Reasons
HRC
Everyone from Robert Reich to Robert Redford has weighed in on Donald Trump.
Reich suggests that Trump’s victory is due to economic fears which is certainly true, but like a plane crash there are always multiple and interlocking causes.
One of the largest has to be the extraordinary Clinton baggage (both Bill and Hillary.)
Bill Clinton’s Marc Rich pardon remains one of the most craven and inexplicable political acts of modern times.
As a result, the thought of Clinton advising his wife sent shivers down my spine, too.
There was a reader comment the other day along the lines of “the Republicans spent the last eight years convincing Americans that our government was broken and this is now the solution.”
That also has the ring of truth.
Trump? We’ve Seen Far Worse.
Nixon
We survived the cowardly conniving of James Buchanan (1857-1861) and the molten vengeance of Richard Nixon (1969-1974).
Buchanan and Nixon both caused or lengthened wars costing the lives of 650,000 Americans for political purposes.
The Donald can be no worse.
Americans forget that over the course of American history that the balance of power has shifted greatly from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other and back again.
Congress is a formidable center of power that will require negotiation and compromise on Trump’s part.
The best but hardly the only example is Henry Clay.
The Extraordinary Clay
Clay was never president but wielded power in the House and Senate as many presidents wish they could.
He was consistently at the very center of power during some of our most tumultuous times.
Where Congress and the White House are concerned, Clay and others prove that real power is fluid and a power vacuum will instantly be filled.
Presidents have been known to say that the visual trappings of the highest office suggest power that is often elusive or down right false.
Re-Calibration
Democrats have may thrown off the Clinton yoke but the problems for Republicans generally and conservatives, specifically, are much more complex.
Trump is a nominal Republican but absolutely not a conservative, especially where fiscal matters are concerned or for that matter, social issues either.
Trump’s fiscal ideology is based on the use of heavily leveraged debt as an entirely normal business strategy.
He plumps up a rosy scenario, borrows through loans and the sale of junk bonds, and then declares financial default and walks away from the catastrophe he set in motion, leaving others, often shareholders, in the breach.
It will be fascinating to see if Congress bows to fiscal governance using those strategies as they are a complete abandonment of conservative principles.
Trump has also articulated a foreign policy of receding from world affairs under circumstances where he feels that others are not pulling their weight.
That rationale presumes that those “others” need us more than we need them which is a fantasy to say the least.
Global partnerships are complex and interlocking and some of the weakest players still enjoy the flexibility to choose the power surrogate of their choice.
We want them to choose us for many reasons.
Perhaps Lt. General Michael Flynn can explain to President Trump that on the field of battle undefended or neutral territory will quickly be controlled by an aggressive enemy.
Trump’s various ideas are both completely untested and a mystery.
We will watch with very keen interest as the Republican machine peruses his playbook to see if they will join his team or not.
It is a choice they will make with great care as their personal futures and that of the party are both at stake.
Trump, with his thin-skin and ego could very well be a latter day President John Tyler (1841-1845) , forever known as His Accidency.
Tyler, through his policy decisions, found himself a president without a party, a perilous place to be.
His Accidency, John Tyler