The
sitting American President is a bloviating and arrogant egotist. Whether through his conscious actions as our
Chief Executive, a perfect storm of economic cycles that continues to confuse
even the most accomplished economists, or a magical mystery cosmic tour that
has spontaneously resulted in robust financial activity for our nation…Donald
Trump is sitting pretty in regards to his re-election prospects. Now it must be stated that the coronavirus
maelstrom and the fickle winds of foreign policy may yet upset the Donald’s
quest for an extended presidency; but he is certainly on smooth seas for the
time being.
President
Donald Trump has actually done, or tried
to do, what he campaigned on. He
deserves great credit for many of his accomplishments in both domestic and
foreign policy arenas and America today is a far better country than it was
when Trump took office. The President’s
actions have created wonderful opportunities for the American people to improve
their lives and his foreign policy has restored respect for America across the
globe. As I have addressed in prior
posts, it is breathtakingly shameless to witness the Republican Party’s love
affair with a man who less than four years ago was considered a buffoonish
interloper. Everybody loves a winnah!
Watching
the Democratic Party struggle with their
presidential nomination process, while simultaneously coping with their chronic
Trump Derangement Syndrome, has proven to be quite entertaining. Up until the recent Super Tuesday primaries,
the Democrats seemed to be living the sequel to the 2016 Republican
presidential primary. Just as the
Republicans were desperate to somehow and some way deny their party’s
nomination to Donald Trump; the Democrats are equally struggling with their
quest for something to derail the Bernie Sanders express. But as things stand today, the Democrats have
apparently figured out a solution that the Republicans could never grasp. They appear to have consolidated their party
behind what certainly seems to be the Democratic establishment favorite son Joe
Biden. Just as there are future bumps in
the road for the President; Biden may yet figure out a way to lose the
nomination and be replaced by…who knows. But as of this writing and in lieu of a very
public mental breakdown or criminal indictment, it sure looks like we will be
having a Donald Trump versus Joe Biden race for President in November.
And
that, my friends…is very disappointing.
My personal views on the presidential primary processes of the national parties
have been voiced here: http://centerlineright.blogspot.com/2016/08/question-for-our-national-parties-wtf.html
. Each of us who might be
of adult age realizes all too well how times have changed. Our society and culture have not just
changed; they have changed at the speed
of light. While some processes best
remain true to their original intent and content (i.e. our Constitution), other things by necessity need to adjust to
the changing landscapes that influence them.
There can be little doubt that running for President in 2020 is a far
different proposition than it was in 1972.
And yet the political parties have failed to make substantive changes to
their primary contests to adequately address this evolution. It is my humble opinion that as a result of
these selection processes not being properly updated to reflect today’s political and social environment,
the quality of our national party
presidential candidates has been diluted.
While
it is certainly cause for celebrating the fact that Barack Obama broke the
color barrier for U.S. Presidents; it is equally certain that he came into the
White House clearly unprepared for the job that lay ahead of him. Obama was elected on the basis of Hope and Change; not on his resume. That inexperience likely contributed in large
part to his squandering of historical opportunities to accomplish momentous
legislative goals. His lackadaisical and
idealistic approach to the management of government resulted in unprecedented
corruption in some federal agencies. And
on the heels of that dubious presidential choice, the nation stepped up again
and elected a television personality to be our nation’s Commander in
Chief. It is difficult to rationalize
how one thing makes any more sense than the other.
Politics
is a strange brew. It has never reliably
led to the best person for the job being selected
for the job. It is an oxymoronic mix of
personality, luck, science, money, influence, weather, world events, and karma;
the percentage that each contributes to the whole remains undetermined. Notwithstanding that sometimes the greatest
leaders come from the unlikeliest places; it stands to reason that when someone
is hired to do a job, it just makes good sense to hire someone who has
exhibited some capacity to actually perform that job. Our
modern day primary system has largely diminished this tried and true axiom. For various reasons, voters today seem to
favor flash over substance, idealism over results, art over science, and
promises over accomplishments. Even
though we might get lucky on occasion and come up with a winner using this set
of values; most of the time it is going to bite us in the rear and we will get
the government we deserve.
President
Trump’s incessant bragging and crude rhetoric has no place in the vocabulary of
a U.S. President. Whether he chooses to
embrace it or not, he is the top representative of our nation and a role model
for generations of citizens. Through his
words and actions, he largely establishes the political tone for this
country. And while he clearly cannot
control the behavior of his critics and opponents; he most definitely controls
how he reacts to those actions. The
presidential pulpit lends sufficient credence to those reactions as to make them even more
prominent than the original
actions that create them. The American
people want to embrace their President; they want to be proud of their
President. We should not be placed in a
position to celebrate good policy outcomes while acknowledging serious
character flaws in the architect of those policies. While not demanding a saint in the White
House; is it entirely unreasonable to expect a gentleman? No one should expect a President to lie down
and willingly accept false or irresponsible accusation; but there are other options compared to jumping
down in the mud with the pigs.
As
an alternative to Trump, what do the Democrats stand up for us? They give us Joe Biden; a career politician
who has little to show for a lifetime in government and someone who has clearly
demonstrated lapses in judgment that should disqualify any presidential
candidate. I am sixty seven years old
and a living, breathing example of how one’s mental and physical capacities can
pale over the years due to the aging process.
For the Democratic Party to place Joe Biden under the microscopic lens
of a presidential campaign against a flame-throwing candidate like Trump and in
a viciously partisan environment like we currently have in America is nothing
short of an invitation to disaster. The
potential for the very public and painful humiliation of Biden is very real.
Many
people have wondered why it is that Obama has yet to publicly and
enthusiastically endorse Biden. I
believe there are two main reasons for this.
First, Obama is sufficiently narcissistic to do all that he can to make
certain that his endorsement is not attached
to a loser. Once Biden gets the
nomination, if Biden gets the nomination,
then we will see Obama embrace Biden as the second coming and the only
alternative to the evil Trump. Secondly,
Obama realizes that there is only one big splash to get out of his Biden
endorsement. Why use that single bullet
in the primary? Again, if Biden is the nominee, Obama will use
that endorsement at the best strategic moment to spur Biden’s campaign.
Just
be sure of this: If Biden is the
nominee; the endorsement is coming. If he acquires the nomination, look for the
Biden campaign to begin loading up on the old hands from the Obama
administration. At the end of the day,
if Joe Biden is elected President; he will be little more than a cardboard
cutout of a Chief Executive with Obama and his ilk pulling the strings behind
the scenes. It will be the second coming
of the One. In the upcoming campaign, we
will not be hearing the wild socialist talk that Biden has used to attract the
liberal wing of his party during the primary process. It will be a morphing to a supposedly moderate stance that will
actually be Hope and Change, the
sequel. The Democrats and Biden would
sell their souls for the chance to beat Trump; and in this case, there is
someone standing there with their hand out holding a pen. And make no mistake
about it…If Biden gets the nomination…With the backing of Obamaworld and massive
cover from the mainstream media…he will
be a formidable opponent.
Don’t
miss the next post!
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The
likely presidential campaign that we will be witnessing over the coming months
will not bring honor to our nation’s democratic processes. It will not be centered around noble ideals
and substantive debates on policies that impact the daily lives of Americans. It will not be covered by a journalistic
community that exhibits high standards of ethics and professionalism. It will not be contested on the moral high
ground of what is best for the nation and its people. And sadly, the two
candidates that are featured in the upcoming presidential contest will in no
way reflect the best candidates that were available to their respective
parties.
I
am not sufficiently intelligent to respond to the obvious question: If not them; then who? I have hired a few subordinates in my lifetime
and I did not always hit home runs. But
when it comes to selecting the President
of the United States and considering the awesome power and influence that
accompanies that high office, can’t we somehow come up with a better system
that might yield better candidates? Our
Constitution was written with the understanding that our leaders would be like
us…imperfect creatures. The brilliance
and wisdom of that document is evident when considering the firewalls that are
built into our government in order to mitigate the detrimental effects of
corruption, greed, and criminality in our leaders and elected officials. But our nation should not have to persevere in spite of sorry leaders. We should not have to accept Bill Clinton’s
sexual escapades in the Oval Office in return for a balanced federal
budget. We should not have to accept
Donald Trump’s fraternity behavior in his official duties as President in
return for a robust national economy.
And we should not have as our only alternative to this Chief Egotist a man who often forgets
the day of the week, the state he is in, or exactly what he is doing there in
the first place.
We
get the government we deserve. If we are
going to get better, we are going to
have to do better. We as voters are going to have to take the
time necessary to educate ourselves on the candidates and their resumes. We are going to have to listen to their
policy speeches and not their sound bites.
We are going to have to surf the net for their biographies and pass fair
judgments on what they accomplished in their lives. Until we do that, we will continue to be confronted
by choices similar to what we will see this November. Don’t you think that our country and our
children deserve something better than the least
of two evils?
