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Who Will be Polk to Trump’s Jackson?
About ten years ago I read an interesting biography on James Polk by Walter Borneman. In short, he was Andrew Jackson’s protege and cemented in place the changes that Jackson started. Many of these held, even after the Civil War. Polk and Jackson were opposites with regard to temperament. However, Jackson was a mentor to Polk, both ideologically and practically. Even so, Polk made his own mark, was his own man, and was not a mini-me to Jackson. In many ways, Polk was more ruthless than Jackson. The strength of Polk’s presidency was that many of the changes he established became the bipartisan establishment for decades. Possibly until the rise of the Progressives in the late 19th century.
In my opinion, Trump’s show-biz instincts will come to bear now. He will see that he’s going to be more powerful and more appreciated if he becomes an “elder statesman” for the MAGA set of policies. This will be the political equivalent of licensing his name on other hotels. If I’m right, I suspect that the same Polk-Jackson dynamic will develop. I do not know who it will be, although I have some thoughts. Who do you think and why?
Published in General
Just like justice. Once you put a modifier on it, you are no longer talking about the same thing.
Until I’m given a reason to look elsewhere: P O M P E O
At this point I don’t want to be in the position of the little boy whose mother told him to go ahead and buy the bicycle from the rummage sale a few streets away. She gave him $15, but told him to start with an offer of $5, and he could go up if they won’t take it but not to go any higher than $15. So he goes to the rummage sale and tells the seller, “I’ll give you $5 for the bicycle, but my mother says if you won’t sell it for that I can go as high as $15.”
I’m not going to start the election process by saying I can go $15 because that’s the most likely price at which they’ll sell. My offer at this point is Ted Cruz or nothing. If they don’t want to deal at that price I’m going home, but if they run after me and tell me they want to make a counteroffer, let them do it. And I’m not going to tell anyone how far my mother said I can go.
Pompeo is a tough nut, and he supported Trump. But I just can’t get past his being CIA. EVERY other CIA member of Trump’s administration was loyal first and only to the CIA.
Actually, my offer at this point isn’t Ted Cruz or nothing. It’s Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. Take your pick. I will listen to counteroffers, but I’m not going to hang around waiting for one. In the past I’ve walked away when they countered with George W Bush or John McCain.
The point is, I’m not going to start with Ron DeSantis and then compromise from there.
Or as General Patton once said, “Your job is not to compromise for your country. Your job is to make the other poor, dumb [bad word] compromise for his country.”
That’s the problem with the deep state in a nutshell.
I am keeping my mind open at this point I don’t consider DeSantis a compromise choice. I have 4 years to look at the field and see where things are going. Cruz or Trump could raise their stock in my estimation, but right now I am not a buy on either. I like aspects of both but I want to win and right now I am not convinced either of them can. Trump was a solid one term GOP president who shot himself in the foot in late November/ December after the election. That could fade and he could look like a prophet in 2024 which would make him the odds on favorite to win. Ted Cruz is a complicated politician who comes off a little to plastic for most people, which is why he couldn’t break thru in 2016. He could definitely step up his game and dispel some of my doubts; however, he has to show me he can do that. The GOPe has proven itself time after time to be unreliable and while in the past I have held my nose and voted for the drek that they have shoveled my way, they refused to return the favor so they are basically dead to me. I suspect there is going to be a crowded GOP field and we’ll see who raises and who falls. I am a free agent right now though. Everyone has to earn my support in the future. Even people I have supported in the past.