Wednesday, November 09, 2016

The Republic Will Survive President Trump

My first presidential election was 1980, when Ronald Reagan unseated Jimmy Carter. Mrs. G. and I were students at a very liberal college, and we and all of our friends were devastated.

The 2000 election was, if anything, worse. President Bush the younger came into office by one vote, and that voter later concluded she had voted wrongly.

On this morning after election day, this one feels like an even harder kick in the gut. The campaign promises made by Donald Trump are far worse than anything his predecessors proposed. On the other hand, the worst are so un-American, un-Constitutional, or even physically impossible, that they will not actually happen. And, as he has made clear many times, he often says things he does not mean and will later deny having said.

Moreover, unlike Ronald Reagan, or George W. Bush, or even the Tea Party, there are no other Trumpian legislators. He will have to rely on regular Republican politicians to govern. This should have a moderating influence, though they will likely enact many things I disagree with.

Still, the Trump campaign has unleashed a white nationalist layer of Americans who normally do not vote or proclaim their positions in public. I do fear that they will feel emboldened to act on their sense of entitlement in dangerous ways.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

And President Reagan turned out to be the greatest President of the post-WWII era. All that angst, wasted.

Barry said...

In my opinion, Ronald Reagan was the greatest actor pretending to be a President in the post-WWII era

Gruntled said...

Mac, we will have to agree to disagree on that one.

I believe Reagan's platform, that "government is the problem," is the source of the gridlock in government and the civil war in the Republican Party.

My fondest hope for the Trump Administration is that Republicans, faced with the challenge of actually governing, will return to their pre-1920 role and participate in directing the government to accomplish its many and vital tasks.

dennistheeremite said...

Was gridlock really all that bad during Clinton's and George W's administrations? I think this "tea party" thing came to a head when President Obama came to office, and shut down Congress. I'm a Republican but my party is to blame for getting Trump elected. They are the "insiders" who wouldn't do anything for anybody. I feel sorry for President Obama, and I think that (for a Democrat) he would have been a good president, if the Republicans hadn't been determined to keep him from doing anything at all.

Gruntled said...

The gridlock was not as bad with Clinton because he triangulated, adapting Republican ideas. George W. Bush had a Republican Congress to work with, who did a number of things which did not work out so well.

I agree that the Tea Party began as a reaction to Obama, but they developed an idea that the GOP leadership had been stoking in the base for a generation.

Anonymous said...

Of course we will, After all, We survived Obama didn't we.