I saw a photo of Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the other day. I’ve made no secret on this blog of my feelings toward Trump, but this particular posting was stimulated by the smirk on McConnell’s face. I’m sure that others might interpret his underlying emotions differently than me and might characterize his expression as a smile for the cameras, but to me it looks like a smirk.
Anyhow, I’ve been watching with considerable interest the posturing and repositioning going on in the Republican Party of late. A parade of party wonks is trooping to Trump tower, looking for Himself to throw them a bone when just a few weeks ago they were doing everything to distance themselves from what was believed to be the Great Trump Train Wreck of 2016. Which, we all now know, turned out to be tragically incorrect, but now that he’s the President Elect, they’re rewriting history to make it seem as if they supported this buffoon from the beginning. Rubio, Ryan, even Romney are now (at least in public) talking about how they can’t wait to “Make America Great Again,” with Trump at the helm. Turns my stomach.
And as I’ve also said in previous posts, Trump shows no signs of any real attempt to heal the divisiveness he and his team created in the country by pandering to the fears and prejudices of disaffected voters. Rather, he’s still up to his odious Twitter wars, his one and only foray into the public spotlight since the election was to take credit for “saving jobs” at a Carrier plant in Indiana (by giving a huge tax break to Carrier which will be paid for by the people of Indiana, by the way), and using the announcement to stage what looked exactly like a typical Trump campaign rally, where he was surrounded by fawning Bubbas who screamed “Lock her up!” at every opportunity. Bunch of morons. Rather than looking Presidential, he looked like a strutting schoolyard bully, bragging about winning the election.
Hardly a step to reunite a divided country.
But the real point is that he (and the Republican party wonks in the House and Senate) are talking about the “mandate” that was given them by the voters. At last count, Hillary was closing in on 3 million more votes in the election than Trump got. Yes, he won the election; I’m not here suggesting otherwise. But a mandate? First of all, a mandate is given by the electorate, not taken. That means that the voters have agreed so strongly with a particular political position that an overwhelming majority of them voted for it. A mandate means that there is strong support across the country for the candidate’s platform. So when the party that actually got nearly 3 million fewer votes is calling that a “mandate,” they are simply delusional. Wisdom, or at the very least pragmatism, would dictate that even if a quirk in the system allowed a person to be elected without winning the popular vote (the electoral college actually makes the final decision), the party of that person should do everything possible to ensure the actual will of the populace would be driving their agenda.
Instead, McConnell has a smirk on his face that says he’s just won the lottery and can’t help but gloat. You do that when you have a mandate. Not when your party actually lost the popular vote by a margin of nearly 3 million voters.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
Hardly a mandate
Anyhow, I’ve been watching with considerable interest the posturing and repositioning going on in the Republican Party of late. A parade of party wonks is trooping to Trump tower, looking for Himself to throw them a bone when just a few weeks ago they were doing everything to distance themselves from what was believed to be the Great Trump Train Wreck of 2016. Which, we all now know, turned out to be tragically incorrect, but now that he’s the President Elect, they’re rewriting history to make it seem as if they supported this buffoon from the beginning. Rubio, Ryan, even Romney are now (at least in public) talking about how they can’t wait to “Make America Great Again,” with Trump at the helm. Turns my stomach.
And as I’ve also said in previous posts, Trump shows no signs of any real attempt to heal the divisiveness he and his team created in the country by pandering to the fears and prejudices of disaffected voters. Rather, he’s still up to his odious Twitter wars, his one and only foray into the public spotlight since the election was to take credit for “saving jobs” at a Carrier plant in Indiana (by giving a huge tax break to Carrier which will be paid for by the people of Indiana, by the way), and using the announcement to stage what looked exactly like a typical Trump campaign rally, where he was surrounded by fawning Bubbas who screamed “Lock her up!” at every opportunity. Bunch of morons. Rather than looking Presidential, he looked like a strutting schoolyard bully, bragging about winning the election.
Hardly a step to reunite a divided country.
But the real point is that he (and the Republican party wonks in the House and Senate) are talking about the “mandate” that was given them by the voters. At last count, Hillary was closing in on 3 million more votes in the election than Trump got. Yes, he won the election; I’m not here suggesting otherwise. But a mandate? First of all, a mandate is given by the electorate, not taken. That means that the voters have agreed so strongly with a particular political position that an overwhelming majority of them voted for it. A mandate means that there is strong support across the country for the candidate’s platform. So when the party that actually got nearly 3 million fewer votes is calling that a “mandate,” they are simply delusional. Wisdom, or at the very least pragmatism, would dictate that even if a quirk in the system allowed a person to be elected without winning the popular vote (the electoral college actually makes the final decision), the party of that person should do everything possible to ensure the actual will of the populace would be driving their agenda.
Instead, McConnell has a smirk on his face that says he’s just won the lottery and can’t help but gloat. You do that when you have a mandate. Not when your party actually lost the popular vote by a margin of nearly 3 million voters.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.