Stripping away any veneer that might still cling, politics is now overwhelmed by emotion, completely.
The national government is in charge of over $4 Trillion dollars (much of it funded by debt) in annual expenditures and many services that touch our lives daily. It is also in charge of our foreign relations and national security. The President is Commander-In-Chief.
There are a few challenges. They relate both too big strategic questions and day-to-day tactical ones. On any given day the White House will engage questions related to budgets, monetary policy, trade, North Korea, Venezuela and on and on.
Now, as I have made clear, I am not a Donald Trump fan. But I am a fan of America and what it is and can be. This latter affection makes me mad at today’s cage fight.
We have one President at a time. And this President has now been stripped down to bare wood. There is no veneer. There is nothing that even toadies like Sean Hannity can do to make the President look other than as he is. But, and this startles especially Democrats, he continues to have around 40% of the nation’s citizens support. His supporters wanted a President who was prepared to “give them hell,” almost regardless of the tactics.
The President is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. And in the past two years, Trump has been investigated by committees of the House and Senate.
Now various Democrat-led committees in the newly organized House of Representatives have decided that he has not been or being sufficiently investigated. Politico’s headline summed up what is going on: “House Democrats prepare fusillade of Trump investigations.”
People know, voters know, Donald Trump. But, he remains the nation’s President. Putting the nation’s President in a further swirl of charges, subpoenas, hearings, and all the mechanisms of trial by fire will ill-serve America.
Make sure the investigations that are underway are not impeded. In the meantime, make the case for turning out Trump in November of 2020. The first primary to choose the Democratic nominee for President is less than a year away. If more independent voters see the House investigations as an extension of 2020 politics, the Democrat Party’s chance of winning goes down.
Let me offer what I am sure will be a second unwelcome recommendation. Democrat legislative leaders should begin hearings on various calls for a Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Such hearings would do their Party a favor. They would be led by persons not running for President and would provide detail and argumentation about the way forward.
At present, there is a growing caucus attempting to convert their Party into the Utopian Party. The leaders, who have been elected, represent a minuscule population—Vermont and three or four Congressional districts. A Utopian Party candidate will not win.
Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, who is assessing an independent run, knows that and is waiting in the wings. Yet, the hard left of the Democrat Party seems not to want anybody with moderate views or any persons who at some point in the past have uttered or written what is now deemed unacceptable. Joe Biden, take notice.
It should be remembered that we are all human. And, a review of history chronicles the failure of utopianism, often in a conflagration. Similarly, a look back saddens us all as we note how few people transcended the culture of their time. It would be ironic indeed if the Democratic Party purged electable candidates because they erred in the past. Remember, millions of voters in 2016 were willing to vote for the President, notwithstanding a parade of regrettable statements and actions.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Of course we’re nuts. The last two years have been a walking root canal. Who knew America wanted a Third World tin-pot dictator…not
the majority, mind you, but millions . Sorry, but gutting Medicare, Medicaid, refund checks and Social Security does not maintain
the support of the masses. Any feeling that the Republican Party cares about the common good is laughable..it is all about embracing
divisiveness now and keeping power in fewer hands. The Dems are talking solutions and that is what American want.
Perhaps the entire Republican caucus needs a vaca to assess their servility to Trump: they could book a couple flights on
the Boeing 73 MAX 8. After all, their “fearless” leader thinks it’s a fine plane…
Mike Girone says
Diredre, Two points:
1. Fact Check…Our President “grounded” this aircraft type out of extreme caution. He does not think “it’s a fine plane”.
2. I am a professional pilot and have piloted the 737-800 MAX many times. The company I work for has over 41,000 safe MAX flights with no problems similar to the situations leading to the recent tragedies. I would pilot this aircraft today, with every person I cared about onboard.
To hope for the frightening, firey deaths of hundreds of people, including the pilots (like me) and crew is OUT OF BOUNDS !
Deirdre LaMotte says
Sounds like a plan. Once this airline is OK to fly…you can pilot the GOP Congress and Trump to a deserted island far, far, away.
Thanks!
Clark Bjorke says
I would like to point out that the so-called investigations led by Republicans in Congress were nothing more than a fig leaf for this President. Having a real, in depth investigation, largely in public, led by the opposition party is not an unreasonable thing to do. This investigation will, al the very least assure that the Mueller report, when it finally comes out, will not be buried.
Michael McDowell says
No, the vast majority of Congressional Democrats are not “nuts”. The stark cowardice of the Republicans in the Senate and the House (and of our appalling extreme Congressman Harris, an utter sycophant and supporters of neo-fascists) is shocking. McConnell in the Senate is no democrat with a small “d”. He is a disgrace to the institution he cynically “leads.” He won’t even bring issues to a vote unless it is in his own narrow cunning and utterly partisan interests. The GOP is the now the party of Trump. They fear him and history will not be kind to them. Nancy Pelosi has shown smarts, guts, and judgment to spare in insisting that committee chairs DO THEIR JOB AS OVERSIGHT GUARDIANS UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION. The GOP chairs ignored their duty under the laws of the country to be guardians of the rights of the people and to hold the executive to account. The so-called “left” wing of the Democrats is a minority within the party, albeit one of ideas. The majority of newly elected Democrats are centrists. Fact. Compare the Democratic left to the so-called “Freedom” Caucus of the GOP, of which of course Harris is a member, and which made Republican Speaker and invertebrate Ryan’s life a misery. Harris and his like were out of control. Nancy Pelosi controls her party. Ryan and now the other invertebrate, McCarthy of California, don’t. Your label of “nuts” applies to….Harris and his “Freedom” Caucus fellow zealots, and now he and they don’t count for a damn in the Congress. Dr. No did nothing before, of any legislative note or on policy and he is even weaker now, thank goodness. And Howard Schultz is a busted flush who will have no success politically. Doesn’t have the verbal skills or the experience to be taken seriously. Things are going just fine. Nancy Pelosi is a hero for the country.
Steve Payne says
And thanks to Trump and the Republicans we now have the highest fiscal and trade deficits in history.
Steve Payne says
The Green New Deal is simply a resolution which puts forth many climate related ideas. It’s not a proposed law. Also it has been scheduled for many hearings already.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/all-actions?overview=closed#tabs
James Nick says
I’m unfamiliar with the Democrat Party of which Mr Sikes speaks. But I suspect that the Democratic Party, with which I am more familiar, will indeed consider any recommendation coming from conservatives the likes of Mr Sikes to be as unwelcomed and uninformed as is his plea that “Putting the nation’s President in a further swirl of charges, subpoenas, hearings, and all the mechanisms of trial by fire will ill-serve America.”
Let’s take another trip in Mr Peabody’s WABAC Machine and dial-in late October, 2016 to help jog Mr Sikes’s memory and recalibrate his misplaced outrage. The Republicans were setting their hair on fire and had amped-up their fear-mongering and demagoguery to the max over the prospects that a woman might still actually win the approaching presidential election despite all the Russian interference and collusion, Comey’s October sabotage, the drip, drip of the stolen Wikileaks material, along with their voter suppression tactics and other various and sundry dirty tricks. As one more dystopian threat, the media was also reporting on the endless inquisition of a President Hillary Clinton that the Republicans were promising should she prevail.
Typical of other reports at the time, NBC News posted a story about what the Republicans were promising (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-s-victory-prize-congressional-investigations-n672926). It’s instructive to read some of the quotes from that story…
“In the last few weeks alone, dozens of House Republicans have demanded that a special prosecutor investigate the Clinton Foundation for possible conflicts of interest. Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has called for a “serious criminal investigation” into a Democratic operative featured in a sting video by conservative activist James O’Keefe. And Speaker Paul Ryan has promised “aggressive oversight work in the House” of an alleged “quid pro quo” deal between the FBI and the State Department over reclassifying an email on Clinton’s private server…
“Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who would likely serve as the chief antagonist of a second Clinton White House as chair the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News last week the “quid pro quo” claim alone was worth at least “four new hearings,” claiming it was a “flashing red light of potential criminality.”…
“You’re going to still have a clamor for a serious criminal investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s conduct with respect to her emails and the [Clinton] Foundation.”… “There’s been no systematic investigation of various issues…Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told NBCNews… [Fitton] has floated the idea she may be impeached as president. I know this generation of Republican leaders is loath to exercise these tools, but impeachment is something that’s relevant,” said Fitton, who has criticized GOP lawmakers for failing to pre-emptively impeach Clinton. “They see [the oversight process] as an opportunity in some measure to keep their opponents off-kilter, but they don’t want to do the substantive and principled work to truly hold corrupt politicians, or the administration, or anyone accountable.”…
“Ian Prior, of the conservative super PAC American Crossroads, said scandal has followed Clinton “like a shadow” throughout her career. “If Hillary is elected president, her willingness to bend the rules to satisfy her own ambitions make it a virtual certainty that the abuse of power and endless drama that are part of the Clinton baggage will continue,” he said….”
Mr Sikes says subjecting the president to a constant swirl of charges will ill-serve the country. But apparently that’s only applies to the presidents from his party. Evidently Democratic president are fair game even to the point of wanting to pre-emptively impeach them.
So isn’t what’s good for the goose, also good for the gander, Mr Sikes?
Ron Jordan says
Al, the date and time is 2019. The President is nuts, yes he was elected by a majority of Americans who thought he would be a leader not a “man child” who targets people who are investigating him, Dems. Republicans who were supposed to do the business of the nation have sat on their hands through the 8 years of the Obama Presidency and not this nut job’s administration. This President makes stuff up, not things that have anything to do with the security of our nation, our infrastructure and our deficit, which by the way is the highest ever under any President. This President has blown up all of our allies, blown a hole in our trade agreements, all in all he is “nuts.” Al, stop being a lackey to your party and be like you said a patriot, you showing you aren’t.