There is a line from a children’s game that says, “Ready or not, here I come!” This will happen to America on January 20 when Donald J. Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. It is arguable if he is ready and if the American public is ready. Apparently, a sufficient number of Americans were ready to elect Trump as president. Will great change come to the United States? Will foreign policy change immensely? Will Trump and the Republican-dominated Congress work together? Will the Democrats in the House and Senate cooperate with Trump and the Republican congressional majorities? These are all questions that the American people will be watching after another, hopefully peaceful, transition of power comes on January 20.
For Americans living today, this has been the most tumultuous, rancorous election to have been witnessed. The fact that Trump won may have surprised both the candidate and the American public; however, Trump has been ahead of the game in nominating administrative posts, especially in the area of national security. With the continued attacks by ISIS, these actions may well be in the best interests of the nation. Make no mistake: given any opportunity, ISIS will strike in the United States. The recent strike against the nightclub in Turkey is the latest incident in their war of terror. Apparently, terror is now the new normal in many parts of the world. We cannot allow terror to become the norm domestically. The United States must become a leader in the war to eliminate this international threat that is dominating too much of the world.
Regarding the involvement of Russia, it is time for Vladimir Putin to decide if he can be an ally in the fight against terror of not. Time to put up or shut up. He cannot continue to use this war and the Syrian conflict for his own political gains.
Ready or not, President Trump will have to realistically and effectively address these long, festering issues. Many years ago a wise college history professor told me, “Never get in a war with a Middle Eastern (Arab), nation. The war will never end.” History may have proven him correct.
Ready or not, Trump will very quickly attack and try to replace or eliminate Obamacare. The opportunity to positively affect the onerous aspects of this legislation will be one of the primary tests of Trump’s policy initiatives. Keeping the positive aspects and replacing the costly, unworkable components, are one of the main issues that helped Trump experience an unexpected win.
“Draining the swamp” may be one of the more challenging objectives Trump hopes to effectuate. The entrenched bureaucracy in the nation’s capital is a formidable force and challenge. The federal government has grown entirely too large and bloated. Yes, many federal officials and workers who are not political appointees can often scuttle the policy priorities of any White House. This part of the swamp may be the most difficult to drain.
Then there are the lobbyists, think tanks, unions, public interest groups, and Washington legal firms, who all seek to affect federal policy. This is not to ignore the thousands of feral regulators who are too often left to their own interpretations of legislation passed by Congress. Ready or not, Trump appears to be willing to take on the regulators and the “federal guidance” writers. He appears to be treading where others have failed.
Many administrations, especially the outgoing one, have contributed to the excess of regulations and the use of executive orders. Trump has promised to review many of the executive orders previously issued.
Ready or not, President-elect Trump has already been working to return jobs to the United States. It remains to be seen where this effort will go. In the tech economy of the twenty-first century, the cremation of “manufacturing” jobs is problematic at best. The return of traditional manufacturing jobs may never occur.
Rather than making things, the global economy now thrives on creating and implementing ideas. This fact will weigh on the possibilities and realities of creating jobs. Retraining and education must be revised, changed, and improved. A tall order, ready or not.
Here comes a new, and perhaps unexpected, administration. It will not take much time to determine if it is ready or not.
Gren Whitman says
“In the course of one of our campaign interview, [Donald J.] Trump told me that it was during the 1950s that the country was at its strongest and that the ‘50s are the era he has in mind when he vows to make us “great again.”—David Sanger, NY Times, in the Book Review on 1/1/17
The 1950s weren’t so “great” for many Americans because of Jim Crow racial segregation and disfranchisement; fallout from nuclear testing; women’s health, civil rights, aspirations ignored; indiscriminate pollution of earth, water, air; blacklisting, Red-baiting, McCarthyism, House Un-American Activities Committee; the Iron Curtain and Cold War and fears of nuclear attack and “subversion”; the Korean War; CIA adventuring; Ike’s cautionary farewell speech about the “military-industrial complex”; polio epidemics; and stifling social and political conformity.
JAMES B NICK says
No question about it. Ready or not, this country is about to be handed over to an inexperienced, corrupt, venal, hyper-egotistical, thin-skinned, bully with authoritarian and Fascist tendencies. He will be aided and abetted by a cabal of plutocratic advisors cut from the same cloth. If what we are witnessing during this interregnum period is any indication, what is happening can be characterized more as a hostile takeover by an FBI- and Russian-backed crime family instead of the normal peaceful transition of power.
The Republicans will soon own it all. After eight years of mindless and cynical obstruction, whining, and blaming the Democrats for virtually everything, it’s time for them to put up or shut up. Early indications are that we are about to be subjected to a radical, white-nationalist agenda the likes of which no one would ever have imagined could happen in this country. As already implemented in many conservative Red States and pilot tested during the presidential campaign, we can expect to see actions and legislation directed at marginalizing press freedoms, continued dissemination of fake news and misinformation (aka, propaganda), an erosion of voting rights and a reversal of LGBT and minority rights, a rise in racial and religious intolerance, an irrational devotion to supply-side economics, more tax cuts for the rich, increasing federal deficits, the raping of the environment and federal lands in the service of greed and profit, reproductive choices severely limited by the government, the dismantling of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and a return to a health care system where treatment options, if not life itself, will be dictated by the profit motives of insurance companies instead of doctors.
Unchecked, this country is now on a path leading to economic Darwinism governed by Randian social ideology. A 2.9 million popular vote plurality makes it clear that this direction does not represent the will of the majority of American voters. It is imperative that all progressives mount effective, sustained, and unyielding resistance. Contact your representatives at all levels of government and make sure they know where you stand on the issues. Citizen activism recently made the Republicans back down from gutting the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. This is the model. If activism worked there, it can work everywhere and in all cases. Get involved.
Gerald maynes says
good gravy, The popular vote is meaningless. Evey President has been elected by the same rules. They are that we are a republic and we use the Electorial college. History shows us that Many Presidents such as Abraham Lincoln won the majority of the Electorial votes and not the popular vote. He is considered to be our greatest president of all time.Would you have rather have had President Douglass? Lincoln had one Congressional term that was unsuccessful. Mr Trump won, he deserves a chance to goverern. He could be another Lincoln or be could be John Quincy Adams another minority President, only time will tell. Keep in mind, if it wasn’t for California Trump would have won the popular vote , the majority of the States voted for Trump,The majority of the counties acroos the country counting California voted for Trump.
Deirdre LaMotte says
“If it wasn’t for California Trump would have won the popular vote”. You say this as a disparaging comment about the sixth largest economy in the WORLD. Last
time I checked, people in California were just as much American citizens as your so-called “patriotic” red states; you know, the states that survive by the taxes paid for
by the ” unamerican ” blue states.
Gren Whitman says
Writes Dierdre LaMotte: “But I had no idea there are so many Americans who would readily give up common decency and vote for
the loudest fascist, racist and sexist in public life.”
Indeed!
This is the real problem, the real danger for a democratic America.
Trump’s going go at some point — sooner rather than later, I hope — but the millions of Gerald Mayneses who voted for him will remain among us, and they’ll possibly be even angrier and even more unrealistic than they were on November 8, and as they apparently remain.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Very well said. Every day, another vile, immature tweet and another appointment that is a middle finger to the department the person is to head. This is nightmare stuff.
And his supporters? Worse. We know what a loser Trump is. But I had no idea there are so many Americans who would readily give up common decency and vote for
the loudest fascist, racist and sexist in public life. Now that is truly depressing.