Harry Truman was angry with Eisenhower because he believed that Ike did not respect the office of the President. Truman was able to distinguish between the office and its occupant. Eisenhower did not get out of the car and enter the White House to greet the then sitting President. They did not speak from January 20, 1953 until they were together at the Kennedy funeral in November 1963.
The Presidency of William Jefferson Clinton was the first time in recent history that the opposition party spent so much of its energy to discredit both the President and the First Lady. They spent millions of dollars investigating “White Water”, Mrs. Clinton’s law firm, and even accused her of murder. They eventually impeached him for lying to a grand jury about a sexual encounter. These holy people however had to rid themselves of 3 or 4 leaders in the House of Representatives for their sexual encounters. Then the man, who became Speaker because he was “squeaky clean”, was involved in a sex scandal when he was a wrestling coach at a boy’s high school.
Once Mr. Obama was elected the respect for the office of
the Presidency decreased dramatically. A
Republican Congressman shouted during an address to Congress by President
Obama, “Liar!” Such blatant disrespect
had never happened before. However, that
was not the start. On January 20, 2009 just after President Obama’s inauguration,
the Republicans met and promised to do everything possible to prevent Mr. Obama
having a second term. They promised to
obstruct any and all of his proposals, signaling the end of any
bi-partisanship. They spent the next 8
years blocking his proposals. After the
Affordable Care Act passed and the Republicans regained control of Congress,
they voted to repeal the act over 50 times with full knowledge that the
President would veto their action. At
the same time they promised to pass a better bill. They never did.
In the same early months of 2009, the Tea Party
developed. They claimed to be angry
about taxes, which had not changed under President Obama. Their anti-Obama attitude was basically
racial. They called him the Kenyan,
Muslim black man. They even used the “n”
word and referred to the First Lady as a gorilla in heels. Trump spent years claiming he had proof that
Mr. Obama was born in Nairobi and that his mother sent a notice to the Honolulu
paper announcing his birth. She also falsified
a birth certificate in Hawaii so he could claim being an American. Trump claimed he sent investigators to
Honolulu and that they had found “interesting” information. He never presented any such evidence. When President Obama produced his birth certificate,
something that no other President had ever had to do, Trump began asking for
his college transcripts. The tea party
continued to doubt the legitimacy of President Obama’s election.
The Birther Movement continued into the 2012 election. Senator John McCain who was the GOP candidate
was the only person with the courage to tell the public that President Obama
was an American born Christian and a good man with whom he had philosophical
differences.
Early in the last year of Mr. Obama’s second term, Mr.
Justice Anton Scalia died. President
Obama nominated a candidate for the seat on the Supreme Court. The candidate was a moderate judge who had
been praised by most GOP Senators during his confirmation hearings for the
Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the
Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell from Kentucky claimed that the next
President who would be elected in November and not be able to submit a
nomination until January, should be the one to nominate the new justice. Mr. Obama still had 11 months left in his
term. Meanwhile the Supreme Court had to
limp along for 11 months with only 8 justices.
Mr. McConnell also said that if Mrs. Clinton was elected President and
the GOP maintained control of the Senate he would prevent consideration of any
of her nominations to the Supreme Court throughout her term.
When Trump won and nominated a conservative judge for the
position, the Democrats in the Senate were angry because of the GOP’s block of
Mr. Obama’s nominee and believed that the GOP had stolen the seat. They threatened to filibuster the
nomination. The GOP Majority Leader changed
the rules to prevent a filibuster for any Supreme Court nominee. From now on,
the President would only be able to have Senate approval of his nominee, if his
political party controlled the Senate.
This was the final end of bi-partisanship in the US Senate, once
considered to be the greatest deliberative body in the world.
The
Campaign and Election of 2016
The media is partially responsible for Trump’s winning the
nomination and the election. From the
minute he announced his candidacy with an outrageous claim that all Mexican
immigrants were rapists and drug dealers, the 24/7 media covered every minute
of his campaign. They showed every rally
in its entirety. He received more free
coverage than the other dozen GOP candidates and Clinton and Sanders
combined.
During the 2016 campaign Trump said unbelievable
things. A tape appeared in which he
spoke of grabbing women in their groin and other sexually inappropriate
actions. This tape did not affect his
supporters. He claimed that he could
shoot someone on the street in NYC and not be charged.My first problem is the people who supported Trump. Although a college degree is not a reflection of higher intelligence, it is a reflection of higher education. The majority of people without a college degree supported Trump. The majority of people who do not believe in science and climate change voted for Trump. A majority of people who believe in creationism and not evolution voted for Trump. These are people with limited understanding of the world around them. In addition, as a group they believe in magical thinking. They think that because he says so, he will magically bring back industries that have moved to other countries. They neglect the facts that these companies moved because wages are much lower, taxes are probably lower, and restrictions are fewer. Since making money is their reason to exist they will not move back to the USA under current conditions. Additionally, Trump should set a good example by moving his manufacturing back to the USA which he never did.
He will
build a wall, a “terrific” wall, along the US-Mexican border and have the
Mexican government pay for it. There is
no way he can force Mexico to pay for the wall.
The wall he proposed will cost several billion dollars. Will Congress, which is so worried about the
budget, approve building the wall?
He
promised to bring back the coal mining business. He neglected to point out that coal is a
dirty hydrocarbon that no longer needs people to go down into mines to extract
it. Robotic devices and strip mining
have replaced the workers. Again it is a
cost effective measure and no amount of encouragement will force the mining companies
to return to human workers.
Additionally, natural gas is cheaper and cleaner, thereby being the fuel
of choice.
He claims
he will deport 10 to 12 million illegal aliens from the country. This project will cost billions, required
hundreds of thousands of police to find these people, and separate families,
unless he proposes to deport American citizens along with their illegal family
members. Additionally, the USA will lose
millions of hard-working people who do many of the jobs that Americans will not
do and who pay taxes.
He and
the GOP want to remove “regulations.”
They also want to destroy the EPA and who knows what other regulatory
agencies that protect our food, water, industrial waste, medications etc. Wait until the first child dies because of
bad food or medicine; or some Congressional family member dies of complications
from industrial pollution.
He has
also threated to indict HRC as soon as he becomes President. His supporters expect this since they
chanted; “Jail her!” at most rallies. If
he does not start a Justice Department
investigation, his supporters will be angry and betrayed. If he does this the USA will become a second
rate banana republic.
I am
afraid that the rioters at his rallies who attacked news people and non-Trump
supporters think that his election gives them free rein to attack other news
people, minorities, gays, and anyone else that they think are “others”. I know that Congress will try to repeal the
Affordable Care Act immediately after January 20th. That will leave more than 24 million people
without health insurance; allow companies to deny people with pre-existing
conditions, and put caps on yearly and life time benefits. After 8 years, the GOP has yet to produce an
alternative plan for Health Care and they will replace the ACA with nothing. In May the House finally passed a bill to repeal
and replace the ACA. Their bill will
again take insurance away from 24 million Americans, put a cap on life time
benefits, provide the opportunity to buy insurance if you have a pre-existing
condition at a higher premium, and eviscerate Medicaid.
Trump promised
to appoint a conservative Justice. As
soon as that person takes the seat, the new Attorney General will find a case
to let the Court reverse Roe v. Wade and the Equality in Marriage ruling. They have already gutted the Voting Rights
Act. Future state appeals on voting
limitation laws will be decided in favor of the state and not in favor of the
individual. Citizens United will stand
and probably be strengthened. Civil
Rights will be threatened as they were in the days of HUAC and other
prosecutorial Congressional committees.
He has maligned President Obama for the past 8 years. He has accused him of being an illegitimate President who was born in Kenya and is a Muslim. How can he accept the Presidency from an “illegitimate” occupant of the White House? Yet the day after the election, President Obama was gracious and generous in welcoming Trump to the White House and Mrs. Obama was equally gracious to Trump’s wife.
I have yet to touch his comments on foreign policy. He threatened NATO, has been dealing with Russia for months, believes that more countries should have nuclear weapons, and his opposition to the Pacific trade deal will give China a free rein in Southeast Asia. He has also condemned the Iran treaty that was developed by multiple countries over many months.
The election of Donald Trump as the 45th
President of the United States caused me to become amazingly depressed. As I learned that most of my friends and
family were equally upset by this event, I was able to lose a tiny bit of that
depression. However, his continues to
say and act like a 3 year old.
Additionally, some of the people who have supported Trump, think that
now they can do or say anything and it is OK.
School students had told teachers and fellow students who “look
different” to go back home where they belong.
Women have been molested by men who think they no longer have to be
“politically correct.” These are
isolated incidents but I fear that they will increase over the next months
He
appointed as head of the EPA, the former Attorney General from Oklahoma who has
sued the EPA at least a dozen times.
Within days he started dismantling protections for the water and the
environment. The new Budget Director
introduced the Trump budge for 2018. The
budget increased spending for the military and provided funding for the ”wall”.
The budget also included dramatic cuts for most social programs from Meals on
Wheels to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment
for the Arts. The proposed bill reduced
the budget for the IRS by about 50%. The
Budget Director claimed that the meals on wheels program had not proved its
value.
His
daughter’s firm received clearance for her wares from China the day after she
attended a state dinner for the Chinese dinner.
Trump congratulated the newly re-elected Turkish President who had won
illegally and suspended civil rights. He
had admitted previously that he had a conflict because he owned a huge hotel in
Istanbul. Additionally, his first national security advisor was on the payroll
of the Turkish government but had never registered as a representative of a
foreign government. He did so
retrospectively after his role was discovered by the Press.
I am afraid that the rioters at his rallies who attacked news people and non-Trump supporters think that his election gives them free rein to attack other news people, minorities, gays, and anyone else that they think are “others”.
I have
yet to touch his comments on foreign policy.
He threatened NATO, has been dealing with Russia for months, believes
that more countries should have nuclear weapons, and his opposition to the
Pacific trade deal will give China a free rein in Southeast Asia. He has also condemned the Iran treaty that
was developed by multiple countries over many months.
Sometimes a friend's remarks clarify past
events better than my memory. Last week at dinner Phil pointed out that Hillary
was one of the most admired women in the world until she announced that she was
running for President. Then all of a sudden she was so vilified that she fell
from grace. She was accused of everything including murder and it became so bad
that someone showed up at a Pizza Parlor after reading that she was involved in
a sex ring using children and the Pizza Parlor was the site. He showed up with
a gun, of course.
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