After six months, now is a good time to take a look at President Trump and how he and his administration have done. I’m going to stay away from tweet analysis and the carnage of late. You get more than enough of that each day on the news. I’m also going to stay away from the impact of billionaires and how having the entire family basically working out of the White House (or another location that can be secured at the taxpayers’ expense) is serving or not serving the American people. My focus is on a few examples that are of particular interest to me.
First, when one wins and still can’t accept the numbers, that should be a real clue to what is coming. The President still can’t to this day accept the election results. He insists that he got more votes, that Hillary cheated, and that he should have not only won the electoral college but the popular vote as well. Now it only gets worse, as he uses that lie to justify his ongoing effort to disenfranchise as many voters as possible. It’s like only certain citizens should have the right to vote. Backing that direction and part of Trump's leadership team on voter suppression is our own Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, who has already put this agenda into practice in Kansas.
President Trump’s action to abolish as much regulation as possible will also have serious impacts. Administratively, eliminating regs that are the guts of how a law is implemented is his shortcut to rolling back much of the progress of the last 30 plus years. I know some changes are needed but not arbitrarily done in this way. We can be assured that whatever the problem was in the beginning, that problem will be back. Whether the focus was health, safety, the environment, or other issues, the problems will resurface.
The President seems to have no respect for any of his living predecessors, in stark contrast to the historical nature of former Presidents almost being a club. Their advice and counsel could have been of value to a man with literally no experience. It would have sent a message to the people of his support for non-partisan action in addressing many of the key challenges we face, and doing so for the benefit of the entire country, rather than one particular party or person.
His all-out effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), despite the push-back from citizens as well as much of the health industry, simply because of a campaign promise, makes no sense. He would have been applauded from many corners if he could have just stepped up and said, “let’s work together to correct the agreed-to flaws of the ACA.” And his current message of “let it fail,” is hardly a sign that any responsible leadership will be coming from him in the near future.
And then there is Russia. President Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave. He was the ultimate in labeling Russia as the Evil Empire and would likely be shocked at the Trump approach to foreign affairs and especially to Russia. And then, on top of that, the unbelievable entanglements the whole Trump family has with business, politics, and government. Now with the President and close staff and family lawyering up and asking who all he can pardon, it just might be that the truth is not far away.
The jury is still out and will be for sometime, but with this much smoke, at some point there will be found fire. What amazes me is how willing Republican leaders are to look the other way. In contrast, if Hillary had won, the issue of her private server alone would have led to “lock her up,” followed by impeachment from the House and the Senate throwing her out of office. Now imagine if there was even the slightest possibility of collusion with a foreign adversary on the part of her campaign; my guess is there would be a race to see who could draw up the impeachment articles first. But instead, today's Republicans seem to be in denial of the facts coming from our intelligence community—blatantly choosing politics above our country's national security interests.
I can only hope that these months of “American carnage” have been a wake up call that will force elected officials and citizens to reevaluate their views on what is important for the integrity of our government and the future of our country.
First, when one wins and still can’t accept the numbers, that should be a real clue to what is coming. The President still can’t to this day accept the election results. He insists that he got more votes, that Hillary cheated, and that he should have not only won the electoral college but the popular vote as well. Now it only gets worse, as he uses that lie to justify his ongoing effort to disenfranchise as many voters as possible. It’s like only certain citizens should have the right to vote. Backing that direction and part of Trump's leadership team on voter suppression is our own Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, who has already put this agenda into practice in Kansas.
President Trump’s action to abolish as much regulation as possible will also have serious impacts. Administratively, eliminating regs that are the guts of how a law is implemented is his shortcut to rolling back much of the progress of the last 30 plus years. I know some changes are needed but not arbitrarily done in this way. We can be assured that whatever the problem was in the beginning, that problem will be back. Whether the focus was health, safety, the environment, or other issues, the problems will resurface.
The President seems to have no respect for any of his living predecessors, in stark contrast to the historical nature of former Presidents almost being a club. Their advice and counsel could have been of value to a man with literally no experience. It would have sent a message to the people of his support for non-partisan action in addressing many of the key challenges we face, and doing so for the benefit of the entire country, rather than one particular party or person.
His all-out effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), despite the push-back from citizens as well as much of the health industry, simply because of a campaign promise, makes no sense. He would have been applauded from many corners if he could have just stepped up and said, “let’s work together to correct the agreed-to flaws of the ACA.” And his current message of “let it fail,” is hardly a sign that any responsible leadership will be coming from him in the near future.
And then there is Russia. President Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave. He was the ultimate in labeling Russia as the Evil Empire and would likely be shocked at the Trump approach to foreign affairs and especially to Russia. And then, on top of that, the unbelievable entanglements the whole Trump family has with business, politics, and government. Now with the President and close staff and family lawyering up and asking who all he can pardon, it just might be that the truth is not far away.
The jury is still out and will be for sometime, but with this much smoke, at some point there will be found fire. What amazes me is how willing Republican leaders are to look the other way. In contrast, if Hillary had won, the issue of her private server alone would have led to “lock her up,” followed by impeachment from the House and the Senate throwing her out of office. Now imagine if there was even the slightest possibility of collusion with a foreign adversary on the part of her campaign; my guess is there would be a race to see who could draw up the impeachment articles first. But instead, today's Republicans seem to be in denial of the facts coming from our intelligence community—blatantly choosing politics above our country's national security interests.
I can only hope that these months of “American carnage” have been a wake up call that will force elected officials and citizens to reevaluate their views on what is important for the integrity of our government and the future of our country.
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