PRESIDENT
TRUMP AND THE VEXING OF THE
WASHINGTON
ESTABLISHMENT
President
Trump in the Oval Office last week.
TBC Commentary
(Sunday February 12, 2017 NYC)
With all the raging force of a wildfire fueled by high winds and dry vegetation
the firestorm that has been blazing since January 20, 2017, shows no sign of
either abating or being contained.
Despite the efforts of the once revered, now chastened Washington
“establishment” including long-tenured career politicians, the media,
professional political operatives, pundits, pollsters, prognosticators, to say
nothing about the entire Democrat Party our new President is forging ahead with
a distinctive “damn the torpedoes” belligerence and resolve. Unlike any other President, the 45th
did not enjoy so much as a 15 minute “honeymoon”
as the press has customarily granted.
No, there was to be no honeymoon of any sort nor would there be the
institutional respect always afforded to the man in the Oval Office
irrespective of political Party.
Let’s concede upfront that
President Trump has largely been his own worst enemy; from reckless Tweets and
verbal gaffes, from his admitted disdain for briefings, reading, and processing
the avalanche of raw data and material churned out for his consumption daily,
he has played into the hands of some of his most vociferous critics. At the moment President Trump is running the
sprawling federal apparatus with a meager skeleton crew as thousands of
primarily bureaucratic
vacancies have rendered many Cabinet departments dysfunctional. As he has been forced to steer the Ship of
State with a small cadre of loyal advisors and only eight of his Cabinet
Secretaries thus far voted on by the childish minority in the Senate led by the
Minority Leader Chuckie Schmuck Schumer, he has conducted business in the
manner he’s most accustomed to.
Obviously the “nonpolitician” candidate now President is bringing his
own particularly unique talents and attributes to the highest Office in the
United States.
Since taking Office a scant
four weeks ago the Trump Administration, such as it is, has often appeared
grossly amateurish, overwhelmed while reeling from one blunder to the
next. That the Trump Administration has
not sought establishment Republicans to fill the vacancies in his Cabinet and
the host of federal agencies positions that he is obliged to appoint has given
rise to varying degrees of consternation throughout the corridors of power and
influence long accustomed to having their way.
Perhaps they should have paid more attention to candidate Trump who consistently
lambasted such people as political hacks who made “stupid deals” and abandoned
the “regular” people for decades and his repeated promise to appoint
intelligent successful businessmen to the positions of prominence in his
Administration.
President Trump’s nascent
Administration has gotten off to a rocky start to say the least. However, as weeks go by and more vacancies
are filled the pistons of governing will become better lubricated; the machinery
of governance will once again be up
and running. The ceaselessness of the
news cycle has the mass media trapped in the single minded effort to dissect
every decision the President makes, parsing every word from his inner circle,
spokespeople, surrogates, and supporters – supporters who have been thrust into
the difficult position of defenders. No
Administration has been under the gun from the outset as has Trump’s and the
media’s insatiable lust for criticism devoid of objectivity, the opposition
Party’s determination to act as obstructionists, as well as leaks that appear
to have been sprung from within the White House, have severely handicapped the
President’s efforts to conduct the nation’s business.
It is difficult to attempt to
explain the President’s penchant for lying, harboring deep-rooted conspiracy
theories, for being notoriously thin-skinned yet it is also, apparently, as
difficult for those within the confines of the Beltway to accept that the 65
million Americans who voted this flawed man into the Presidency remain
staunchly in his corner. The campaign
talk was more than rhetoric to them; he spoke in a language they understood and
he connected with their concerns and fears.
They have little regard for the “Establishment” and the media; they view
the daily, blistering assault on the President as proof-positive of how he characterized
the media during his campaign. Yes, if he
is unable to deliver on some of his most controversial campaign promises he
will be “one and done”, a single term President whose rise and fall (that is if he fails) will be studied by
political scientists, academics, historian and the like for decades to come.
THE FIRST 100 DAYS
Legitimate as a benchmark or
not, since the election of FDR in 1933, the “First 100 days” of
a first term Presidency has been employed as an indicator of how effective a
new President will be. This rather
arbitrary timeframe is both antiquated and ill-legitimate. The world has become a vastly more complex
web of intersecting domestic and foreign policy issues, increasingly
globalized, with issues from national security, trade and fiscal policy,
defense, and the myriad of concerns of these times. Given these and all the many other broad and
deep issues an American President must confront there needs to be a
realignment, a large scale review of all our commitment and relations around
the world, every facet of domestic governance, every so many years. This is shaping up to be such a time for
reassessment of many of these concerns.
Our federal government in all
its multi-layered inherent complexity needs to be closely examined and
streamlined where ever possible. Our
government has become an unwieldy behemoth the likes of which require the full
attention of the President, his Cabinet,
and closest advisors and counselors.
Candidate Trump often alluded to this concept and he should be granted a
fair opportunity to address the issues in all their details. President Trump awoke this morning in the
White House on his 24th day in Office. He is being held to an unprecedented level of
scrutiny, media bias and criticism, and standards that serve only to undermine
his efforts. Given the scale and scope
of the responsibilities of his Office, 24 days is hardly sufficient or even a
fair amount of time for the media to be so aggressively hostile. His critics are many and varied some
blatantly determined to challenge him on every decision.
One need not travel too far
back in our history to find similar though not identical Administrations that
have been knocked off their stride and suffered very taxing, trying First
Hundred days. Both Bill
Clinton and Barack
Obama found themselves caught up in the cross currents of Republican obstinance,
conservative obstructionism, and a press corps not always friendly despite
their liberal bent. Both endured their
tumultuous First 100 Days and went on to be successful two-term Presidents with
their successes being measured by the public’s approval of them as they left
Office. Perhaps President Trump’s
harshest critics and the clamoring naysayers should take a breath here on day
24 and wait to see how this next 76 day unfolds.
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2017 © All Rights Reserved
Copyright Brooding Cynyc 2017 © All Rights Reserved
