I'm 254/300 through Jefferson's first term in Henry Adams history.
Adams has quite a lot to say about the executive position. Jefferson
like Trump believed in a small, not very powerful central government.
He favored the preservation of State's rights. Ironically, Adams
writes, there was no one in either the Senate or the House with as much
competence, force, ability etc as Jefferson. And so Jefferson assumed
the power that he argued against in order to do what he believed was
necessary. And the House & Senate, peopled by lesser folk, supported
him. In his day the opposing party was the Federalists and Jefferson's
resounding victory over them ended them as a party. It is hard to
believe something like that happening today. Democrats or Republicans
might lose but they are too well established to end. John Adams, the
Federalist (one-term) president who preceded Jefferson did one finally
thing before he left the presidency, something that preserved
Federalism. He appointed John Marshall head of the supreme court.
Marshall was another powerful personality like Jefferson. Marshall was
a Federalist who didn't mind legislating from the Supreme Court.
And so the idea that the Democratic Party had some power over Hillary
Clinton, power to approve or deny her the ability to run for President
doesn't ring true in the Jefferson/Marshall sense. She was too big a
personality to be controlled. Was Trump also too big? I frankly
haven't been following politics for a long time so I don't know. He is
either the truest Republican who has come along in a long time or he has
made some very clever decisions about what to do during his first term,
especially, reduce immigration, negotiate with businesses by means of
tax incentives to do their business here in the U.S. and thus keep more
jobs here (something some important swing states will especially
appreciate), and reduce taxes. He also intends to appoint conservative
judges to the supreme court, judges who will do less legislating of the
sort that Marshall did, judges who favor decentralizing power (something
Marshall did not favor), that is restoring more power to the States. An
early test case may be Row vs Wade. The right of abortion may be left
to the individual states rather than dictated as it is now by Central
Government, i.e., the supreme court.
As to giving Trump guidance, that may be difficult. If he is the huge
personality that he seems to be (something on the order of a Jefferson
or a Marshall), he may just hire the "reason' and "guidance" his
non-political background has denied him.
Mike is just now returning from a spate of novel writing, but he hasn't
told us anything about it. I was just a bit ago trying to imagine the
sort of novel Mike would write. In my imagined Mike-novel, the hero
would be a pessimistic fellow who did way too much drinking. He
supported several worth-while programs but was each time thwarted by
evil white capitalism. The hero's love interest leaves him for a
Republican lawyer. He had stayed sober just so he could keep her happy
but with her gone, he returns to his favorite pub only to learn that it
is closed. The owner has died of a heart attack. He backs up to see if
anyone is still living up above where the owner used to live and is
struck down by a police car, going much too fast for conditions. The
paramedics arrive moments later while he is lying in the street and the
head medic shakes his head to the junior medic, a gorgeous blond that
looks like Megyn Kelly. "Is there anything we can do for you," the
Megyn Kelly look-alike bends near to ask? The hero coughs, bloody
drool slides down his cheek, "either of you two happen to have a drink,"
he asks? The two medics look over at the closed bar, shake their heads
at each other, and when they look back they see that the hero has died.
Lawrence
On 11/24/2016 6:27 PM, Omar Kusturica wrote:
We will see. The Democrats should not have allowed a woman like HC to be their candidate. It may be that the bulk of Trump supporters can be brought to reason, with some guidance.
On Thu, Nov 24, 2016 at 6:42 PM, david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> On Nov 24, 2016, at 7:44 AM, Mike Geary
<jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
> Bravo.
> a,b,c,b
> a,b,c,b
> a,a,b,a
> a,b,c,b
> a,a,a,a
> a,b,c,a
>
> Yes, at last! the long awaited anarchic rhymer has arrived. Pay
attention boys and girls, you never know how the rhymes might flow.
Hereabouts anarchy has been a response to Trumpery. That, by the
way, is pretty much how I dance—which doesn’t happen often.
David
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