the billy pulpit

At the Republican convention, we heard Trump’s wife Melania say that about her husband in her speech (that, by the way, shamelessly plagiarized Michelle Obama). The full quote from the transcript of her speech is

“He will never, ever give up. And, most importantly, he will never, ever, let you down.”

I am guessing it was meant to make Trump more personal and seem less like a demagogue, coming from his wife. I presume it was hoped that she could provide some sense of who he is from someone who knows him well, but to my ears it came out sounding like a convicted criminal’s mother pleading for leniency from a judge prior to sentencing. A little bit too hard of a sell. And from someone who could hardly be called unbiased.

Now, I suspect that the irony of her words was completely lost on her. I obviously don’t know her nor do I have any sense of her level of self-awareness (let alone her intellect), but stop and think about this for a minute, as she (or her speechwriter) obviously did not. She is Trump’s third wife. He had an affair with her while married to his second wife, with whom he had an affair while married to his first wife. He was rightfully pilloried for bragging about sexual assault, and she was one of the people calling his words unacceptable. Yet here she is in front of the entire world asking everyone to believe her when she talks about how trustworthy this creature is. I wonder if she helped him lie to the woman to whom he was married while Trump was sleeping with her during their affair? And she’s asking us to believe her when she says how trustworthy he is?

Let’s dig just a bit deeper here. He’s been involved in literally thousands of lawsuits, most of them over breach of contract. He’s well known for refusing to pay the people he contracted for jobs in his building projects, and then fighting them in court when they try to get the compensation they both agreed to. So I doubt if very many of those people view him as trustworthy.

He is strongly opposed to a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion, all the way back until 1999 when he was for it (or at least he said he was on “Meet the Press”). He was a great friend of the Clintons, right up until he decided not to be (presumably when it was politically expedient). He stated in 2014 that “the biggest problem confronting the US was Russia’s Putin”, right up until he realized he was “so smart, such a strong leader.” And on and on.

And at the Republican National Convention Melania tells us “he will never, ever, let you down.”

Until it becomes convenient for him to do so.

I’ve posted several times that I simply don’t understand why anyone would vote for Trump to be President. He’s unqualified, both experientially and by temperament. He’s never held political office and yet he’s going to be taking charge of the most important political office in the United States (and arguably the world) in a few days.

Turns out that it’s precisely his lack of qualifications that his supporters were looking for. I heard “He’s an outsider politically. He’s rich, so he can’t be bought by the wealthy or by special interest groups. He’s going to fight for the little guy and get things done because he’s not beholden to any political group. He’s his own man.” And he said he’s the only person who can fix the problems the US is facing.

It’s clear that the people who voted for him (and were not part of the “Anybody but Hillary” crowd) wanted an “anti-politician.” OK, I can understand that; the perception was that politicians were the problem. Following the Recession, the only people who seemed to really recover were the wealthy. Middle class is shrinking, and the American Dream seems to be getting farther and farther from reality for most people. So I see why people want an anti-politician. But that’s only half of the need. Wouldn’t you want someone who has the potential to be able to turn that around?

Instead, what did we get? The guy who was going to “fight for the middle class” has appointed some head-scratching doozies, if his goal was to protect the middle class. To “oversee” Wall Street and presumably to rein in the greed that led to our crippling Recession, he’s appointed his uber-wealthy cronies, who came from the very institutions blamed largely for our economic collapse. To care for our environment, Trump selects for the head of the EPA someone whose career has been made suing that very department to ease regulatory oversight. (Remember that environmental laws are there to protect citizens from the damage to our lands, water and air caused by those whose only interest is profit.) This gem of an appointment has the added “benefit” that he refuses to accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that our climate is being changed by human activity. Trump has appointed a woman who believes in a voucher system to run the Department of Education. On the surface this sounds like it should work, but in practice vouchers hurt the poor. Wealthier parents move their kids to private or religiously-supported educational systems because they can afford to make up the difference between the value of the voucher and the cost of the non-public schools, which poor people cannot afford. So money that would have paid for good schools in the inner cities is syphoned off. And don’t forget, a good education is the foundation of a healthy middle class.

By his early choices in his cabinet, Trump has made it clear that he has no intention of “fighting for the middle class.” So back to his other “qualifications.” Yes, he’s rich (how rich is in some question), and he’s said over and over how he’s the only person able to fix what’s wrong, but in what worldview does wealth and arrogance make someone appropriate for the Presidency? Turn it around:  how likely would it be for a career politician to succeed in running a large company? Or would you expect the head of a prestigious university to be able to run an airline? Or a construction company? The experience and knowledge a leader brings to the position is exactly what make them the right candidate. A little over two years ago my company announced that our then-CEO was leaving and we would be searching for a new CEO. We were told it would take at least 6 months, probably closer to a year to find the right person (it took just under a year). And this is a fairly small company with a couple thousand employees and sales under a half a billion. Not insignificant, but our annual budget is dwarfed by every single Cabinet department, and would be a rounding error in almost any governmental budget. Anyhow, our search was for someone who had global experience, in the nutrition field, with a deep understanding of the market (not just “nutrition,” but specifically the doctor who would use nutrition as a therapy.

We took a year to find just the right person, because understanding our market and product was considered essential to success. Our new CEO is a very bright and capable man, but he also recognized that he needed to understand our particular niche so he brought in experts to help him. He is a fast learner, and humble enough to listen to people who know their trade. Trump doesn’t understand government (and doesn’t care to, by all evidence). He refuses to consult experts, nor even believe them when they talk about their area of expertise. Right now he’s warring with the Intelligence community, impugning both their motives and credibility following their report that Putin’s agents hacked into DNC email servers with the express intent of influencing our election. (I think the reason that threatens him is obvious.) He says “he knows things the generals don’t” when it comes to conducting war in the Middle East (this from the draft-dodger who used “bone spurs” to get four consecutive exemptions from military service). And on and on.

So while it’s clear what people were upset about, it still makes no sense that they would turn to Trump as their solution.

Just shy of 8 years ago, on the night of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the leaders of the Republican Party met to discuss their strategy for the upcoming administration. Recall that they had just lost the Presidency to Obama, and they were faced with a Democratic House and Senate as well. The results of their discussion have become abundantly clear over the last 8 years:  they decided to do everything they could to prevent Obama’s administration from being successful. Mitch McConnell stated in 2010 that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Seriously? The single most important thing?? Not, oh maybe helping people get an education so they could improve their lot in life? Not ending institutional racism? Not helping to fix health care? What about taking some kind of action to help end what turned out to be the worst recession in 80 years, that was the result of their poor oversight of banking policies? And let’s not mention doing a little to extricate us from the longest and most costly war in American history? Nope; his one and only mission was to obstruct Obama from getting re-elected. And he and his cronies did everything they could to prevent anything President Obama proposed.

How did that work out for ya, Mitch, ol’ buddy? Remind me again…didn’t Obama get re-elected anyway? And didn’t he have the highest approval ratings of any outgoing President in history? And didn’t you preside over the collapse of the Republican hegemony, allowing a buffoon like Trump to get elected? Remember, he defeated something like 30 other Republican candidates, every one of whom had more of the backing of the Republican party, right? (True, now you’re crowing about your phony “mandate,” but remember that Trump actually lost the general election by 3 million votes, or 49% to 51%. But that’s another rant). And in contrast to President Obama’s historically high approval rating, your Congress (controlled by the Republicans, remember) had the lowest approval rating in the history of the country.

Anyhow, against all predictions (including from Republicans themselves), Trump won. And now the very same people that he viciously mocked during the campaign are falling all over themselves to march in his parade. Marco Rubio seems to forget that Trump called him “little Marco” and implied that his father had something to do with JFK’s assassination. He called Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” and said that Carson was too boring (or low energy) to hold office. And on and on. But they’re all slobbering over themselves in support of this moron, because they think they can get a place at the trough. Even Romney, when Trump dangled a Cabinet position in front of him, gave a speech extolling the guy he called “a phony” during the campaign.

And now we’re hearing the calls from this same Republican leadership that it’s time to “come together” in support of our new President-elect. When I hear that I think of the 70-plus times the Republicans voted to appeal the Affordable Care Act (which, lest we forget, was patterned after Massachusetts’ plan, a Republican creation). I think of their refusal to do their Constitutionally-mandated job and hold hearings (and a vote) on the President’s Supreme Court nominee. I think of all the ways they refused to do their job, let alone work toward a consensus (or any agreement at all). I think of all the ways they obstructed an honest, decent man and see nothing but hypocrisy. And now they have the hubris, having lost the election by 3 million votes, to ask for the majority of the voters to get behind this ludicrous buffoon.

And I think, “Nope, I won’t be coming together with them.”

One of the things that Trump mocked Clinton for was her lack of face time with the media. He said she was afraid to hold a press conference because they’d pull her house of cards down (my words, but you get the intent).

That’s why it’s especially ironic that, contrary to every president-elect in modern history, Trump (in his infinite wisdom) has cancelled the only press conference he had scheduled since the election. He says he’s going to have one real soon though. And it will be such a good press conference; the best press conference ever.

We’ll see.

But he hasn’t been shy about using his Twitter account. He must have insomnia, since a lot of his tweets come out at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. Or maybe he has Kelly Ann Conway wake him in the middle of the night if anyone says anything that might hurt his little feelings.

I’ve heard a couple of things by way of explanation. The most common is that he’s exactly the kind of thin-skinned narcissist he appears to be; he can’t help but lash out when he thinks he’s attacked unfairly (which is every time he’s criticized), and tweeting is easy, without consequences (no one can ask him for clarification) and his brainless followers love it because he’s “telling it like it is.” But to me it’s exactly the thing a bully would do; it’s like shouting insults across a school playground, knowing that no one is going to call him on it.

Another explanation is that he can’t control the media. Reporters insist on calling him out when he lies (nearly all the time) and have the nasty habit of actually asking clarifying questions (for which he has no answers), so he’s decided to avoid them entirely and Tweet his messages. A pretty cowardly way to go, but hey. That’s just how he rolls.

And while I think there’s truth to these positions, I have heard a more sinister explanation. It’s true; Trump is thin-skinned, he is a classic narcissist, and he’s bragged in the past about how he feels compelled to attack with everything he has when he feels he’s been maligned (however slightly). But when he tweets at 4:00 am, it makes all the news feeds; people focus on that instead of whatever else might be going on. How many people paid attention when Trump paid out $25,000,000 to settle lawsuits against his phony university? His action? to tweet that there were “terror attacks in Turkey, Switzerland and Germany” (which wasn’t true). The theory is that his tweets take attention away from a real issue. He settled 3 lawsuits; more could be filed. His “settlement” was to pay about $.50 on the dollar to litigants (so these people still lost half of the money they paid for their “education”), and Trump was able to deny any real responsibility (he did not admit guilt). If the media were doing their job, I’d suggest that the settlement story should have gotten a lot more play.

So could Trump (or his handlers) be tweeting to draw attention away from what’s really going on? Is Trump really that smart?

It’s more than 6 weeks from the election and less than a month from the inauguration and I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that this idiot has been elected. I strongly believe the next four years are going to be a disaster for the US and the world. The most powerful country in the history of the world being headed by someone so profoundly unqualified, unsuitable and unprepared is scary beyond comprehension.

There was lots of talk about how he’d turn out to be more moderate than the persona he adopted during the campaign; that the posturing, bullying, racism, xenophobia and misogyny he displayed were just to rally the Bubba voter, and we’d see the more Presidential Trump after the election.

So far, not so much.

Asking that he appoint Cabinet members with, I don’t know, maybe SOME experience in their various posts turns out to be WAY too much to ask for; it’s been reported that he’s actually selecting people based (at least partly) on whether they “look” the part. And given how shallow Trump is, I guess in a weird, scary way, maybe that makes sense.

In a particularly ironic twist (considering how much he ranted against “the crooks at Goldman Sachs” and how Clinton, Cruz, and the rest of his political adversaries were in their pockets), his Cabinet is made of billionaires and millionaires, several from the very firms he castigated for their crookedness during his campaign. Talk about putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse!

Some long-term friends were in town this past weekend; Heather and David live in Washington DC and were out here for a wedding. I mentioned how I can’t understand how any rational, thinking human could vote for Trump; there is not a single argument that makes any sense when examined critically. David’s response was that I’m looking at it the wrong way. The people who voted for Trump weren’t thinking; they were feeling. They felt betrayed, angry and disillusioned about the current political system and wanted it upended. Their attitude was “Burn it down; WHATEVER we have afterward will be better than what we have now.” I think he’s right. It helps a little to understand, but it doesn’t make me feel any more positive about the next four years.

Anyhow, let’s see how that’s working out.

To fill his Cabinet, Trump is selecting sycophants, nut jobs, racists and ideologues. These people have virtually no experience in running government agencies, no experience in policy implementation (let alone development), and no apparent sense of the importance of honoring a public trust. Their goal seems to be to simply undo. Undo everything Obama put in place, undo regulations, undo environmental or trade treaties, undo relationships with other countries; throw out everything. And they seem to be ready to do so without any reals plans for what to do instead.

Maybe some things need overhauling. But that would entail some thoughtful, deliberative processes and it sure doesn’t look like there’s anyone capable of doing that in this new Administration of Clowns.

The unfortunate fact is that what we will be left with is immeasurably worse than what we had before.