I was just watching Stephen Colbert interviewing Bernie Sanders on the Late Show (? Is that what they call it?) and it started a line of thinking, which resulted in this post, if it ever gets written.
My uncle Innocent once said that the problem with business people running government is that they're not very ethical! In other words, business men cheat whenever possible. This may sound like a terrible smear on businessmen generally, and I suppose very religious businessmen cheat very carefully, but in general, businessmen (and businesses) cheat every chance they get.
Meanwhile, the Republicans have been frustrated for some years, because the taxes they pay--I mean, everybody pays them, but the Republicans have opposed high taxes on behalf of all of us, bless them--are, they feel, too high. In fact, they've got their taxes lowered for forty years, but they still seem too high; the Republicans would rather not pay taxes at all.
You must realize that there are several different kinds of republicans, though they have been roughly in agreement (very roughly) for a long time.
There are the Fiscal Conservatives. These are the ones who are hawkish on taxes, and hate government spending. (There are some exceptions; they don't mind government spending on their pet projects. Nobody minds the government spending each on his or her own pet projects.) They also used to be fierce about balancing the budget, but that particular agenda item has been put on hold for the moment, since the overspending is on behalf of the Right People, namely themselves.
There are the Religious Conservatives. Among other things, these are the ones who oppose abortion, and family planning for women. And they often want prayer in schools, and do not want Evolution being taught in schools.
There are the Neo-Conservatives. These want America to be the most powerful nation on earth, and they want to go fix all the international problems with a war. They are embarrassed by having to back off confrontations.
There are the ones who Oppose Gay Rights. I can't think of a civil word for this group, which overlaps to a certain degree with the Religious Conservatives, but that is a marriage of convenience.
There are the Racists, and the Tribalists, who view society in terms of the ethnic origins of the people. These are the ones who want to slow down, or stop, immigration, especially from poor countries.
There are the Libertarians, who don't want any restrictions, ("Its a free country, but not free enough!")
There is the Business Lobby, which fights for loosening government regulations that prevent businesses from exploiting the land and its resources.
Then there is the Gun Hawks, who do not want any restriction of gun ownership, gun sales, or anything to do with guns. These fellows are often identified with the NRA (the National Rifle Association), but there may be a parting of the ways pretty soon.
The biggest thing that they have in common is that they do not like the Democrats, who oppose them on all of these fronts. A coalition of all of these groups was created in the seventies and eighties, and they have done their best to oppose the Democrats since then, and often quite successfully.
Many of these folks are businessmen, and they have deplored the way the Democrats run government, and what they perceive as the moral straight-jacket that the Democrats have succeeded in putting on conduct in government. A businessman, they have reasoned, would be more sensible about how to deal with people and foreign governments. A deal-maker, like Trump, they must have reasoned, would be able to handle these tricky foreign governments.
Businessmen also have their rules of thumb.
Never pay taxes, unless you have to.
Do business off the record whenever possible.
Make creative deals, especially with weaker opponents, and bullying is allowed.
Go it alone. Too many crooks spoil the heist.
Play your cards close to the chest. Surprise is a big weapon.
Change your mind often. Keep them guessing. Be capricious. Don't keep your promises.
Ally yourself with other thugs.
Threats are no use, unless you occasionally follow through on one. (A small nuke would be ideal.)
A major weapon of businesses is advertising. It is best if you have an entire Network that does your publicity for you. Also, if you can get your brand associated with a great game show, you can rake in the shekels like nobody's business!
So now we sort of see where some of this foolishness comes from. Trump's forthright way of shaking down his opposition is perceived as insulting and rude. His deals are disgusting: a Wall for Releasing the Budget. Dirt on Beiden in exchange for the foreign aid that Congress had already passed. That is no good; the USA cannot be seen to be dabbling in, essentially, blackmail. Ronald Reagan and Ollie North and gang did some very shady stuff, and so did George W. Bush and Cheney and his Halliburton gangsters. But Trump's clumsy blundering with international "deals" are truly an embarrassment, even if they were not horribly illegal.
This brings us to this most recent attempt to discredit Joe Biden. (Don't forget that Trump's constant harping on Hillary Clinton's e-mails seems to have succeeded with at least some Democrats, and certainly did succeed with almost all Republicans.) Will Democrats stoop to chanting "Lock Him Up!" every time they gather? I really can't see it, but if impeachment happens in the House of Representatives, something on those lines could be conceivable.
One plan the Republicans might be trying to implement is to break as many rules as possible while Trump can take the blame for it. (Actually, there are numerous elected Republicans who have been Trump's enablers, and who will go down with him, or go down before Trump does: Mitch McConnell's name comes to mind.) Of course, we know that they're eager to pack the Supreme Court with as many conservatives as they can. Unfortunately, except for a few die-hard political judges, such as Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, the justices are difficult to herd one way or another.
On top of being a businessman, and being very self-conscious (a narcissist), Trump also finds it difficult to express himself verbally, which is why he Twitters so much. In a decade or two, we will expect a president to use Twitter just as much as Trump does, if we can get a Millennial to run for office. But for the immediate future, it would be lovely if a president stays away from all social media.
Anyway, things are not so bad. There are annoying things all around us; every prospect annoys, to parody some famous person (Reginald Heber, actually; and he wasn't that famous, IMO), but those of us who are thoughtful will recognize that we can certainly recover some of what the Republicans have destroyed, in their desperation for Making America Great Again. In future years, we may not be able to make it as great as it was a few years ago, but we can certainly make it halfway decent again.
Kids. My last exhortation is to be careful how you phrase your pessimism to kids. With a constant onslaught of environmental ruination, it has been observed that young people across the globe are falling into a sort of hopelessness. We must be happy that there are Greta Thunbergs in the world; if and when she gives up, it will be a sad day for us indeed.
Part of the problem is that many adults (including me) are a little too weak in their science to understand the details of the kinds of things that catastrophic global warming will bring. I think it is reasonable to assure young people that, though life is going to be quite unpleasant (e.g. wetter on this side of the Rockies, and drier on the other side; violent weather being common on the East Coast), it is not going to be impossible. Also, decent people are going to have to work very hard, once life becomes as tough as it is expected to be, to enable the marginal population to survive. We can't just throw up our hands and give up.
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