Sunday, June 9, 2019

Incompetent and Ignorant

This particular post will not be about impeachment, obstruction of justice, conspiracy or other criminal activity. While that's definitely a subject ripe for discussion, this morning I want to ruminate on incompetency, ignorance and narcissism.

One of the recurring themes in politics is that somehow the outsider is to be preferred to the insider. If you are of the opinion that government is hopelessly corrupt, then perhaps it makes sense for someone who isn't involved get an opportunity to try to run things. This is one of the reasons that governors and former governors do so well in presidential elections. George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan are some modern day examples. George HW Bush was the only in that time frame who hadn't been a state governor. However, governors do have government experience, as an executive who has to work with a legislature to get things done. Although it often takes them a while to get the hang of things, since they often come to the governorship after having run a business...where there is no legislature.

Donald Trump was an exception. He was the only president who was elected having absolutely no government or military experience. Many people who voted for him did so believing that his lack of experience was a point in his favor. A large percentage of eventual Trump voters had been Tea Party supporters disenchanted with the Tea Party wave of Representatives and Senators who ended up getting absorbed by the system that they promised to change. Ted Cruz is a prime example. He was one of the first Tea Party Republicans to be elected, but was derided by Trump and his supporters as "Lyin' Ted" and a tool of the corrupt system.

Trump appealed to many of the former Tea Party voters because he said all the right things and pushed all the right buttons. He eschewed talk of fiscal conservatism and balancing the budget because it wasn't going to get any applause at his rallies. He stuck with the social issues that got the Tea Party worked up: immigration, jobs and hatred of Hillary Clinton. He appealed to the Evangelicals by promising to appoint conservative judges who would eventually overturn Roe vs. Wade, he appealed to big business by vowing to cut taxes on corporations.

I didn't agree with most of his positions, but even if I did, it should have been obvious that he had no plan for accomplishing any of it. President Obama, during a campaign stop, wondered aloud of Trump would be using a magic wand to accomplish his goals.

Once Trump was in office it became even more obvious that he had no idea how to get anything done. One of his favorite methods is executive orders. An executive order is action that a president can take without involving Congress. It usually involves modifying an existing rule or regulation within an executive department. Trump has used executive orders to undermine environmental regulations especially, but the multitude of signing ceremonies was more photo op than actions as this LA Times article shows:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-executive-orders-ineffective-20190327-story.html

Trump, even when his party controlled both houses of Congress, was able to accomplish little legislatively. In the two years when the Republican party had complete control, the only thing of any significance that he was able to get done was the 2017 corporate tax break. And the only reason it passed was some questionable math by House Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell. Trump seems to not understand that being president is not like being king, or even the head of a family-owned company. He can not govern by fiat. Rather than working with Congress, he threatens and blames even those in his own party. He doesn't understand or care about international alliances, he is woefully ignorant of economics, especially how tariffs work and who ends up paying them.

And with Trump, everything is personal. "The people" love him, anyone who criticizes him is a traitor, an enemy of the people, he and vicious dictators "have a great relationship". He can't seem to separate his ego from the act of governing. He creates problems, then claims to solve them, puffing up his ego.

Trump, even if you agree that we need a wall, or any of his other half-baked ideas, is clearly incompetent and accomplishing them, and ignorant of how anything works.

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