Let Us Now Thank Trump for Revealing Brutal Truths About How Power and Privilege Operate

[EasyAce]

The president has turned "business as usual" into a national scandal.
By Nick Gillespie
https://reason.com/2019/10/03/let-us-now-thank-donald-trump-for-revealing-brutal-truths-about-how-power-and-privilege-operate/

As the impeachment of Donald Trump becomes increasingly popular—45 percent of Americans now support the investigation of the president over his dealings with Ukraine—nobody knows exactly how it's all going to play out. But this much is gloriously clear already: The behavior revealed in call transcripts, the emerging parallel story line about Joe Biden's son Hunter, and Trump's refusal to go gentle into that good night are forcing us all to come to terms with ugly truths about how power operates.

Because Trump is cartoonishly simple, he is revealing of how things actually work; we can see in him the moves and machinations that more sophisticated and suave operators are able to mask. The real test for the country is whether we will use this moment to admit we've been living all sorts of lies that we choose to obscure with soaring political rhetoric and false politeness. Whether Trump is removed by the Senate, fails to be reelected in 2020, or serves a second term, we need to restructure the size, scope, and spending of government so the political class isn't able to wield so much power.

Trump's presidency is like an immersive production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, a play set in a New York saloon populated by beaten-down drunks and prostitutes who swill booze all day while lying to themselves that they're about to get their lives back on track and finally fulfill their dreams . . . Like Hickey, Trump is forcing us to come to terms with the vast gulf between the falsehoods with which we comfort ourselves and the realities we know to be true.

In the already endlessly dissected call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, it's patently clear what Trump is up to. He's asking for dirt on Joe Biden, a domestic political opponent. Whether that action is an abuse of power or the mere exercising of power is a fair question. Trump doesn't defend what he was doing in the call as much as declare that what other people do is far, far worse . . .

. . . The strategy is not subtle, but it is effective, as even anti-Trump observers grudgingly acknowledge . . . The same poll that finds 45 percent of Americans favor an impeachment investigation of Trump also finds that by a margin of 42 percent to 21 percent, Americans "there are valid reasons to look at the behavior of Joe and Hunter Biden in Ukraine" . . . Again and again, he doesn't defend himself against charges as much as he forces us to entertain the reality that he is not fundamentally different from the people already holding power. Often he's right.

This is, to be sure, a hugely cynical strategy, and it may not guarantee his survival even as it scorches the earth around him and brings down his rivals . . . Trump is the culmination of long-term trends, and the challenge is to find a way to preclude the people who run the government from using it to enrich themselves long after they have left office.

[Wingnut]

This guy at Reason nailed it. 

Nice post Ace

[GourmetDan]

"Because Trump is cartoonishly simple, he is revealing of how things actually work..."

It's not Trump who is cartoonishly simple, it is the media...

[skeeter]

This guy at Reason nailed it. 

Nice post Ace

Well, he swerved into the truth.

I happen to not subscribe to the common belief there are two truths for every issue. So I do not think it is both unethical/impeachable and constitutionally mandated that Trump ask a foreign leader for help investigating cases obvious corruption on the part of US politicians. I believe the facts confirm that Trump was well within his mandate when he spoke with Zelensky, so I reject this guy's assertion on that score.

I also agree that Trump's approach is simple. 'Cartoonishly' is an unnecessarily subjective & provocative characterization. Why he threw this in I don't know, except that he wants to make it clear he doesn't like Trump. Ok fine.

But his basic conclusion I agree with.

[truth_seeker]

"cartoonishly simple,"

Did what Dole, McCain and Romney failed to do.

"cartoonishly simple," is correctly aimed at the typical voter; in the states necessary to reach an electoral college majority.

If onestill doesn't "Get Trump," they might consider the possibility that they need a new pair of glasses, a new way of viewing reality.

cartoonishly simple, as in why didn't somebody else figure that out?

[Wingnut]

It's not Trump who is cartoonishly simple, it is the media...

Well I do agree that the media does run Toontown.

[Hoodat]

Let Us Now Thank Trump for Revealing Brutal Truths About How Power and Privilege Operate

I would rather be thanking Trump for reducing the deficit, increasing trade, repealing Obamacare, and ending 'free stuff' for illegals.

[Wingnut]

I would rather be thanking Trump for reducing the deficit, increasing trade, repealing Obamacare, and ending 'free stuff' for illegals.

We are where we are right now because the house rats will never let that happen.  So why are you talking crazy?

[Hoodat]

We are where we are right now because the house rats will never let that happen.  So why are you talking crazy?

Trump spends the money, Trump implements trade policies that decrease trade, and Trump gives free stuff to illegals.

[Wingnut]

Trump spends the money, Trump implements trade policies that decrease trade, and Trump gives free stuff to illegals.

I don't even know where to begin with that.   So I'll let that stew in some rotten gumbo.

[Hoodat]

Allow me to simplify it for your.  Let's say that Congress appropriates $20 billion for food stamps based on how many people received food stamps in 2016 (+5%).  But the economy picks up, less people demand food stamps, and they only end up spending $10 billion.  That is a savings of $10 billion which should be returned to the Treasury.  Yet Trump's Department of Agriculture takes that $10 billion and spends it on something else, just because it was there.

I would prefer Trump order his Agriculture Secretary to return that money to the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year in order to decrease the deficit.  It is entirely within his Presidential powers to do.   The House has no power to prevent it.  Yet Trump does nothing, and the deficit grows. 

Next year, all budget items will automatically get 5% more in appropriations.  It's called 'baseline budgeting'.  Trump doesn't have to go along.  He can tell all Departments to hold spending at last year's level.  But he doesn't.


And then there's trade.  Trump is the one who unilaterally placed tariffs on foreign imports, which prompted other countries to place tariffs on our goods.  The result of this is that trade decreased.  This is solely on Trump.  The House had nothing to do with it.  Now you can choose to agree or disagree with Trump's policy.  But the bottom line is that it has hurt trade.