interest in the details about how government works, etc. have so far led to chaos and no major accomplishments. I hope that continues until either the Republicans lose in 2018 and we try to impeach Trump after winning the House (if liberals vote... again, I'm not betting on it, but here's hoping?), but we'll see, maybe the Russia scandal will eventually get bad enough to take Trump down even before that. We will see.
... But seriously, the direction this nation is going in right now is so sad. There is a lot of hope, as the nation is steadily getting more friendly to Democrats demographically over time, but so long as Republicans can gerrymander themselves into majorities, as they currently can as we all know, that may not matter, as we saw in the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections, or in the gerrymandering that helps Republicans hold the House with as many seats as they have, even when they lose nationwide popular votes by wide margins. I hope that we can get past this, because challenges like how horrible global warming is going to get, how to deal with how many jobs computerization is removing from the workforce, etc. require very serious focus. The best of America is when we advocate for ideals like democracy, human rights, civil society groups, charity, immigrants, and more. Of course there have been many failings along the way, many of them because of persistent racism, but I do think that America is a great nation... one that Trump does not respect, because none of those things that make us great bring people to worship his eminence. Again, seeing people elect as leader someone who explicitly rejects the entire basis of what makes this nation what it is, from being a nation of immigrants (think of The New Colossus, the poem that is on that plaque in the Statue of Liberty) to the moral and political values that America has aspired towards since the very beginning is tragic. That Americans would even consider giving such a person so much power, again, is a really bad sign for that future. Will the so far atrocious performance of this administration break people from this trend against government and world leadership, or will it continue? We will see, I guess. Trump is not responsible for it all, he just appeared at just the right time with just the right message. Those forces were building regardless, it is now just even more obvious than it was before. Much like Brexit, it's just insane to see great nations destroy themselves because of unforced errors and racism.
(On a related note, one of the oddest things about Trump's budget is how he boosts up military hard power spending so much, while absolutely gutting everything that gives America its soft-power leadership around the world -- foreign aid, the State Department, immigration, etc etc etc. What is the point of having such a large military when we are simultaneously surrendering our leadership of the world over to Russia, our main rival? It doesn't make much sense. I know Trump himself is probably not smart enough to figure this out, but seriously, what are the people working for him thinking?)