Adults in the room, doing jack shit
Also in the annals of High-minded Horseshit: the Times breathlessly posts a Deep Throatesque anonymous op ed by Someone High Up in the Trump administration, saying don’t worry folks, we’re keeping Trump under control, and it’s all worth it because TAX CUTS and DEREGULATION and MORE BOMBS. Apparently we’re supposed to be impressed.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.
In other words you want tax cuts at the expense of the non-rich 90% of the country so you put up with the lying homicidal maniac because he provides them.
The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.
Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.
Free minds? Pull the other one. The Republican party is home to the theocratic Evangelicals and to the theocratic bishops and their fans. Free people? We have the highest prison population by percentage in the world – 724 people per 100,000. Republicans love that. The Democrats aren’t great at doing anything about it, but they don’t embrace it with the passion Republicans do. Also note the ideals that are missing: equality, justice, a fair distribution of social goods.
Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
Don’t worry, I’m not getting you wrong, I think you’re disgusting. By “effective deregulation” you mean getting rid of environmental laws, labor laws, safety laws, laws that protect consumers, laws that make it difficult for banks to drive us all off a cliff while pocketing the profits. By “historic tax reform” you mean making billionaires even richer. By “a more robust military” I don’t know what you mean – I guess ten times more than we need rather than five? Anyway, it’s all crap, so we’re not about to get you wrong.
But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.
Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.
That’s all interesting, but the Republicans could get rid of him now if they really gave a rat’s ass about the general good. 25th Amendment or impeachment, either one; they could do it. They’re not doing it because they’re looking out for themselves.
The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
Heroes my ass! They could and should get him out, not thwart a few of his worst ideas and then come bragging to us for cookies.
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
I knew that was coming – the invocation of Saint John of McCain. He was a Republican, he voted for Trump’s stuff, he was as greedy and cynical as the rest of you.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.
Cue vomit emoji.
Pretty sure technical term for this is “collaborator.”
There’s been much speculation about who the author of this piece is and that he or she is ‘sounding the alarm’. But I don’t read it that way at all. I read this as a Republican staring into the electoral abyss (not personally, but for the party) and is trying to convince moderate Republicans that things are OK, that they should still vote R in November.
Nobody had much sympathy for the Nazis who generally supported the Third Reich but just thought Hitler was a bit of a nut. And with good reason.
Well, I’m not a fan of this person’s politics either.
But this may serve to move things forward.
“breaking free of this tribalism crap” usually means “anyone who doesn’t agree with us is being tribal, and should get away from that liberalism and start to agree with us”. In short, our tribe, not yours, and really, all we’ll let you do is vote for us. We won’t actually share any goodies with you.
Of course this is speculation, but I interpreted this article as a calculated move by this official to get the ball rolling more on somehow removing this President, such as via the 25th amendment. I can’t fathom why else a senior administration official would go out in public and say all this. As far as I know, it’s utterly unprecedented. It’s only going to get people talking more about removing the President, and I would think this official knew that.
My father used to talk about a few National Party members he knew, how they were working to bring down Apartheid from the inside and all of that.
Funny how, what with all of these insiders trying to tear down that system from within, Apartheid only ended after the world slapped sanctions on RSA.
In other words, the external action seemed a mite bit better at actually doing things, and this working from within story was mostly bullshit along the lines of collaborators post WWII trying to claim that were actually part of the resistance all along.
Bruce, I have known a lot of people who wanted to “reform from within”. Friends who remain members of the Catholic Church, and do very little to make changes other than take birth control and divorce. A friend of my husband, who was the most unlikely member ever of the Church of Christ. People who remain in a situation that benefits them in some way (social acceptance for being a church member? A good job?) always want to reform from within, but most of the reforms usually seem to come from external pressure.
Claire @ 2 and Bruce @ 6 both (apparently independently) compare this to Nazis claiming to have been internal resisters all along. Yep.
iknklast @7
Agreed. If “reform from within” we’re possible, we wouldn’t be plagued by corrupt and dysfunctional organizations. Usually individuals are subverted by by the organization, most accept the perks or submit to being bullied.
As to the ‘French Resistance’ most people kept their heads down and tried to survive. My former boss, who was in the German Navy claimed that the French were mostly friendly until the fortunes of war changed. What other strategies are available to populations occupied by brutal oppressors such as the Japanese and Nazis during WW? Prof. Mary Beard has a more realistic assessment of human nature than some resistance fantasists.
I wonder what those brave men who shaved the heads of women accused of collaborating with the Germans actually did during the conflict to resist the occupiers.