Saturday, November 12, 2016

The End Is Near! Or not.


Our long awaited presidential election is finally over.  I've heard all the gloating from the winning side, and the moaning from the losing side.  Here's my pragmatic take on where we are and where we might be going:

Some seem to be holding out hope that enough of the Electoral College electors will at the last minute change their vote from Trump to Clinton to enable her to be declared the winner.  Technically possible?  Sure, and tonight's winning lottery numbers will be....

Protesting is fine.  It's a way to show those in power that all the people matter, and that even the losing side must somehow be accommodated, too.  But violence is stupid.  It just makes the protesters look like a bunch of kooks.  Lets stay away from that, OK?

I'm personally very concerned when one party controls the House AND the Senate AND the White House.  IMO neither party should ever be given that much power.  Our Founding Fathers envisioned "checks and balances", but this current monopoly of power gives us neither.  Those among us who can still think straight should hope the Democrats gain control of one house of Congress in the midterm elections in 2018.

I've heard it said many times that the job (the office of President) shapes the man, meaning that once taking office and the new President sees what all the job entails, he will put away his rose colored glasses and deal with reality.  Trump once famously said that he knew all about ISIS, more than the generals even, and that he would "bomb the hell out of them".  (ISIS, not the generals *snort*)  Now that he's getting intelligence briefings and sees what is really going on in the world, and learns all about the ramifications of even a tiny misstep, I'm hopeful he'll choose his words and actions more carefully.

I believe it was in his party acceptance speech that he said something conciliatory about the LGBT community.  He received a polite response from the delegates, for which he thanked them.  I don't think he has intentions to pull their rug out from under them.

He's going to build a wall.  Right, and I'm going to be an astronaut.  Increased border security, sure, which isn't a bad thing, but the expense and logistics and material/manpower issues that would be required to build his wall are just beyond reach at this time.

He's going to have an undocumented alien roundup and send them all home.  Who's going to do the rounding up?  Where are we going to hold them awaiting their deportation?  Do they get their day in court?  Do they get a court appointed attorney?  Will there be any lawsuits/injunctions to stop him?  How long will all that take to clear the courts?  Always remember the old saying, "The wheels of Justice turn slowly".  Some sort of compromise will have to be worked out involving registration, work permits, etc.  Again, the job will shape the man.

Trump said just yesterday that he might keep parts of Obamacare.  I think he's already figured out that literally declaring it null and void can come back to bite him in the butt.  To do that would send our entire health delivery system into turmoil.  He might see to it that it's heavily amended, which it desperately needs, and to save face he might declare the new improved plan Trumpcare, but who really cares?  (The people already know it was President Obama who started the health care reform ball rolling.)  The important thing is the people will have access to the care they need.

On and on....he'll soon realize that words, and actions, have consequences.  Consequences that he really won't want to deal with.





8 comments:

  1. Pragmatic is laudable. Unfortunately, this is politics. Very few entrenched politicians are pragmatic. Hillary won the popular vote, which means a majority of the country (albeit barely) is upset with the results. A minority feel strongly enough to protest. Unless Trump moderates his bluster the country will be divided for four more years. If Congress tries to steamroll the country there will be more protests, as well there should be.

    When Obama won, the first thing the republicans did was to come out and state their intentions to obstruct him in every way they could. They mostly succeeded in that. Now that they control the house and senate the democrats have no choice but obstruct Trump if and when he tries to carry out his campaign threats. That's politics and the country remains divided, that is unless the job shapes the man as you suggest. What are tonight's winning lottery numbers...?

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  2. I am happy to see people beginning to think about what happened using somewhat les shyperbolic terms. Your post is the most sober I've seen to date.

    I am withholding judgment on him and trying to start fresh.

    I am not encouraged by the basket of deplorables he is surrounding himself with at the moment, but he hasn't actually taken any action. He can't. yet.

    We will see.

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  3. Hopefully the founding fathers put enough checks and balances into the system to prevent Trump from ding too much damage.

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    1. They also thought the electoral college was a good idea.

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  4. He may become a President who didn't do much at all. I'm waiting until those who voted for him thinking he would send Hillary Clinton to jail, deport Muslims, do away with Obamacare, and reverse Roe v. Wade start getting really pissed off at him... And just wait until he doesn't build that wall!

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  5. His followers are going to be very disappointed. He doesn't seem interested in carrying through on many of his promises. They were just crazy promises to get votes.

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  6. This was an interesting article: http://valadilenne.tumblr.com/post/153048664118/ive-been-thinking-a-lot-about-the-meeting-between

    I really don't think Trump realized POTUS is a 24/7/365 job, not like being a CEO or TV star where you can show up when you want and knock off early.

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  7. In my opinion, from a vantage of 71 years, having been interested and involved in politics since i was shooting people at LBJ's behest in 67', we're screwed. Let me amend that, to put it in a popular, modern context: we're fucked.
    We wanted trump, actually more people, by some couple or more million, wanted hillary, but the states that count voted for the guy who could give a shit about them.
    Do enjoy your choice, oh, and don't forget to hydrate while you're waiting for the manufacturing, steelworker, etc jobs to come back. It they ever do, it'll be because you will work for 6 bucks an hour.
    Cheers,
    Mike

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