Politics

Donald Trump an Update on My Thoughts About the Man

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I have a lot of liberal friends that are very dismayed with Donald Trump. I tend to disagree with their dismal view of the president — they pay too much attention to what he says, not what he does. Two and a half years into President Trump’s presidency, I am actually fairly happy with the job he’s doing.

Not that I like his AM-radio style commentary on his conservative ideas he espouses on Twitter and television, or his views more generally, but because he seems like he has been a fairly competent administrator, even if he has a rather strange fetish over a wall that lead him to a rather pointless shutdown the federal government in January. There really was no excuse for that behavior by the president.

Morever, I don’t honestly understand the big deal over the wall — or the opposition to the relatively small appropriation to built it. In the grand scheme of things that wall is pretty inconsequential. It’s not like the wall is particularly expensive or unaffordable, or that it’s construction puts many Americans in grave risk. Construction accidents occur, but it’s not a war. It’s a an appropriation of a few billion a year, which really doesn’t add up to much when you think about a 20 plus trillion dollar economy.

While I would rather see more environmental reviews before constructing the wall, I am not sure it will be as devastating as critics say it will be. It might actually help ecologically sensitive areas by turning them into no-mans land where wilderness can thrive. And it’s a sure lot less devastating that war, which is a refreshing change from the war-mongers of both parties seem to elect.

Is Trump a good president? Well, he’s not done a bad job when it comes to growing the economy or keeping us out of war, even if he’s obnoxious. Could the Democrats offer somebody better? Maybe. I don’t really get involved in politics on a personal level anymore, but I will say that I will vote, although I may cast a protest vote for a third-party candidate in 2020, much like in 2016 with Jill Stein.

I think in many ways, the power of the presidency over our own lives is much overstated. How much more would Hillary have done on Climate Change compared to Trump? What I think matters more then whose elected, is that we continue to have competitive elections, with people having a serious discussion of the issues. Certainly, I would like to see more action on ensuring healthcare is affordable, and more action on climate change, but I’ll take my time to decide how I want to vote once the candidates are better known.

Trump Can Win If Democrats Lurch Left

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Trump Can Win If Democrats Lurch Left

The democrats blew it big time in 1972 against the embattled Richard Nixon and I could see that happening again in 2020. Nixon was facing Watergate but that didn't stop him from winning nearly every state - McGovern ran a devastatingly bad campaign. I think Trumps festish over the wall is stupid but I could see the democrats blowing it big time in 2020, especially if the party becomes too far to the left.

Blowing Up the Government

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I was listening to Preet Barhara’s podcast the other day, and one of his conclusions was the dangerous nature of so many Americans wanting to “blow the system up” as their reason for voting for President Trump. Indeed, I consider myself one of the people who supports blowing up the system and I thought about voting for Trump, although ultimately ended up voting for Jill Stein in 2016 and Larry Sharpe in 2018.

As Preet Barhara notes, Donald Trump would be a dangerous demagogue if not for the fact that he is clumsy with his power, giving the other power brokers in Washington DC a lot of power to corral the bull in the China shop. Trump says outrageous things on Twitter, but the political institution mostly keep moving on the same direction as they always have. Government is big, slow and bureaucratic, which is both it’s greatest strength and weakness. Institutions and the people who make them up, can always play the waiting game, while politicians have to move fast to get anything done.

Why do so many of us want to blow up our government, voting for dangerous candidates? For one, the revolutionary, independent spirit is in our DNA. Americans have endowed rights in the constitution, one of them is to reject our leaders and institutions when we don’t like what they do. We believe in the absolute to right to criticize our leaders, we believe in the rights of private of citizens to own firearms and defend their homes. We believe government should largely remain out of our business and off our land, except when the most limited of regulation is necessary to protect the public good.

For too many of us, we think the government has gotten too bureucratic, too interested in protecting itself, long established institutions and corporation, and the powerful donors, rather then average people. While life is improving for most Americans, we feel like government still doesn’t care for us, that the interest of the government put ahead of individual. As Phil Ochs once sung, “Tell the Cops About Your Rights as They Drag You to the Ground” Elected officials who blow things up can be agents of change, at least they will break up the established order. We don’t want fascism or expansion of the government state into our lives, but we do want government to better address the big problems society faces and protect individuals from the excesses of large corporations and those who seek to play on unfair.