Saving the World from Trump

 

This morning I saw an op-ed piece that finally drove me over the top. Here is one statement from Kathleen Parker from her piece :

Whatever her ultimate motive, Haley clearly decided that stepping on Tillerson and Kelly was in her political interest. There can have been no other reason to drag these two honorable, accomplished men through the mud for, by her own account, trying to mitigate some of Trump’s more-destructive impulses.

Parker has impelled me to go after all the hand-wringing, outrage and disappointment that so many people have directed toward Trump. Especially egregious are the lies and exaggerations coming from inside the government against Trump.

Most of the anger directed at Trump is blamed on Trump—his actions and behaviors. But no one wants to discuss the extreme arrogance that is being demonstrated over and over again about who should be in charge of the Presidency.

Let’s begin with Nikki Haley’s recent book, With all Due Respect. According to Kathleen Parker, Nikki Haley would only criticize Rex Tillerson and John Kelly to enhance her own selfish political goals. The fact that Tillerson and Kelly tried to enlist Haley to resist actions by the President were apparently irrelevant to her. Parker quotes Haley:

‘Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,’ Haley writes.

The pair told her that ‘it was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America’ and ‘the president didn’t know what he was doing.’

So let me get this right: Kelly and Tillerson believed they were entitled, in fact obligated, to save the country by betraying the President.

For the last three years, the press has indulged in trashing the President and his staff. I remember early on wondering how the White House staff was getting anything done with such chaos going on. I’d like you to read the following characterization carefully and I will follow with my own observations:

The result of all the melodrama is a sense of constant chaos for a watchful nation and a crippling anxiety for White House officials. Some aides now refuse to communicate by email, given that federal law requires such messages to be archived for historians and investigators. Many have taken to using encrypted apps to get around the investigations Trump has ordered to clamp down on leaks. Others are skittish about even picking up the phone, assuming someone is always listening or monitoring calls.

So let’s look at this supposedly journalistic description, which uses terms like “constant chaos,” “crippling anxiety,” “clamping down on leaks.” So much for objectivity. Worse yet, I almost laughed at the reasons for the chaos. What do people think they have to hide? Are they afraid people might see their plans to sabotage the President? Are they afraid their efforts to leak to the media might be discovered? It seems to me that if people just do their jobs and don’t violate the rules against leaks, they have nothing to worry about.

And now we see the height of arrogance in the State Department bureaucrats. Again, they are going to save all of us from Donald Trump, who has the gall to take his own path without consulting them regarding Ukraine. What nerve! Many of them have gotten their noses bent out of shape because Trump is not only not letting them do their jobs (which of course includes saving Ukraine and the U.S.), but he’s changing the status quo!

In spite of stepping on lots of toes, rocking the boat, going against the grain (okay, enough clichés), Trump has done a very good job:

The most prominent motif in these pieces is language that suggests movement toward a climax or dissolution—downward spiral, closing in, unsustainable. Trump is always becoming increasingly frustrated or unstable; he never decompresses or cools down. And yet: On April 2, 2017, in the wake of the first round of CHAOS coverage, Trump’s aggregate approval was 40.4 percent. His aggregate approval rating today is 40.4 percent. In his time in office he’s passed a tax cut, launched the punitive ICE raids he promised during the campaign, avoided inducing a significant military or economic disaster, and retained control over the votes of almost every congressional Republican.

(I acknowledge the comment on the economy is very understated.)

I hope that citizens will begin to realize that their criticisms of Trump are actually more legitimately directed at the media, against those who hate him and those who think they know how to do the President’s job.

I think the best thing these conceited bureaucrats could do for the country is quit.

 

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  1. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Susan Quinn:

    I think the best thing these conceited bureaucrats could do for the country is quit.

     

    Agree. 

    • #1
  2. Sweezle Inactive
    Sweezle
    @Sweezle

    Well said Susan.  “I think the best thing these conceited bureaucrats could do for the country is quit.”  Indeed.

    • #2
  3. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.  

    • #3
  4. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Susan Quinn: Most of the anger directed at Trump is blamed on Trump—his actions and behaviors. But no one wants to discuss the extreme arrogance that is being demonstrated over and over again about who should be in charge of the Presidency.

    We have a winner here.

    • #4
  5. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Yeah, that Constitution thing is just bad news.

    • #5
  6. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn: Most of the anger directed at Trump is blamed on Trump—his actions and behaviors. But no one wants to discuss the extreme arrogance that is being demonstrated over and over again about who should be in charge of the Presidency.

    We have a winner here.

    “Perfect,” huh?

    • #6
  7. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Retired or irrelevant? 

    • #7
  8. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Retired or irrelevant?

    I think Gary is still working.

    • #8
  9. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Retired or irrelevant?

    Gary is still working. He cannot be retired.

    • #9
  10. danok1 Member
    danok1
    @danok1

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    That you have the right and the Constitutional power to substitute your judgement and policies for those of the duly-elected President? Even though any power you’d have is delegated by the duly-elected President?

    • #10
  11. Jim McConnell Member
    Jim McConnell
    @JimMcConnell

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    And you sound like a broken record; sorry about that.

    • #11
  12. Dominique Prynne Member
    Dominique Prynne
    @DominiquePrynne

    I think the political class hasn’t seen a creature like DJT in their entire careers!  What I mean specifically is that Trump trusts himself, thinks for himself, doesn’t poll test every decision or camouflage himself behind layers of bureaucracy so that he has plausible deniability if something goes wrong.  The swamp doesn’t know how to treat such a creature and it is driving them crazy!    

    • #12
  13. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Dominique Prynne (View Comment):

    I think the political class hasn’t seen a creature like DJT in their entire careers! What I mean specifically is that Trump trusts himself, thinks for himself, doesn’t poll test every decision or camouflage himself behind layers of bureaucracy so that he has plausible deniability if something goes wrong. The swamp doesn’t know how to treat such a creature and it is driving them crazy!

    Beautifully said, @dominiqueprynne! So they think they must do something to fix him or stop him. He’s breaking so many of the rules that the bureaucrats must be in a perpetual state of brain freeze. Actually that’s probably not true–if it were, they’d not be doing all the disrespectful and inappropriate things they are doing.

    • #13
  14. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    Yah, poor Trump all his criminal and corrupt tendencies hindered and diverted by his appointees.  Just think how much sooner he could have betrayed the Kurds, engaged in corrupt quid pro quo’s for personal political gains, driven government spending to his private business, more flagrantly obstructed justice, and sucked up quicker and harder to Kim Jong Un. 

    So I agree with you, by helping to modulate Trumps worst and most incompetent tendencies Tielerson and Kelly helped to attenuate the Trumpist virus just enough that it could linger and become a chronic infection in the American body politic, rather than be violently ejected and the first signs of incompatibility. A terrible mistake, they should have let him be hoisted by his own petard, but the fools sought to spare the nation the grief thinking they could ride it out. 

     

    • #14
  15. PHenry Inactive
    PHenry
    @PHenry

    Apparently we have a new government paradigm, where the cabinet and employees implement policy as they see fit even in direct opposition to the president’s directives, where military members ignore and subvert their superior officers, and where doing whatever one thinks is right for policy is ‘patriotic’.  

    Because everyone knows we can’t afford to let the people’s vote sway such important policy. The people.  PFFT.  What do they know?  Who’s the expert here, after all, some slob with grease on his hands or the elite FBI, CIA and deep state bureaucrats?   

    Yeah, that will work.  

    They have freely admitted their loyalty is to the left before it is to the president, to America, to the republic, liberty or justice.  And somehow it is just being accepted as the new normal!  

    • #15
  16. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Valiuth (View Comment):

    Yah, poor Trump all his criminal and corrupt tendencies hindered and diverted by his appointees. Just think how much sooner he could have betrayed the Kurds, engaged in corrupt quid pro quo’s for personal political gains, driven government spending to his private business, more flagrantly obstructed justice, and sucked up quicker and harder to Kim Jong Un.

    So I agree with you, by helping to modulate Trumps worst and most incompetent tendencies Tielerson and Kelly helped to attenuate the Trumpist virus just enough that it could linger and become a chronic infection in the American body politic, rather than be violently ejected and the first signs of incompatibility. A terrible mistake, they should have let him be hoisted by his own petard, but the fools sought to spare the nation the grief thinking they could ride it out.

     

    @valiuth, don’t you get tired of being predictable?

    • #16
  17. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    I’m not.

    I liked Trump for picking them at first, but when they proved incapable of forwarding the President’s agenda?  They had to go.  No President should put up with subordinates, particulary ones he appoints, who try and sabotage his efforts.  Tillerson and Kelly are bad eggs . . .

    • #17
  18. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Valiuth (View Comment):

    Yah, poor Trump all his criminal and corrupt tendencies hindered and diverted by his appointees. Just think how much sooner he could have betrayed the Kurds, engaged in corrupt quid pro quo’s for personal political gains, driven government spending to his private business, more flagrantly obstructed justice, and sucked up quicker and harder to Kim Jong Un.

    So I agree with you, by helping to modulate Trumps worst and most incompetent tendencies Tielerson and Kelly helped to attenuate the Trumpist virus just enough that it could linger and become a chronic infection in the American body politic, rather than be violently ejected and the first signs of incompatibility. A terrible mistake, they should have let him be hoisted by his own petard, but the fools sought to spare the nation the grief thinking they could ride it out.

     

    I think your claim to be a conservative is what led to the great withdrawal of others willing to make that claim.

    • #18
  19. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    PHenry (View Comment):
    They have freely admitted their loyalty is to the left before it is to the president, to America, to the republic, liberty or justice. And somehow it is just being accepted as the new normal!

    We’ve heard about the elite for many years, but I had no idea how widespread they were–or at least those who think they are elite. And since they are seen as elite, everyone on the Left wants to join the club. Terrible. Thanks, @phenry.

    • #19
  20. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Color me shocked.

    • #20
  21. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    PHCheese (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Color me shocked.

    In other words, he’s with employees who refuse to do what the boss wants.

    • #21
  22. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Therefore, you are against our Constitutional process and Constitutional Order.

    Thanks for being honest about it. You want people who work for the President to be allowed to undermine him based on their feelings. Not follow the procedures to remove him. Not resign in protest. Nope. You are for them enlisting others to block their bosses agenda. You applaud it and find it proper/

    Have you ever been a CEO and had people working under you also working against you? I have, and it sucks. 

    Gary, you should stop claiming the mantel of Reagan. I find your use of that avatar offensive. I won’t tell you to stop using it, but it is wrong. Reagan would not have supported Tillerson and Kelly acting against the President. 

     

    • #22
  23. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    PHenry (View Comment):

    Apparently we have a new government paradigm, where the cabinet and employees implement policy as they see fit even in direct opposition to the president’s directives, where military members ignore and subvert their superior officers, and where doing whatever one thinks is right for policy is ‘patriotic’.

    Because everyone knows we can’t afford to let the people’s vote sway such important policy. The people. PFFT. What do they know? Who’s the expert here, after all, some slob with grease on his hands or the elite FBI, CIA and deep state bureaucrats?

    Yeah, that will work.

    They have freely admitted their loyalty is to the left before it is to the president, to America, to the republic, liberty or justice. And somehow it is just being accepted as the new normal!

    And Gary freely admits, he wants it to be this way. 

    • #23
  24. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    I am with Tillerson and Kelly.

    Absolutely despicable sentiment.

    I had BO’s number by the time he was elected. I knew he would be a horrible president and I was correct. But I remember telling someone at the time (I have no memory of why I said this) that if I somehow came into possession of a birth certificate proving without a doubt that BO was born in Kenya, or got some otherwise destructive information about him, I would have shredded it. For there had been an election, and the people had spoken.

    And you, @Garyrobbins, having complained bitterly about not having the “right” to vote in an R primary next year. You obviously don’t value votes, and you certainly don’t value voters.

    • #24
  25. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Valiuth (View Comment):

    Yah, poor Trump all his criminal and corrupt tendencies hindered and diverted by his appointees. Just think how much sooner he could have betrayed the Kurds, engaged in corrupt quid pro quo’s for personal political gains, driven government spending to his private business, more flagrantly obstructed justice, and sucked up quicker and harder to Kim Jong Un.

    So I agree with you, by helping to modulate Trumps worst and most incompetent tendencies Tielerson and Kelly helped to attenuate the Trumpist virus just enough that it could linger and become a chronic infection in the American body politic, rather than be violently ejected and the first signs of incompatibility. A terrible mistake, they should have let him be hoisted by his own petard, but the fools sought to spare the nation the grief thinking they could ride it out.

     

    @valiuth, don’t you get tired of being predictable?

    I wish to associate myself with Valiuth’s excellent analysis.  I had a trial today and only had time to note my dissent for the record.  Valiuth did the heavy lifting.

    • #25
  26. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Valiuth (View Comment):

    Yah, poor Trump all his criminal and corrupt tendencies hindered and diverted by his appointees. Just think how much sooner he could have betrayed the Kurds, engaged in corrupt quid pro quo’s for personal political gains, driven government spending to his private business, more flagrantly obstructed justice, and sucked up quicker and harder to Kim Jong Un.

    So I agree with you, by helping to modulate Trumps worst and most incompetent tendencies Tielerson and Kelly helped to attenuate the Trumpist virus just enough that it could linger and become a chronic infection in the American body politic, rather than be violently ejected and the first signs of incompatibility. A terrible mistake, they should have let him be hoisted by his own petard, but the fools sought to spare the nation the grief thinking they could ride it out.

     

    @valiuth, don’t you get tired of being predictable?

    I wish to associate myself with Valiuth’s excellent analysis. I had a trial today and only had time to note my dissent for the record. Valiuth did the heavy lifting.

    Packing the usual 10 pounds of “applesauce” into a 5 pound bag.

    • #26
  27. Sweezle Inactive
    Sweezle
    @Sweezle

    I love you Clifford “Packing the usual 10 pounds of “applesauce” into a 5 pound bag.” 

    • #27
  28. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    BO, didn’t do any work in the White House, he left it all to the bureaucrats. He signed what they put in front of him. So the staff members are spoiled rotten and complaining about Trump who does his own work. BO did all the fun stuff, Hollywood parties, speeches(that his staff wrote for him), vacations galore, for 8 solid years. So the bureaucrats suddenly have nothing to do, with the President calling the shots. The President really, truly, needs to start again loud and clear- YOU’RE FIRED!

    • #28
  29. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Michael Brendan Dougherty’s comment 10 days ago at National Review, when Haley’s book came out, is a pretty good assessment of the situation:

    One may find this cynical or savvy on her part. I’m not a natural Nikki Haley supporter. I haven’t found her speeches all that impressive. And I tend to be on the opposite side of the intramural conservative debates about foreign policy. But even if one takes Haley to be making a calculated political maneuver by demonstrating “her loyalty to Trump and her independence from him,” we should note that this is precisely the right thing to do constitutionally. And she knows it. Haley told Norah O’Donnell during an interview that cabinet officials and bureaucrats have their duties: “Go tell the president what your differences are and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing. . . . But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing, and it goes against the Constitution and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive.”

    And if Haley was planning to run in 2024 as a robotic backer of all things Trump, she probably wouldn’t have tweeted this out dinging him over his Twitter jibe this summer at Elijah Cummings’ house being burglarized:

    So while she may be trying to walk a tightrope to gain the support of Trump backers while not alienating Trump skeptics, she’s apparently already lost the hard-core #NeverTrump crowd because she doesn’t share the feeling that the president shouldn’t have the right to set policy.

    • #29
  30. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    If what Ambassador Haley writes is true then it is the beginning of the end for the Republic. The only thing that makes democracy possible is acceptance of the Constitutional order and respect for the powers of its offices. And it is not just even if you don’t respect the person or the policies of the occupants of those offices, but especially if you don’t respect them.

    Once you insist that resistance to legitimate leadership and the policy set forth by that leadership is the right course of action you have delegitimized the entire enterprise. That becomes the new norm. The inability to simply wait until the next election makes the next election an irrelevancy. Because now the next set of those defeated at the ballot box will be convinced it is their turn to thwart, to run shadow operations, or worse, work to remove or cripple that leadership by any means necessary.

    If you’re cheering this on you should be ashamed. This is not just another Men In Black movie where some dude in a black suit and sun glasses can hit people with a flash of light and all is forgotten. This action of one side resisting the legitimate results of an election will be remembered and imitated again and again until you can’t stop it. Well, Buckeroos, you can’t save the village if you’ve burned the whole damn thing to the ground.

    You may insist that Trump is crazy. Well, then ask yourself why there has not been an attempt to invoke the 25th Amendment? Because it’s not mental capacity, it’s acceptance capacity – not on behalf of the President – but by the rest of the Beltway denizens.

    If you proudly write that you “stand” with Tillerson and Kelly you are promoting the idea of a “soft” coup. And that is not just the most unconservative thing, it is the antithesis of loyalty to the Constitution.

    • #30
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