23 thoughts on “The Up Side Of A Trump Presidency”
The real silver lining is that there wouldn’t be Clinton in the White House.
Plus, Obama will be gone, finally.
“Plus, Obama will be gone, finally.”
I don’t share your optimism. I think he has been putting away a lot of money for use by Acorn (or whatever succeeds it).
Its a variation of the silver lining I saw all along with Trump. The media was willing to give a pass to the President. They won’t Trump. If President Trump gets the media to actually be critical of government, then I’m for it. If it gets Congress concerned about letting the Executive Branch write regulation, even better.
Sure, the media would be tough again on a President Bush. But they were only tough on him, not the policies that grew the federal government that Bush enacted.
Not to worry. The press will be hard on any Republican president. That’s as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise.
The difference is that by being tough on President Trump, the Media will dig themselves into a bigger hole . . .
Or that Trump will pull an Obama and coopt the media. Maybe he won’t win over MSNBC but considering he is a center right/left establishment type candidate, he could win over the rest.
Some pretty cogent disagreement over there in comments, wondering if you’re planning on responding at all. Picking just one semi-randomly (partly because it mirrors Glenn’s well-pounded point about responding to the reasons he’s popular instead of bemoaning his existence):
If America elects that guy, he’s elected. Hyperbolic expressions of establishment butthurt will only earn you Trump 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc.
Yeah, I’m reading them. Not sure they’re worth responding to. Other than the stupid one about this being the first time I’ve ever written about presidential politics. I just hate having to register.
I think congress trying to remove a President from office immediately upon taking office would be just as bad a precident as anything imperial past Presidents have done. It was clever to not say anything specific that would lead to impeachment but to leave it open ended for people to use their imaginations but it is possible Trump won’t do anything illegal, especially on his first day.
So far, Hillary is the only one that has campaigned on being more imperial than Obama.
Also, a large part of Presidents acting imperially is due to the actions they take being not explicitly forbidden, residing in grey areas, and immune from the challenges of our systems checks and balances. What is needed to fix this isn’t retaliatory impeachment because someone disagrees with voters but rather legislative reform from congress to remove these grey areas and provide checks and balances.
Should Hillary! somehow take the election immediate impeachment would be warranted for the felonies she committed as Secretary of State.
Yes, but no way to get the Dems to go along with that.
The elevation of Robespierre & Saint-Just and the Committee For Public Safety did not set great precedents for representative government. But it did lead to the unification & empowerment of all those opposed to the rein of terror. Unfortunately for the French Republic, only a few scant years after the fall of “The Incorruptible” we witness the rise of Saint-Just’s favorite Corsican brigadier and the French Empire…
I wonder what the Incorruptible Trumpian version of the Social Contract will be? And it’s annual celebration? Festivus?
You guys are missing a big upside to a Trump presidency; an unlimited (and yuuuge) source of bad puns based on his surname. 🙂
As a serious aside, I find the Cruz/Trump fireworks over Cruz’s “New York Values” comment interesting in a strategic sense, regarding the November election.
*if* Trump is the nominee, that Cruz comment could (if a guy with skills in using the media uses it) play a major role in November. Why? Because of New York’s electoral dynamics. Upstate trends R, but it’s offset by the 800 pound gorilla in thee room, NYC, which goes heavily D. NY has been in the D column in the electoral college since 1984 due to this dynamic.
However, what would it take to flip NY? A shift of about 7 points in NYC (people were gaming this out before the current issue came up). If there’s a candidate on the R side who can do that (put NY in play), it’s Trump (already well thought of by many in NY), and Cruz’s jab, plus Trump’s response, could help. The “New Yorker factor” applies, sort of, in Florida, where there are one heck of a lot of former New Yorkers.
If one looks at November, even putting NY in play would be very useful; it’d force the D’s to spend resources in America’s most expensive media market to hold it. And if they don’t hold it, locking up Florida and taking NY (29 EVs each) could be helpful to Republican chances of winning the electoral college.
One the flip side, I don’t think Cruz’s jab hurt him anywhere but with New Yorkers, and it doesn’t matter if a candidate loses NY (or any state) by 1 vote, or 10 million. So if Cruz is the nominee, I don’t think he’s hurt himself in NY, because NY doesn’t matter in his case. I do, however, think he’d need to pay a bit of extra attention in Florida, due to the New Yorker population there. It’s not a deal killer, just something he’d need to do. So, IMHO, he didn’t meaningfully hurt himself with that crack.
I’m still a Cruz leaner, but I do find it interesting to game out scenarios, especially now that Trump has moved up to my #2 pick out of the ones with a realistic chance (as I see it at the moment) of having a shot at the nomination.
I’m also delighted that Graham endorsed Jeb Bush; IMHO, this will keep Bush, whom I loathe, in the race. I’m rooting for that because the longer Bush sticks around, the more damage he does to Rubio. I’m very much hoping that both of them are still on the ballot by the time the Florida primary rolls around.
I’m still leaning towards Trump pretty strongly, but I’m well aware of his negatives. It’s just that I can’t stand most of the other candidates with the exception of Cruz.
There was some discussion over at Ace of Spades earlier today about whether Trump and Cruz are working together behind the scenes. I’ve long suspected it, and I’m not the only one. Even last night’s exchange didn’t change my mind. I heard no evidence that there is any real bad blood between them. Trump has been very clear that he’s bringing up the topic of Cruz’s eligibility because the Democrats certainly will bring it up if Cruz is the nominee. I believe Trump has a better chance of winning the general election at the top of the ticket than Cruz does.
I still think a Trump/Cruz ticket is very plausible, and it has lots of advantages. Trump can capture Northeastern independents, while Cruz would do better in flyover country. It’s a win-win. And as I’ve said before, hopefully Trump would be willing to listen to and take advice from Cruz on Constitutional matters. (“No, Donald, you can’t do that! It’s unconstitutional!”) A man doesn’t get to where Trump is by abusing and ignoring knowledgeable underlings.
Cruz/Trump would allow Trump the freedom of basically running the verbal flamethrower 24/7.
The Trump flamethrower does seem far more suited to the VP position than the top of the ticket.
That was an interesting exchange between Trump and Cruz. I didn’t care for Trump hiding behind 911 when Cruz’s comments had nothing to do with 911. But Trump did pull it off better than Hillary using 911 to justify her close ties to wall street.
Everyone noticed this one, but how strange was it to see Trump get upset over making fun of a large group of people? Cruz should have thrown that one back in his face. Much like everyone making fun of Trump’s hair getting a case of the how dare yous when he responded, this was pretty hypocritical.
If Trump is elected I expect that the Congressional GOP will rally around him. There will be the usual executive/legislative friction, but the last thing the GOP wants is to have a GOP president impeached or forced to resign. The last time that happened it was followed by a Democratic wave in Congress and a Democratic president.
Agreed. Particularly if Cruz is actually his running mate. WRT Rand’s immediate impeachment notion, Cruz is sufficiently loathed even by members his own party in the Senate that he would effectively be Trump’s Biden.
What the hell is up with disabling copy/paste in that website? Anyway, I found a workaround.
In fact, if he came in by a mere plurality of both electoral and popular votes, impeachment might be the first act of the new Congress in January 2017. That is unlikely, but one could imagine any number of early actions he might take that would set off one or the other side.
Or it might be a nail in the coffin. Why would the public support such a transparent abuse of impeachment? Obama can kill a few hundred people to promote gun control law or protect many lawbreakers in his administration, but Trump gets nailed for simply not having enough votes? That pig won’t soar.
@ Karl
I tried copy/paste from the NR article, and it works fine for me, but I suspect what you’ve encountered is a disabling of your right click menu (some annoying sites do that). I long ago set Firefox not to allow things like that, and I also filter and block many scripts.
And yup, if a Republican congress tries to impeach Trump with lesser grounds than they’ve had with Obama, I think we’ll see a new party form for them; the hemp necktie party.
Well I don’t want any President to play Obama’s game of skirting the law. I ant them to uphold the laws on the books. And they are free to try and get the law changed.
And we know the Liberals would go for impeachment the instant an opportunity arose. But not be so interested when it’s one of theirs.
So I’m not seeing this silver lining.
I think Jonah Goldberg may have minted the word assclown. I’m not entirely sure of the definition, but suspect that The Donald is an example. That out of the way, it’s hard not to notice the kinds of crowds he gets wherever he campaigns. Clearly, he has tapped into a deep frustration/anger/fear (feel free to add to the list) that, apparently, many Americans share. I also can’t help but notice that most of the Republican leadership is falling all over themselves trying to get everyone to notice that Jonah’s previously mentioned word fits The Donald perfectly. Is there another Republican who can motivate these people to vote? Who? One thing I do like about Trump is his willingness to take the press head-on. About time someone did.
The real silver lining is that there wouldn’t be Clinton in the White House.
Plus, Obama will be gone, finally.
“Plus, Obama will be gone, finally.”
I don’t share your optimism. I think he has been putting away a lot of money for use by Acorn (or whatever succeeds it).
Its a variation of the silver lining I saw all along with Trump. The media was willing to give a pass to the President. They won’t Trump. If President Trump gets the media to actually be critical of government, then I’m for it. If it gets Congress concerned about letting the Executive Branch write regulation, even better.
Sure, the media would be tough again on a President Bush. But they were only tough on him, not the policies that grew the federal government that Bush enacted.
Not to worry. The press will be hard on any Republican president. That’s as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise.
The difference is that by being tough on President Trump, the Media will dig themselves into a bigger hole . . .
Or that Trump will pull an Obama and coopt the media. Maybe he won’t win over MSNBC but considering he is a center right/left establishment type candidate, he could win over the rest.
Some pretty cogent disagreement over there in comments, wondering if you’re planning on responding at all. Picking just one semi-randomly (partly because it mirrors Glenn’s well-pounded point about responding to the reasons he’s popular instead of bemoaning his existence):
If America elects that guy, he’s elected. Hyperbolic expressions of establishment butthurt will only earn you Trump 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc.
Yeah, I’m reading them. Not sure they’re worth responding to. Other than the stupid one about this being the first time I’ve ever written about presidential politics. I just hate having to register.
I think congress trying to remove a President from office immediately upon taking office would be just as bad a precident as anything imperial past Presidents have done. It was clever to not say anything specific that would lead to impeachment but to leave it open ended for people to use their imaginations but it is possible Trump won’t do anything illegal, especially on his first day.
So far, Hillary is the only one that has campaigned on being more imperial than Obama.
Also, a large part of Presidents acting imperially is due to the actions they take being not explicitly forbidden, residing in grey areas, and immune from the challenges of our systems checks and balances. What is needed to fix this isn’t retaliatory impeachment because someone disagrees with voters but rather legislative reform from congress to remove these grey areas and provide checks and balances.
Should Hillary! somehow take the election immediate impeachment would be warranted for the felonies she committed as Secretary of State.
Yes, but no way to get the Dems to go along with that.
The elevation of Robespierre & Saint-Just and the Committee For Public Safety did not set great precedents for representative government. But it did lead to the unification & empowerment of all those opposed to the rein of terror. Unfortunately for the French Republic, only a few scant years after the fall of “The Incorruptible” we witness the rise of Saint-Just’s favorite Corsican brigadier and the French Empire…
I wonder what the Incorruptible Trumpian version of the Social Contract will be? And it’s annual celebration? Festivus?
You guys are missing a big upside to a Trump presidency; an unlimited (and yuuuge) source of bad puns based on his surname. 🙂
As a serious aside, I find the Cruz/Trump fireworks over Cruz’s “New York Values” comment interesting in a strategic sense, regarding the November election.
*if* Trump is the nominee, that Cruz comment could (if a guy with skills in using the media uses it) play a major role in November. Why? Because of New York’s electoral dynamics. Upstate trends R, but it’s offset by the 800 pound gorilla in thee room, NYC, which goes heavily D. NY has been in the D column in the electoral college since 1984 due to this dynamic.
However, what would it take to flip NY? A shift of about 7 points in NYC (people were gaming this out before the current issue came up). If there’s a candidate on the R side who can do that (put NY in play), it’s Trump (already well thought of by many in NY), and Cruz’s jab, plus Trump’s response, could help. The “New Yorker factor” applies, sort of, in Florida, where there are one heck of a lot of former New Yorkers.
If one looks at November, even putting NY in play would be very useful; it’d force the D’s to spend resources in America’s most expensive media market to hold it. And if they don’t hold it, locking up Florida and taking NY (29 EVs each) could be helpful to Republican chances of winning the electoral college.
One the flip side, I don’t think Cruz’s jab hurt him anywhere but with New Yorkers, and it doesn’t matter if a candidate loses NY (or any state) by 1 vote, or 10 million. So if Cruz is the nominee, I don’t think he’s hurt himself in NY, because NY doesn’t matter in his case. I do, however, think he’d need to pay a bit of extra attention in Florida, due to the New Yorker population there. It’s not a deal killer, just something he’d need to do. So, IMHO, he didn’t meaningfully hurt himself with that crack.
I’m still a Cruz leaner, but I do find it interesting to game out scenarios, especially now that Trump has moved up to my #2 pick out of the ones with a realistic chance (as I see it at the moment) of having a shot at the nomination.
I’m also delighted that Graham endorsed Jeb Bush; IMHO, this will keep Bush, whom I loathe, in the race. I’m rooting for that because the longer Bush sticks around, the more damage he does to Rubio. I’m very much hoping that both of them are still on the ballot by the time the Florida primary rolls around.
I’m still leaning towards Trump pretty strongly, but I’m well aware of his negatives. It’s just that I can’t stand most of the other candidates with the exception of Cruz.
There was some discussion over at Ace of Spades earlier today about whether Trump and Cruz are working together behind the scenes. I’ve long suspected it, and I’m not the only one. Even last night’s exchange didn’t change my mind. I heard no evidence that there is any real bad blood between them. Trump has been very clear that he’s bringing up the topic of Cruz’s eligibility because the Democrats certainly will bring it up if Cruz is the nominee. I believe Trump has a better chance of winning the general election at the top of the ticket than Cruz does.
I still think a Trump/Cruz ticket is very plausible, and it has lots of advantages. Trump can capture Northeastern independents, while Cruz would do better in flyover country. It’s a win-win. And as I’ve said before, hopefully Trump would be willing to listen to and take advice from Cruz on Constitutional matters. (“No, Donald, you can’t do that! It’s unconstitutional!”) A man doesn’t get to where Trump is by abusing and ignoring knowledgeable underlings.
Cruz/Trump would allow Trump the freedom of basically running the verbal flamethrower 24/7.
The Trump flamethrower does seem far more suited to the VP position than the top of the ticket.
That was an interesting exchange between Trump and Cruz. I didn’t care for Trump hiding behind 911 when Cruz’s comments had nothing to do with 911. But Trump did pull it off better than Hillary using 911 to justify her close ties to wall street.
Everyone noticed this one, but how strange was it to see Trump get upset over making fun of a large group of people? Cruz should have thrown that one back in his face. Much like everyone making fun of Trump’s hair getting a case of the how dare yous when he responded, this was pretty hypocritical.
If Trump is elected I expect that the Congressional GOP will rally around him. There will be the usual executive/legislative friction, but the last thing the GOP wants is to have a GOP president impeached or forced to resign. The last time that happened it was followed by a Democratic wave in Congress and a Democratic president.
Agreed. Particularly if Cruz is actually his running mate. WRT Rand’s immediate impeachment notion, Cruz is sufficiently loathed even by members his own party in the Senate that he would effectively be Trump’s Biden.
What the hell is up with disabling copy/paste in that website? Anyway, I found a workaround.
Or it might be a nail in the coffin. Why would the public support such a transparent abuse of impeachment? Obama can kill a few hundred people to promote gun control law or protect many lawbreakers in his administration, but Trump gets nailed for simply not having enough votes? That pig won’t soar.
@ Karl
I tried copy/paste from the NR article, and it works fine for me, but I suspect what you’ve encountered is a disabling of your right click menu (some annoying sites do that). I long ago set Firefox not to allow things like that, and I also filter and block many scripts.
And yup, if a Republican congress tries to impeach Trump with lesser grounds than they’ve had with Obama, I think we’ll see a new party form for them; the hemp necktie party.
Well I don’t want any President to play Obama’s game of skirting the law. I ant them to uphold the laws on the books. And they are free to try and get the law changed.
And we know the Liberals would go for impeachment the instant an opportunity arose. But not be so interested when it’s one of theirs.
So I’m not seeing this silver lining.
I think Jonah Goldberg may have minted the word assclown. I’m not entirely sure of the definition, but suspect that The Donald is an example. That out of the way, it’s hard not to notice the kinds of crowds he gets wherever he campaigns. Clearly, he has tapped into a deep frustration/anger/fear (feel free to add to the list) that, apparently, many Americans share. I also can’t help but notice that most of the Republican leadership is falling all over themselves trying to get everyone to notice that Jonah’s previously mentioned word fits The Donald perfectly. Is there another Republican who can motivate these people to vote? Who? One thing I do like about Trump is his willingness to take the press head-on. About time someone did.