Everything has never goie right, never has, and never will.
Richard
On 11/15/2016 4:41 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
No, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright
Published on
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
by
Common Dreams
No, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright
by
Ted Rall
'Trump’s fascism,' writes Rall, 'will come about naturally, caused by the
perfect storm of his ego, his CEO mentality, the politics and personalities
of the men and women with whom he is surrounding himself, and a set of
developments that are all but inevitable.' (Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)
After president-elect Donald Trump’s 10-15 minute scheduled get-to-know-you
with lame-duck president Barack Obama ran an hour and a half, too many of my
friends who ought to know better contacted me with some variant of “maybe
everything really is going to be OK after all.”
No. It really isn’t.
SNL’s Dave Chappelle says he’s “going to give Trump a chance.”
We should not.
Trump’s wide-eyed expression as he sucked in his new DC digs, pathetically
reminiscent of the stupefied expressions of Bolshevik revolutionists
wandering the Winter Palace, brought it home: the barbarians are at the
gate.
Do not be fooled by what the media is attempting to present as a smooth
transition of power, a quirky one to be sure, but generally falling within
American political tradition. Do not believe Trump’s condescending tweet
damning liberal protesters with faint praise. “President Trump” cannot end
well.
Do not be fooled by what the media is attempting to present as a smooth
transition of power, a quirky one to be sure, but generally falling within
American political tradition. Do not believe Trump’s condescending tweet
damning liberal protesters with faint praise. “President Trump” cannot end
well.
Remember how, the morning of the election, the New York Times gave Trump a
15% chance of winning? Given that I’ve been saying The Donald had an
excellent chance of winning for many months, maybe you should be scared when
I tell you what I think there’s really a 15% chance of: another presidential
election in four years.
Here’s how I think the early years of the Trump Administration will play
out, and why.
Before we get started, forget impeachment. Impeachment is a political
process, not a legal one. With Republicans in control of both houses of
Congress, the chances of Republicans impeaching a Republican president are
pretty much zero.
Second, forget constitutional checks and balances. Weimar Germany had a
lovely constitution, in many ways better than ours, but constitutions are
mere paper unless they’re enforced by people. Current examples: Guantánamo,
immigration prisons, drone assassinations and secret black site CIA prisons
are all brazenly unconstitutional. If Trump and his henchmen want to trash
legal and political precedent, nothing institutional will stop them.
Finally, Democrats who place their hope in recapturing Congress in two years
need to get real. There aren’t enough available red seats for that to happen
in 2018. If anything, they’ll probably lose even more ground. Trumpism is
here to stay, for at least four years.
I use the method used by some authors to write character-based novels in
order to game out presidential administrations. Rather than outline the plot
in advance, these novelists develop characters, throw them into a situation,
and watch what they do.
As with those novels, it isn’t hard to predict how a president and his
closest advisers will respond when faced with a given political development.
All you have to do is consider their personalities, resumes and policy
preferences.
Looking at Ronald Reagan’s 1981 cabinet, which included a dentist as
secretary of energy and an anti-environmentalist as secretary of the
interior, it was obvious that the US government wouldn’t lift a finger to
slow down the raping of the planet. While invasion of Iraq wasn’t exactly
predestined, it came as little surprise that a Bush Administration full of
neoconservatives who had called for the invasion of Iraq saw the 9/11
attacks as a reason/excuse for what they wanted to do all along.
It’s already clear that Donald Trump’s cabinet and closest advisers will
come from the fringes of the paranoid far right. Among the highlights:
• Joe Arpaio, the racist 84-year-old torture sheriff fired by Arizona
voters, has been shortlisted as Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Ben Carson, being considered to head the education department,
doesn’t believe in evolution.
• Chris Christie, currently facing criminal charges over Bridgegate,
is up for attorney general; so is Rudy Giuliani, a fascist who wants to
force Muslims to wear electronic monitoring tags or bracelets so the
government can track their whereabouts. (What, no crescent moon patch?)
Then there’s possible Secretary of State Newt Gingrich, who wants to deport
Muslims who believe in Sharia law, and Interior Secretary Sarah Palin, who
thinks shooting wolves from a helicopter is sporting fun.
I’ve examined all the lists of cabinet prospects. Not a liberal or a leftist
among them. No centrists either. At best, we’ll wind up with a few
relatively sane right-wingers mixed into a majority of complete lunatics.
These, headed by the delightfully clearheaded and thoughtful Donald Trump,
are the characters of our story.
Now add the situation. Imagine 6 or 12 or 18 months from now, when these
characters face the inevitable political crisis: terrorist attack. Natural
disaster. Economic meltdown. Race riot. Nuclear crisis.
These aren’t personalities predisposed to respond to these challenges with
introspection or compromise. Beginning with Trump himself, these are people
with a cop mentality who, like a hammer, see everything as a nail to be
pounded into submission.
Bear in mind, they’ll be 6 to 12 to 18 months inside the Washington Beltway
bubble. Trump’s canny campaign instincts, his intuitive understanding of
populist anger that got him elected, will have been dulled by lack of
interaction with the public. Moreover, Team Trump will be 6 to 12 to 18
months into an unprecedented period of constant left-wing criticism and
street protest. Think Richard Nixon: they’ll be deep inside a bunker
mentality.
Everyone in the cabinet room will favor moves to curtail civil liberties:
tracking and cracking down on leftists, preventative detentions, new police
forces to protect the state and ferret out illegal immigrants and those who
hide them, the use of drones to kill Americans on American soil (something
Obama said was OK), even more abusive NSA surveillance.
In my book “Trump: A Graphic Biography,” I described the president-elect as
“an accidental authoritarian.” He thinks of himself as a patriot, a good
man. He hasn’t been planning to lead a plot against America.
Trump’s fascism will come about naturally, caused by the perfect storm of
his ego, his CEO mentality, the politics and personalities of the men and
women with whom he is surrounding himself, and a set of developments that
are all but inevitable.
Canceling the next election? For these characters, it will be an easy call.
© 2016 Ted Rall
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is the author of the new books "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia
the New Middle East?," and "The Anti-American Manifesto." His website is
tedrall.com.
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No, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright
Published on
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
by
Common Dreams
No, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright
by
Ted Rall
• 11 Comments
•
• 'Trump’s fascism,' writes Rall, 'will come about naturally, caused
by the perfect storm of his ego, his CEO mentality, the politics and
personalities of the men and women with whom he is surrounding himself, and
a set of developments that are all but inevitable.' (Photo: Brian
Snyder/Reuters)
• After president-elect Donald Trump’s 10-15 minute scheduled
get-to-know-you with lame-duck president Barack Obama ran an hour and a
half, too many of my friends who ought to know better contacted me with some
variant of “maybe everything really is going to be OK after all.”
• No. It really isn’t.
• SNL’s Dave Chappelle says he’s “going to give Trump a chance.”
• We should not.
Trump’s wide-eyed expression as he sucked in his new DC digs, pathetically
reminiscent of the stupefied expressions of Bolshevik revolutionists
wandering the Winter Palace, brought it home: the barbarians are at the
gate.
Do not be fooled by what the media is attempting to present as a smooth
transition of power, a quirky one to be sure, but generally falling within
American political tradition. Do not believe Trump’s condescending tweet
damning liberal protesters with faint praise. “President Trump” cannot end
well.
Do not be fooled by what the media is attempting to present as a smooth
transition of power, a quirky one to be sure, but generally falling within
American political tradition. Do not believe Trump’s condescending tweet
damning liberal protesters with faint praise. “President Trump” cannot end
well.
Remember how, the morning of the election, the New York Times gave Trump a
15% chance of winning? Given that I’ve been saying The Donald had an
excellent chance of winning for many months, maybe you should be scared when
I tell you what I think there’s really a 15% chance of: another presidential
election in four years.
Here’s how I think the early years of the Trump Administration will play
out, and why.
Before we get started, forget impeachment. Impeachment is a political
process, not a legal one. With Republicans in control of both houses of
Congress, the chances of Republicans impeaching a Republican president are
pretty much zero.
Second, forget constitutional checks and balances. Weimar Germany had a
lovely constitution, in many ways better than ours, but constitutions are
mere paper unless they’re enforced by people. Current examples: Guantánamo,
immigration prisons, drone assassinations and secret black site CIA prisons
are all brazenly unconstitutional. If Trump and his henchmen want to trash
legal and political precedent, nothing institutional will stop them.
Finally, Democrats who place their hope in recapturing Congress in two years
need to get real. There aren’t enough available red seats for that to happen
in 2018. If anything, they’ll probably lose even more ground. Trumpism is
here to stay, for at least four years.
I use the method used by some authors to write character-based novels in
order to game out presidential administrations. Rather than outline the plot
in advance, these novelists develop characters, throw them into a situation,
and watch what they do.
As with those novels, it isn’t hard to predict how a president and his
closest advisers will respond when faced with a given political development.
All you have to do is consider their personalities, resumes and policy
preferences.
Looking at Ronald Reagan’s 1981 cabinet, which included a dentist as
secretary of energy and an anti-environmentalist as secretary of the
interior, it was obvious that the US government wouldn’t lift a finger to
slow down the raping of the planet. While invasion of Iraq wasn’t exactly
predestined, it came as little surprise that a Bush Administration full of
neoconservatives who had called for the invasion of Iraq saw the 9/11
attacks as a reason/excuse for what they wanted to do all along.
It’s already clear that Donald Trump’s cabinet and closest advisers will
come from the fringes of the paranoid far right. Among the highlights:
• Joe Arpaio, the racist 84-year-old torture sheriff fired by Arizona
voters, has been shortlisted as Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Ben Carson, being considered to head the education department,
doesn’t believe in evolution.
• Chris Christie, currently facing criminal charges over Bridgegate,
is up for attorney general; so is Rudy Giuliani, a fascist who wants to
force Muslims to wear electronic monitoring tags or bracelets so the
government can track their whereabouts. (What, no crescent moon patch?)
Then there’s possible Secretary of State Newt Gingrich, who wants to deport
Muslims who believe in Sharia law, and Interior Secretary Sarah Palin, who
thinks shooting wolves from a helicopter is sporting fun.
I’ve examined all the lists of cabinet prospects. Not a liberal or a leftist
among them. No centrists either. At best, we’ll wind up with a few
relatively sane right-wingers mixed into a majority of complete lunatics.
These, headed by the delightfully clearheaded and thoughtful Donald Trump,
are the characters of our story.
Now add the situation. Imagine 6 or 12 or 18 months from now, when these
characters face the inevitable political crisis: terrorist attack. Natural
disaster. Economic meltdown. Race riot. Nuclear crisis.
These aren’t personalities predisposed to respond to these challenges with
introspection or compromise. Beginning with Trump himself, these are people
with a cop mentality who, like a hammer, see everything as a nail to be
pounded into submission.
Bear in mind, they’ll be 6 to 12 to 18 months inside the Washington Beltway
bubble. Trump’s canny campaign instincts, his intuitive understanding of
populist anger that got him elected, will have been dulled by lack of
interaction with the public. Moreover, Team Trump will be 6 to 12 to 18
months into an unprecedented period of constant left-wing criticism and
street protest. Think Richard Nixon: they’ll be deep inside a bunker
mentality.
Everyone in the cabinet room will favor moves to curtail civil liberties:
tracking and cracking down on leftists, preventative detentions, new police
forces to protect the state and ferret out illegal immigrants and those who
hide them, the use of drones to kill Americans on American soil (something
Obama said was OK), even more abusive NSA surveillance.
In my book “Trump: A Graphic Biography,” I described the president-elect as
“an accidental authoritarian.” He thinks of himself as a patriot, a good
man. He hasn’t been planning to lead a plot against America.
Trump’s fascism will come about naturally, caused by the perfect storm of
his ego, his CEO mentality, the politics and personalities of the men and
women with whom he is surrounding himself, and a set of developments that
are all but inevitable.
Canceling the next election? For these characters, it will be an easy call.
© 2016 Ted Rall
/author/ted-rall
/author/ted-rall/author/ted-rall
Ted Rall is the author of the new books "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia
the New Middle East?," and "The Anti-American Manifesto." His website is
tedrall.com.
