The Obama Era Ended on November 8. It is President Trump Now. Yes, Now.
Americans elected strong man government. Trump owned a sole proprietorship He did not report to a board or shareholders. He could be a strong, decisive leader. Voters liked that.
The burden of the guest post today is that Trump has already changed American foreign policy and put in motion changes in domestic policy through seizing the levers of power and acting with bold decisive unilateral action. America's China policy was changed with a phone call from Taiwan, America's policy toward Israel was pre-empted and reversed with a tweet and a press release by Trump. Financial company stocks have soared; investors know that Dodd Frank will be relaxed and it will be happy days again soon.
Readers of Thad Guyer's guest post may wish to take comfort in the notion that American checks and balances are still at work. Trump's strong moves take place in constitutional system designed to block a strong executive. Americans--and their institutions of congress, the courts, the media, and interest groups--are on the lookout for tyrants. Worrywarts console themselves this Christmas morning thinking that things cannot change all that much.
There is reason to be lie awake and worry.
The great institutions that have blocked presidents are widely discredited. They are held in lower esteem than the president.
Some of the reason for this is their own self-destructive behavior with congressional gridlock, with sexual scandal, with news of micro aggressions and trigger warnings at colleges. Some of it has been that the problems in America are intractable. Some of it has been the effect of globalism which has put Americans in competition with Chinese manufacturers and Indian office workers. Some of it has been the relentless attacks on government as part of the Reagan-Gingrich-GOP ideology that government is the problem, not the solution.
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| Gallup Poll: Congress has 12% Approval rating. |
Some of the reason for this is their own self-destructive behavior with congressional gridlock, with sexual scandal, with news of micro aggressions and trigger warnings at colleges. Some of it has been that the problems in America are intractable. Some of it has been the effect of globalism which has put Americans in competition with Chinese manufacturers and Indian office workers. Some of it has been the relentless attacks on government as part of the Reagan-Gingrich-GOP ideology that government is the problem, not the solution.
***Congress has lower approval rating than herpes or traffic jams.
***The Supreme Court has acted like a political branch of government and was openly campaigned about as a political body, with Democratic and Republican judges.
***Social media has replaced curated mainstream media as a source of credible information. Trump condemns the media and voters like it when he does.
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| Called a tyrant and a feckless weakling. Both. |
***Churches with growing power are the independent ones that emphasize individual agency and personal salvation, not institutional authority.
The checks and balances restraints on strong man government are weak, and so is the language environment. The notion of "tyranny!" as a source of alarm has been weakened during the Obama period. Obama never had a governing majority in the face of unified Republican opposition in the Senate, so Obamacare got passed as a jerry-rigged sub-optimal program whose primary attribute was that it could secure 60 votes in the Senate, barely.
Otherwise, Obama governed around congress with using executive authority, which is broad in foreign affairs and spotty domestically. Republicans called him a tyrant. They called him a feckless weakling, too. The notion of tyrant and unaccountable power lost all meaning. Tyrant? So what?
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| Executive orders |
Obama set a precedent for governing in this manner, which Trump will use to un-do what Obama did, and then will do more on his own. The charge of tyranny and over-reach has lost its sting. Americans have heard the word "Tyrant!!" amid no perceived change, indeed inadequate change for a country seeking hope and change.
Americans have been desensitized to fear of tyranny. At this point a great many of them welcome it. Constitutional government is associated with weak, ineffective government, government that comes up with Obamacare and lost jobs.
The "Drain the swamp" message did not mean rooting out the bad buys and replacing them with good guys. It meant getting rid of the impediments to winning and making America great. The "swamp" was congress and the courts and the media and the interest groups that stood in the way of good strong government.
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| Voters have been desensitized |
Americans have been desensitized to fear of tyranny. At this point a great many of them welcome it. Constitutional government is associated with weak, ineffective government, government that comes up with Obamacare and lost jobs.
The "Drain the swamp" message did not mean rooting out the bad buys and replacing them with good guys. It meant getting rid of the impediments to winning and making America great. The "swamp" was congress and the courts and the media and the interest groups that stood in the way of good strong government.
The stage is set for a period of strong man rule. Thad Guyer describes how quickly that change has happened:
Guest Post:
Trump to Obama: “You’re Fired”
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| Thad Guyer |
The left media is now 0-2 for willful ignorance: Trump can’t win, and his transition team is ineffectual. If we should have learned one thing from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay’s scathing biography “The Making of Donald Trump” (2016), it’s that Trump is a master of governmental power levers through back-door means and bone-breaking operatives. That Joseph McCarthy’s Senate lawyer Roy Cohn was Trump’s attack dog from 1973 until he died, tells you most of what you need to know. If you want sophisticated reporting on the Trump transition, read the Wall Street Journal, whose editors and reporters have known many of Trump’s New York cabinet picks for decades. The WSJ says Trump tired of the “daily intelligence briefings”, finding them repetitive, incomplete, ideologically tainted (eg. national security implications of climate change), infused with Russia paranoia, and not credible on Syria. Trump dismissed Obama’s briefers with a “I’ve got a country to run”, his exact words: “If somethingshould change from this point, call me immediately”. (See NPR, Dec. 13, 2016, https://goo.gl/iXiTfP). To top executives, information is power, disinformation is distraction.
Obama’s record of 250 executive orders and counting can easily be overtaken by Trump. No argument is quite so effective as “you guys said it’s legit”. Were there greater moral imperative to it, Obama’s final flurry of executive orders, proclamations, and new regulations would appear heroic. But instead it looks sad and desperate, with liberal activists complaining Obama should have institutionalized these progressive moves long ago. (Podcast, NPR On the Media, “Hurry Up [with Midnight Orders and Regulations”, Dec. 23, 2016, https://goo.gl/b6NUFl). Every new Obama executive order can be undone with Trump’s signature. (Podcast, WSJ “Obama Last-Minute Rules”, Dec 21, 2016 https://goo.gl/iFZQYr). Every new Obama regulation can be superseded with a Trump “interim” regulation gutting it. Obama’s claim that his proclamation banning North Atlantic oil extraction is “permanent” is legally ludicrous. Obama’s revocation of NSEERS, aka the “9-11 Muslim Registry”, can also be reinstated with Trump’s issuance of an “interim final rule”. Such rules are effective upon publication without prior public notice. (See, “A Guide to the Rulemaking Process”, Office of the Federal Register 2010, https://goo.gl/bTdV4M).
For us baby boomers, we now have a third emblazoned memory of American politics, which in order are: (1) the Kennedy assassination, (2) election of first Black president, and (3) and our first overtly corporate presidency. We don’t have to wait until January 21st to study the four strongmen controlling world affairs, if not our destinies: Donald Trump (North America), Vladmir Putin (Eurasia), Recep Erdoğan (Mideast/North Africa), and Xi Jinping (South and East Asia). Trump is right: “Let’s talk now”. Obama is serving in a caretaker role.
3 comments:
It seems to me that a lot of the pollyannas who so exuberantly voted for Trump are ignoring the dark forces working behind the scenes. Read Jane Mayer's book "Dark Money". For these dark forces, Trump is a mouthpiece and distraction. He is their shield, and a handy tool. The pollyannas are celebrating the gutting of: environmental, financial, and commerce regulations while the dark forces are plotting the destruction of the American system. They control nearly 2/3 of the state legislatures and governors.
What they are waiting for is a major mistake by Trump. Then, undercover of disaster, and using the "shock doctrine" (defined ably by Naomi Klein) they will call for a constitutional convention, rewrite our framework document, and install a permanent oligarchy.
Our baby boomer generation has failed the world. I am sorry for this jeremiad, but I don't see much hope.
Excellent suggestion, Mike. I will be placing a blog post following up.
Happened to notice that Jane Mayer's Dark Money is a Kindle Daily deal -- today, Dec 27 -- for $3.99. For anyone interested to read it who reads on a Kindle.
https://smile.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-Radical-ebook/dp/B0180SU4OA?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&ref_=br_prlt_grdDy_pdt-3
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