A Plan for Draining the Swamp (or a to-do list)

[endicom]

American thinker
David Solway
Jan. 20, 2017

Donald Trump has said that he intends to “drain the swamp,” a laudable if formidable challenge given the resistance he is bound to meet. The DNC is preparing a “war room” to fight Trump on a variety of political and domestic fronts and the left is mobilizing all its divisions to prevent the new president from governing and, if possible, to force him from office. This could amount to a kind of civil war entailing massive protests and demonstrations punctuated by instances of violence, as has occurred in the past.

The left will throw everything it can at him: marches, fake news, uncorroborated allegations, hoaxes galore, borking tantrums, Twitter storms, unceasing volumes of calumny, character assassination, riots, “classic Soviet-style disinformation” -- every weapon in its copious arsenal of smear and malice. For the left is truly maniacal in its hatreds. Trump will have to be Trump to withstand the onslaught.

More... http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/01/a_plan_for_draining_the_swamp.html

[Hondo69]

During the run up to the last Civil War many Americans decided to get the hell out of Dodge.  It didn't hurt that the wild west was largely a land of mystery and held faint hopes of riches.  But those who left were primarily running away from something and not toward something better.

Today there is no place left to run to.

[Bigun]

Excellent article!

I particularly liked this part:

There is also the factor of complexity and coordination: the swamp consists of many bights and pockets of sludge-like detritus, each of which will require a designated “task force” to clean up and decontaminate. Indeed, there is a swollen political tribe of bog men and bog women peopling that swamp who need to be exhumed and displayed in public museums as emblems of the defunct -- that is, fired and in some cases prosecuted. (Lois Lerner, anyone?) Poet Seamus Heaney would have had a field day with the denizens of our contemporary Bogland.

[endicom]

Today there is no place left to run to.

Some Americans move to, or retire to, countries that leave them alone for being happy to have the money they bring.

[Cripplecreek]

Here's something good coming out of Washington.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Global Trade Accountability Act Friday, a bill that would subject all Executive Branch trade actions (including raising tariffs) to congressional approval.

http://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=press-releases&id=8DA8C6CF-3413-4D60-9985-3CB8CAE83157

[endicom]

Excellent article!

I wrote here the other day that Trump may find there are more swamps than drains. Solway made a case for that as I couldn't hope to.

[Taxcontrol]

I would add, protect the rights of citizens to vote

-by-

A Constitutional Amendment that requires:
1) only US citizens can vote in US federal elections for office (President, Senators and Congressmen)
2) States must maintain a separate voting roll for resident US citizens
3) States must require proof of residence and citizenship in order to register for the US federal voting roll
4) States must notify the loosing state when a US citizen moves or relocations to the gaining state
5) States must remove the relocated citizen from their US federal voting roll upon reciept of notification of address change from another state.
6) States must purge ALL voters from their US federal voting roll March 1st following a Presidential election
7) States must close their US federal voting rolls 30 days prior to a federal election
8) States must verify the id of a voter at the polling place by the use of either a state or federal picture and signature id
9) The US Department of Justice must maintain and share will all States a list of those who due to convictions in federal court of violating US federal election laws are not allowed to vote in federal elections
10) No person convicted of a federal or state felony that carries a sentence longer than 1 year shall be allowed to vote in federal elections until that person has served the fully length of their sentence, or the combined total of their sentence and parole, or has had their sentence commuted, pardoned or by other legal means, lifted.

[Taxcontrol]

I would also add, protect the rights of all citizens to equal and fair representation

-by-

A constitutional amendment that structures the state legislatures so that:

1) The state shall define the shape and number of counties within the state.
2) The state shall be bi-cameral and shall have a total number of representatives for the Upper House equal to the number of counties within the state.  Likewise the lower house shall be composed of a number of representatives equal to the number of counties within the state.
2) The state senates members shall be elected for each county and represent the interests of the county in the state legislature.  That representative to be elected from the population and People of that county who have resided no less than two full years of the last four years, within the boundaries of that county.
3) The state house members shall be elected to represent a district who's size shall be apportioned by population within the state.  The boundaries of that district shall be determined by majority approval of both houses and signed into law by the chief executive of the state.

[geronl]

Trump loves the swamp. Trump is as corrupt as anyone else there. He just wants its fetid current to swirl more favorably for himself.

[Taxcontrol]

And lastly, I would protect the electoral college:

-by-

A constitutional amendment that, in a Presidential election:

1) Requires states to award one elector to the candidate that receives the majority of votes within a congressional district
2) If no candidate wins the majority within a district, a follow on election from the top three candidates by votes received will be held 30 days later. The candidate that receives the most votes in the run off receives the elector.
3) The candidate that receives the most total votes across the whole of the state receives one elector.  If in the event of a tie, the Governor decides between the tying candidates
4) The candidate that receives the most district electors from #1 receives the last elector from the state.  If in the event of a tie, the Governor decides between the tying candidates.
5) Each candidate that is running for office must submit to the state, no later than 10 days before the election, a list of electors, organized by order of electors that the candidate wants to have as their elector. 
6) States shall honor that list by selecting electors in order.  Once each elector has been awarded, an alternate for each elector shall also be selected continuing from the same list in order.

[endicom]

Trump loves the swamp. Trump is as corrupt as anyone else there. He just wants its fetid current to swirl more favorably for himself.

You should change your handle to Sunshine.

[geronl]

And lastly, I would protect the electoral college:

-by-

completely obliterating it?

[geronl]

The states are supposed to be sovereign, so thanks for ending federalism there and giving every felon their lifetime voting back.

[geronl]

Here's something good coming out of Washington.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Global Trade Accountability Act Friday, a bill that would subject all Executive Branch trade actions (including raising tariffs) to congressional approval.

I believe that it already does require Congressional approval, how many powers did the Congress give away?? Jeesh

[geronl]

I would add, protect the rights of citizens to vote

-by-

Why don't you just abolish the states?

[INVAR]

Trump loves the swamp. Trump is as corrupt as anyone else there. He just wants its fetid current to swirl more favorably for himself.

He funded and voted for much of what is in the swamp.

[geronl]

Trump will make the swamp great again (for himself)

[Cripplecreek]

Trump loves the swamp. Trump is as corrupt as anyone else there. He just wants its fetid current to swirl more favorably for himself.

Mike Lee is on the right track.

Strip the individual of power and he as one man becomes less effective as a corrupting influence and a less powerful man is a less attractive target of corruption.

[corbe]

   It was a very good article, until the end and this dribble left his keyboard to enter cyberspace.

The Republican Party. One of the major tasks that confronts Trump now is the renovation of his own party, which is also part of the swamp. True, Trump was not acting “presidential” in the earlier days of the nomination cycle, unable to restrain his sense of indignation over the lies, slanders and animadversions hurled his way by his own party competitors and conservative authors and editors. He was clearly provoked; his error was in prolonging the fracas via retaliations. But the fault rested primarily with the Party itself -- Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, etc. -- who gave him little to no support, to put it mildly, and with his conservative assailants -- Jonah Goldberg, George Will, Bill Kristol, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, etc. -- who maligned him at every turn. In effect, all these celebrated figures were busy shilling for Hillary.

Writing in American Thinker, Christopher West suggests that “while we must unite and even forgive our wayward rank-and-file GOP brethren who chose not to support our efforts, we must never forget those who engaged in outright acts of treachery that jeopardized our cause and our nation's future.” West is referring “to those Republicans who had such a vested interest (emotional, financial, or otherwise) in maintaining… the same stale policies that had long served their personal and business interests at the expense of the Republican electorate and their country.” He is willing to forgive, “to welcome rank-and-file Republicans back into the fold.” Nevertheless, he concludes, “We should never forget the transgressions perpetrated by the leadership of the ‘NeverTrump’ movement.”

But what does forgiving but not forgetting really mean?  Are party loyalists, grass roots members and the Trump administration to reconcile with those who will not, as West writes, “have our back when we face fire from the left and who will have our back only as long as it is professionally and personally expedient to do so”? This doesn’t make much sense. The Republican Party must undergo a comprehensive scouring and vetting to bring it back into contact with its voters. Similarly, fair-weather conservative commentators who acted in such a way as to promote a Clinton electoral victory should no longer be taken seriously. They are the intellectual pariahs of the right, whom Thomas Carlyle would have described as “full of unwise intellect.”

[Cripplecreek]

   It was a very good article, until the end and this dribble left his keyboard to enter cyberspace.

LOL yeah, poor victimized Donald.