Thursday, December 19, 2019

Impeachment done, but there is still a lot for voters to "get" about Trump


After the House of Representatives along a party-line vote passed two articles of impeachment against one Donald J. Trump, one could wonder how Trump and his familiars could have been so reckless in allowing events to reach this point. While Trump was successful at appeasing his base with anti-Hispanic immigrant policies and the use of foul language toward perceived “enemies,” this was not enough for a man who as a “businessman” knew only how to cheat and steal; he had to “win” at everything, regardless of the law. Democratic lawmakers had reached out to Trump on numberless occasions in the past three years to reach an accommodation on many issues of vital importance.

But Trump’s actions on a DACA compromise were instructive of this administration: Trump first claimed that he had a “heart” on the issue, and appeared ready to sign-off on a bi-partisan agreement from the Senate. But then his “advisors” got a hold of him, and all of sudden DACA recipients were from “shithole” countries. Every time Trump was given an opportunity to show he had a heart for anyone outside his own family, he instead showed that he was a creature of the far-right and the worst elements of American society. 

And it wasn’t just that. In the past, most administrations known for their corruption were corrupt due to underlings taking advantage of their positions in government to “earn” a little graft, not because the president gave his personal stamp of approval on it. Ulysses S. Grant and Warren G. Harding were not personally corrupt, but they seemed purposely blind to the corruption going on around them. The same cannot be said with the Nixon and Trump administrations: in these administrations, corruption started at, and was guided from, the very tippy-top of the pyramid. 

Still, Trump and his familiars (like Stephen Miller, who helped compose that protest “letter” to Nancy Pelosi that was an outrageous pack of lies), have been acting as if the impeachment was somehow never actually going to happen, like a person who doesn’t believe the weather reports warning that a hurricane is approaching—and even when they see it coming, they somehow believe they are “invulnerable,” only to be “shocked” when it arrives and sweeps them away. 

Of course, impeachment doesn’t mean the end of Trump, since it is a forgone conclusion that Senate Republicans will make quick work of his “acquittal,” and his “base” is as blindly fanatical as ever. But that doesn’t mean that it will be “business as usual”’—unless that business is the business is getting rid of this pestilence that is Trump once and for all in 2020. 

The problem with Trump’s presidency isn’t just about abuse of power and obstruction in regard to his dealings with the Ukraine. Although the book hasn’t received much press since its publication, I have read A Warning by “Anonymous”—who claims to be, or was, an administration “insider,” and the book still has some insightful things to say that should convince the “undecided” that Trump is unfit for office yesterday, today and tomorrow.

One of the interesting items that Anonymous tells us is about how the immigration issue has all-consumed Trump and Miller. He describes Miller as “a hard-liner who developed a name for himself in certain Washington circles with his preachy warnings about illegal aliens and for filibustering on these themes in conversation.” While Miller’s own white nationalist views have been well-documented, his influence on Trump has appeared to be in “encouraging” his “gut” feelings about immigrants, especially the “Mexican” kind. Anonymous tells us that 

The president gets animated on the subject, to say the least, and somehow it’s part of all of our lives, even when it’s not in our respective portfolios. Almost anything, any issue, and problem can be tied back to immigration in his mind.  At one point, Trump warmed to a new idea for solving what he viewed as the biggest crisis in American history: to label migrants as “enemy combatants.” Keep in mind this is the same designation given to hardcore terrorists. If we said these illegals were a national security threat, Trump reasoned, then the administration had an excuse to keep all of them out of the country. It was unclear if someone had planted this in his head or whether he had come up with it on his own, but either way, advisors were mortified.

Trump toyed with the shocking proposal in meetings having nothing to do with the subject, asking random advisors what they thought. Word got around. It’s times like these when people freeze and don’t know what to say. They’ll give him one of those polite smiles reserved for a deranged relative who thinks you want to hear about his soul-searching solo retreat to the Rockies. Not receiving too much resistance, Trump went further and mused about shipping the migrants to Guantanamo Bay, where hardened terrorists were jailed. In his mind, the deterrent would be a powerful one: Come to the United States illegally, and you will be sent to a remote U.S. detention facility in Cuba to live alongside murderous criminals.

Migrants seeking shelter in the United States are not “enemy combatants.” They are not engaged in hostilities toward the United States on behalf of foreign states or terror groups. Rational people know that the vast majority are innocent people trying to get to America for a better life.

The implication, of course, is that Trump isn’t “rational,” at least not in any human sense. Anonymous notes that Trump was unbelievably narcissistic; for a while he would go about carrying around maps of his electoral victory and show them to anyone and bragging about his “win.” But it wasn’t enough that he “won,” he  had to really “win”: 

Only days into office, he invited congressional leaders into to the White House to meet. This was supposed to be a bipartisan show of goodwill. But at the outset of the meeting the president railed against what he claimed were “millions” of people who voted illegally in the election, depriving him of winning the popular vote. The assertion had been debunked previously, and it was so clearly false on its face that no one could believe he was raising it again. After the meeting, we tried to brush it off by joking that the president was off his rocker. But it wasn’t a joke. We were genuinely worried by the tone he was setting. Then there were his actions.

Trump’s propensity for abuse of power was evident early, as was his inexperience and incompetence in even the simplest of administrative processes. He is like someone who because they are incapable of reason, chooses to batter an issue into submission. Anonymous noted that “He couldn’t focus on governing, and he was prone to abuses of power, from ill-conceived schemes to punish his political rivals to a propensity for undermining vital American institutions.” Early on Trump signed a barrage of executive orders whose sole purpose was to undo Obama era policies, “and the president didn’t really seem aware of what he’d done.” Some early orders, such as the Muslim travel ban that was drafted by Miller, “backfired spectacularly…The administration was only a few weeks in, and already the mayhem made everyone look foolish.” 

Trump’s governance by “tweet” and by “gut” meant that “Policies are rarely coordinated or thoroughly considered. Major issues are neglected until a crisis develops. Because there is no consistent process, it is easy for the administration to run afoul of federal laws, ethics guidelines, and other norms of behavior.” The chaotic nature of Trump’s presidency was in fact “encouraged” by the likes of Miller, who believed that Trump’s impulses should be “encouraged, not tempered.” Miller “agitated” to “flood the zone” with “as many dramatic policy changes as possible” to confuse the opposition, in order to “draw fire away from what the real policies hard-liners cared about”—meaning, principally, immigration matters. But regardless of what the policy issue was, “About a third of the things the president wants to do are flat-out stupid.  Another third would be impossible to implement and wouldn’t even solve the problem. And a third of them would be flat-out illegal.”

Anonymous tells us that while Trump claims to be an expert on every issue, in reality he comes off as an “idiot” or “moron” with the “understanding of a fifth or sixth grader,” with little appetite for learning. Trump was not a “reader,” but rather a “visual learner.” People who came with what they thought were important documents for “robust policy discussion of momentous national topic” were usually greeted with “What the fuck is this this? These are just words. A bunch of words. It doesn’t mean anything.” Instead of being presented with papers to read, Trump’s advisors had to present “visual” representations of the information they felt the president needed to know to make proper decisions based on the available facts. This proved to be a difficult proposition. PowerPoint displays had to be “slimmed down” because Trump couldn’t “digest too many slides.” He needed to see more “images” to keep his “interest—and fewer words. Trump couldn’t even digest three points—you had to come in with one point and keeping banging Trump’s head with it until he “gets it.”  

Who was this man who would be “president”? For one thing, “Not everyone sees the full Trump, especially the one who is red-faced, consumed with fury, and teetering at the outer limits of self-control…In the history of American democracy, we have had undisciplined presidents. We have had incurious presidents. We have had inexperienced presidents. We have had amoral presidents. Rarely if ever before have we had them all at once. Donald Trump is not like his predecessors, everyone knows that. But his vices are more alarming than amusing…He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity…The president also can’t remember what he’s said or been told (recall close-up photos of Trump’s notes that keep repeating a simple word or phrase).”

As far as his character is concerned, “Donald Trump is not a paragon of justice. He is not worried about maintaining ‘good fellowship’ with people, treating others fairly, keeping his promises, or demonstrating generosity. While he sought to cultivate the image of an unselfish billionaire, he is not. Many of us who’ve joined his administration recognize he is a vindictive and self-promoting person, one who spends an inordinate amount of time attacking others to advance his interests. Those qualities translate into governing. As a result, we have all learned the hard way that the president’s modus operandi emphasizes combat over peacemaking, bullying over negotiating, malice over clemency, and recognition over true generosity. In sum, he is the portrait of an unjust man.”

That Trump is a bullying coward is also something that is not difficult to discern. Anonymous notes that “Cicero defines courage as the mark of someone who is ‘unperturbed in difficult times,’ a quality I cannot assign to President Trump. When faced with tough challenges, he becomes unglued and bombastic…When he is angry about an issue, Trump will let the frustration in his mind boil over, no matter where he’s at or what he’s doing.” Quoting Aristotle, “‘he who exceeds in confidence when it comes to frightening things is reckless, and the reckless person is held to be both a boaster and a pretender to courage.’ Trump is not brave, nor unswayed by the crowd, nor uncommanded by money and pleasure, nor stable through crisis. He is a ‘pretender to courage,’ and that should give everyone pause.”

While Anonymous is unsure if Trump is a born racist or just says or does racist things, he says “what difference does it make if the effect is the same? When he makes statements that encourage racists and knows full well he is doing so, it is wrong. More damning than that is his aloofness. The American public can see that the administration is not doing enough to counter racially motivated violence. Why is that? Because ultimately the man at the top doesn’t show interest. In the minds of Trump boosters, problems such as white supremacy are an invention of the Left to push an identity-politics agenda (as if white nationalists are not pushing a “white-identity” line). As a result, the president is reluctant to act, hesitant to lead the charge on an issue that might alienate some of his supporters, all the while ignoring the brushfire sweeping the hearts and minds of a small but menacing faction here at home.”

Anonymous criticizes conservatives who “dream” that Trump is “our savior.” “Not only is he not conservative, he represents a long-term threat to the Republican Party and what it purports to stand for.” He goes on to say that “The Trump presidency is one of the biggest challenges to our nation’s checks and balances system in modern times. Donald Trump has abused his power to undermine all three branches of the government (including the judicial, nominating unqualified, partisan candidates), at times flagrantly and at times in secret.”

Anonymous also notes that Trump’s fixation with the “Deep State” conspiracy is wrapped around his disdain for democratic institutions. “Do you think that your mail carrier I having secret meetings to destroy Donald Trump? Do you think federal law enforcement agents, whose culture leans conservative, sit around trying to find ways to get Democrats elected? Is the Pentagon’s librarian a mole for Bernie Sanders? The president’s claim of a Deep State sounds preposterous because of it. The person intent on destroying democratic foundations is Donald Trump, not the honorable public servants who go to work every day to make our government run—to get Social Security checks out on time, to protect communities from criminals, to keep food and prescription drugs safe from contamination, to uphold our Constitution.”

A Warning is just one of many tomes “warning” us of the dangers that Trump presents now, and these dangers will become only worse if Trump’s moral and ethical corruption is “validated” by reelection. Impeachment on his record is not enough to defeat Trump; voters need to wake-up to who and what Trump is, and that goes far beyond the impeachment articles.

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