Donald Trump has spent a lifetime
suing and being sued, vilifying anyone contradicting him or choosing to leave
his fold, playing fast and loose with asset appraisals and tax filings, breaking
contracts almost as fast as he makes them and, with grandiose flare, making
promises and pronouncements – carefully staged – that simply never materialize.
He uses words to cast his failures as success, self-admittedly is addicted to
exaggeration (it’s even in his Art of the
Deal) and loves to cite as “fact” statistics and occurrences fabricated
from whole cloth. He is the greatest creator of “fake news” in our government’s
history, even as he decries most mainstream media as the “true enemy of the
people.” He takes credit for the accomplishments of others and helps himself to
campaign slogans created by his harshest opponents. “Strong Together”? Hillary
Clinton’s marquee campaign message!
Trump’s street-fighter instincts
marginalize experts who can thoroughly discredit his statements, embrace inane
conspiracy theories to denigrate blocs of people and policies that oppose him
and seize on racial, religious and ethnic bigotry to enhance his own power. He
openly brags of his sexual proclivities, his history of sexual deviance, making
unwanted advances (his pussy grabbing speech is classic) and entering private
women’s dressing rooms uninvited. He has alienated leaders in most of the
world, excepting right wing politicians and dictators in Eastern bloc Europe,
Israel, Brazil, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Russia. His braggadocio has drawn
derisive laughter at the United Nations and made him and our country the
laughing stock of most nations on earth. And yet his base clings to every word,
every policy pronouncement as the gospel, as the Republican Party purges
moderates is if they carried the plague; Donald Trump is flying high with solid
popularity.
As Democrats seem to be battling
themselves – traditionalists vs progressives – having lost the momentum under
the “exoneration” of the “Russia collusion” suggested by the DoJ summary of the
Mueller Report, they are facing a newly empowered Donald Trump hell bent on a
massive “double down.” Here is a partial Trump list: decimate
government-provided healthcare under the Affordable Care Act with absolutely no
tangible alternative, shut down the US/Mexican border entirely, build his
vanity wall that has yet to begin and clearly will never be finished if he is
not reelected, dramatically destroy U.S. credibility in the Israel/Palestine
crisis by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights (a completely
unnecessary statement that changed nothing whatsoever but alienated most of the
rest of the Middle East), downsize (and eventually eliminate) the Department of
Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency
and cut “entitlements” (don’t we all pay into Social Security/ Medicare
accounts?) in order to pay for the massive deficit caused by giving way too
much money to way-too-rich people.
A little more than two years in
office, Donald Trump only real accomplishments – and they are significant – are
his right-wing judicial appointments (if you are a social conservative, you are
cheering road blocks to progressive change that will resonate for decades) and
for the richest in the land, environmental and financial deregulation coupled
with a massive corporate tax cut that benefits a very small section of America.
We have a massive deficit from the
tax reform package that was supposed to, but clearly never will, pay for
itself. Money from that tax cut was primarily spent on stock repurchases and
not job-creating capital investment. We have a constitutional crisis over a
Trump-declared “national emergency” to build (not “finish”) a new border wall
that Mexico will not pay for, not one foot of which has been constructed to
date. We have caravans of undocumented aliens flocking to the border because
they feel if they do not act now, they will never be able to apply for asylum.
Donald Trump has provoked the very border actions he has pledged to stop. And
we have a series of executive orders, the stuff his rallies are based on, that
have almost consistently failed to deliver.
The scene is always the same. Interior
– White House – Day. Trump, surrounded by recruited lackies, signs an executive
order with multiple pens, handed out to loyalists, and holds the document up
for the camera. Later at rallies, he touts the statements in the executive
orders as if they have been instantly fulfilled. His sycophants cheer but
seldom follow-up to see if in fact those dramatic words are ever implemented.
They almost never are. Mostly, they are “sound and fury signifying nothing.” The
March 30th Los Angeles Times tracked exactly what happened after most
of those orders were signed. They start with an executive order, signed last
May, that seemed to benefit returning veterans seeking federal jobs.
“He had done ‘something that people
have wanted presidents to do for a long time,’ a triumphant Trump told the
applauding military families who packed the White House East Room. ‘We will now
ensure that you have better access to federal jobs.’… Yet 11 months later, the
four-page document he signed in May has done no such thing.
“The order provided no money, created
no policies and added no hiring authority. It merely required federal officials
to post notices on their websites and draft reports about an order signed a
decade earlier by President George W. Bush, which allowed agencies to waive
competitive hiring requirements for military spouses in some circumstances… The
substance mattered little. For a president who relishes pomp and shows of
executive action, unchecked by Congress, signing ceremonies have become a
hallmark, a way to convey accomplishment for a man who asserts he has done more
than any president in history.
“The Times reviewed 101 executive
orders Trump has signed since inauguration day, and interviewed experts,
advocates and administration officials about their effects… Many were geared
toward favored political constituencies, including veterans, blue-collar
workers and evangelical Christians. Few moved policy significantly; generally
the orders created committees or task forces, demanded reports or pressed for
enforcement of existing laws… Trump’s boldest unilateral actions, the ones that
have provoked the most vigorous objections to his use of presidential power,
were not carried out through executive orders… Trump decrees rarely affect
policy… A Times review of 101 executive orders finds that after the fanfare,
most don’t accomplish what president claims…
“White House officials say Trump’s
orders focus agency leaders on his priorities and that some have had broad
impact, including the reduction of regulations across the federal government
and the expanded availability of less expensive health plans that don’t offer a
full set of benefits… The formality of a written order, they say, can command
attention across government.
“The question is not whether Trump’s
rhetoric ‘aligns with the legal language’ in the orders, the White House said
in a written response. Rather, the statement added, it’s what they have
accomplished — ‘And they’ve done a lot!... The Times review shows a different
picture. A few of Trump’s orders have led to changes in policy. Many have
proved more ceremonial than substantive.
“At least 18 of the 101 orders
created new task forces, councils or committees. Among them was an
infrastructure council that disbanded within a month; members resigned in 2017
after Trump’s qualified criticism of white supremacists who marched in
Charlottesville, Va. He issued two orders related to his unfounded claims of
widespread voter fraud: One established a commission, the other disbanded it
after bipartisan criticism.
“At least 12 included language such
as “encourage” or “to the extent permitted by law,” underscoring the
president’s lack of authority to make sweeping change without help from
Congress.
“At least 15 reversed or curtailed
Obama’s initiatives, notably the orders overturning environmental regulations.
Those made for some of Trump’s most consequential actions even as they
demonstrated a major drawback of executive orders — they can fairly easily be
undone by a successor. Also, courts have blocked some environmental rollbacks.
“At least 43 called for agency
reports or reviews, including one on historically black colleges and another on
retirement savings rules. A few in this category led to significant changes,
such as Trump’s order sharply shrinking the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears
Ears national monuments in Utah that Presidents Clinton and Obama,
respectively, had established.
“At least five related to members of
the military, veterans and their families. Two called for plans and task forces
on mental health and suicide among veterans. One established an accountability
office at the Department of Veterans Affairs… A fourth purported to create a
job training program for veterans to enter the U.S. Merchant Marine, but it
duplicated an existing ‘Military to Mariner’ program…
“In several cases, Trump has made
broad claims about the effect of his executive orders that have proved false.
He has repeatedly claimed that two of his orders require American-made steel in
federal pipelines. In reality, they simply encouraged federal agencies to
choose American companies for the product.
“The order Trump signed on
Inauguration Day, ‘to ease the economic burden’ of Obama’s healthcare law, was
similarly toothless. Yet another told federal education officials to follow
existing laws respecting local and state boards’ independence… Trump’s 100th
executive order, signed last week in an East Room event complete with a string
quartet, followed up on a promise he made earlier in the month to a
conservative conference, promising to force colleges to support free speech.
“Trump called it ‘historic’ and ‘groundbreaking.’
Experts who read the text said the ultimate impact was uncertain, given that
public universities already must follow the 1st Amendment and it simply
instructed private colleges to comply with their existing policies.” We have
lots of lip-flap, his deep resentment when autocrat-wannabe-Trump cannot
dictate legislation that Congress opposes, and we have a bumbling “leader” who
hates to read, loves to ignore his own experts, shoots from the hip as to some
of the most complex issues facing our nation and is simply wrong most of the
time. Is it too late? Has the underlying polarization represented by Trumpian
nationalism/populism become so entrenched that this nation must break apart? Or
is there hope through the election process?
I’m Peter Dekom, and if you are tired about
this nation’s constantly losing and losing, if you fear for our future, the 2020
election looms large.
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