Thursday, July 21, 2016

 

Political Mayhem Thursday: IPLawGuy's Lament

A few days ago, IPLawGuy posted this in the comments (in response to a question about the selection of Spence as VP nominee:

It was a safe pick going into the Convention. It quelled the crazies. Pence has...

Wait.... I really am past the point of trying to analyze this with any objectivity. Trump is an ignorant megalomaniac with no understanding of government, politics, diplomacy or economics. And a threat to the Nation if not the world. The GOP has been run by crazies for a while now, but now they're totally nuts.

This whole thing is an embarrassment. I really am just totally shocked that this is happening. I would never have voted for Cruz, but his crazy is garden variety. And Rubio is just an empty suit of ambition. But I think he had a general understanding of what the job of President entails.

So, yeah Sure, Pence was the best choice for Trump. But wow, this whole thing is really depressing.


Clearly, Mr. LawGuy has just about had it with the campaign as a whole. Does anyone else agree? Or do we need to stay engaged? If so, why?

Comments:
Given his history, Trump is highly likely to commit crimes while in office. He has committed fraud, falsified financial documents, etc., and likely the examination of his records will provide incontrovertible proof thereof as people dig in over the next several months, years if he were to be elected. Pence is an insurance policy.
 
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I agree with IPlawGuy. This crazy is beyond me. DJT and the lemmings that are going to follow him off the cliff.

As for the skeletons in the closet, I am sure that closet overflows with things sane thinking people would find abhorrent.

And as a woman I don't see Pence as an insurance policy given his far right Christian leanings. I would really be concerned with the Separation of Church and State with this guy in charge.

I listened last night to most of it and just wanted to die. It went from hearts and roses (mostly) to doom and gloom messengers.

I have no words for Ted Cruz. I don't like the guy, but I'm not sure why he thought he needed to subject himself to this portion of the electorate. He got what was coming to him from the crowd and DJTs nonchalant entrance toward the end of his speech. Icing on the cake.


I especially liked Harold Hamm, the FRACKING mogul worth 11.6 billion, and his talk about failed energy policy. Of course the current policy failed in his eyes (ha ha) because people wised up to the dangers of Fracking to the environment and the ground water. He is on a short list for Energy Secretary. And this guy is not for coal so is he going to bring back the coal industry as DJT has promised all the former coal miners of the US?

And then there was Newt and his doom and gloom about the world. I'm sure he has been promised a cabinet position of some sort. Lord help us all.
 
Trump threatens the Republic like few have before. The ability of Congress and the Supreme Court to check the power of the presidency assumes he has respect for the rule of law. And without physical force at their disposal, the other two branches may be more powerless than we think.

Nothing is precluded, nothing is inevitable. Turkey can have a coup, so can we.

Plus, given the fact that we were recently analyzing, with a straight face, whether Hillary Clinton should be charged with a crime, what is the under-over on the next President of the United States being impeached--either for principled reasons or political?

It is not a certainty, but has it ever been more likely prior to the wheels of impeachment being put in motion... ever?

Look, I know it sounds like hyperbole. Given years of referring to the other side as wicked, incompetent, etc... I fear these types of warnings sound like the boy who cried wolf, but Trump is that bad.

Clinton will probably be elected, and she will probably not be impeached. The country will probably continue at it's D+ best, but we are risking far more than we imagine.
 
STAY ENGAGED.

Sure. This is a bad and unfortunate choice. As I heard someone say recently, GOP primary voters made an egregious error for which America will pay one way or the other.

Having said that, STAY ENGAGED.

I am not going to enjoy this fall campaign, but I am going to do my duty and stay engaged and cast my ballot and then stay tuned.

Frankly, I think the always brilliant David Best has capitulated to an irrational fear of Trump's potential for authoritarian rule. Yes. We have the Courts and Congress. We also have the army and the Fourth Estate. And we also have millions of armed Americans (what those yahoos keep saying the 2nd Amendment is actually for). We also have millions of unarmed Americans who retain the power of mass protest. As many have said, America is unlikely to ever succumb to an Orwellian totalitarian strongman; rather, we are much more susceptible to the soft despotism of creeping statism and disengagement--the point at which we lose our freedoms and never really notice.

What is more likely to happen is that Trump would be a GOP version of Jimmy Carter. Getting elected in a cycle in which America hates politicians and, lacking a base of political support and coming to Washington without a clear understanding of what a president is supposed to do or the limits of presidential leadership, a Trump admin face plants. Most likely, Trump will be so frustrated with his impotence as president that he will quit or withdraw (or possibly face impeachment), perhaps creating a chaotic power vacuum but also an opportunity to reassert government by the people and checks and balances and a renewed viability of the institutions enumerated above. Necessity is a powerful motivator.

No matter, we are living in a moment fraught with peril (on this David and I agree)--and the next iteration of the American Project will be determined by engaged (or disengaged) citizens.

STAY ENGAGED.
 
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