Straight up! If whiskey is your drink don’t dilute it. Straight up: do you want this White House, any White House, to have the unilateral power Donald J Trump is exercising? The power to convert hell into heaven by multiple strokes of the pen? That is what MAGA promises.
The power to empty prisons of loyalists regardless of what they did. All it took was the stroke of His pen? The power to change the rules of import, export and deport without going through Congress or the Courts? The power to subjugate our great enemy to the north, Canada?
We should have a Constitutional Convention and put these questions and many more straight to the people. I want to vote on principles shorn of Trump and Kamala Harris. Neither was the equal of a nation that needs to be converted from hell to heaven and especially not the person who framed the election as a transcendent conversion. Madison Avenue is enthralled; most Americans are no longer amused.
Trump is said to be a populist which, roughly translated, means to take the “popular” attitude and convert it to campaign promises. But nobody can, if they admit it, figure out what Trump stands for although I guess tariffs is a clear-cut example. How much time, I wonder, did the average voter, any voter, spend researching or watching debates or reading up on tariffs? Or, more broadly, searching for principles that might suggest rationality?
What Trump did is power through the electorate on the back of the most inept withdrawal from any country, perhaps in the history of warfare, while refusing to adequately defend our own border. And that is the point. We elected somebody to make the border right, not to become a dictator while preening among the internationally wealthy at his private sanctuary. Citizen Kane would be embarrassed.
Congress should give very specific direction by enacting laws establishing the authority the Executive Branch has to put tariffs in place. Yep, that institution, the Congress, which has never skirted the edges of heaven, but is certainly probing the depths of the earth.
Now we learn that that other institution, the Courts, is filled with “left wing maniacs”. Okay, I admit, Trump is certainly beating the Congress on attempts to undermine America. His mission: infantilize the Congress while scouring the depths of language to characterize and undermine the Courts. The point is simple: only I, Donald J Trump, have the solutions and you must not interfere with me. So, lawyers: stand down. Celebrated economists: stand down. Broadcast news: stand down. Certainly Congress stand down. Mute and dilute are his ways and means.
But, relief is on the way, halting and unsure as it might be. When the President, ours, decides to reengineer the international economy to fit his fantasies a lot of money will be lost. Some never to be found again. And that will make a lot of people very mad and they will demand, and that is what it will take, that their elected representatives do something.
While I might like my whiskey straight up, it takes a thoughtful electorate, led by wise people, to amend the Constitution and we are not up to that. Amending the Constitution is a pre-operative move and we are in the middle of surgery. Today we need Patriots; selfless men and women whose only money or vanity in the game is truly wanting to make America better.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Wendy Wander says
To the list of people and institutions that should ‘stand down’ because Trump thinks it’s his way or else, don’t forget to add students, colleges and universities, scientists, doctors and other healthcare professionals, newspapers, FB and other social media.
FRED W.J. KIRCHNER says
For all those who write books and are self-appointed historians. EVERYONE needs to look into the history of the Founding Fathers. Obviously Trump has! Look in to the pros and cons of our First President Washington !! His attitudes and passions are no different.. at the same time look at the other “Founding Fathers” and you will find another in the Trump Cabinent that matches ont of our Founders. Look at the comparison of Musk with Ben Franklin. Our Founding Fathers were ALL RICH Foreiners, who worked no paychecks, (as there was no treasury to pay them)\. Washington’s Farewell address warned about a “two” party system, which developed in Andrew Jackson’s term. The “parties” are so partisan than they forgot about their constituency.. The FIRST tariff issue was with the colonies before the Declaration of Independence; it was known as the Boston Tea Party! If you will, read all of the compaints against King George listed in the Declaration of Independence and you may well recognize the democratic party of today. Churchill once said it simply; “The farther back you look, the Furthur forward you will see”.. He also said “NEVER, NEVER, NEVER SURRENDER” ! History can teach the world a lot. It seems today there are many who want to re-write the history they cannot change.
As for the Wendy Wander comment; I don’t remember and “ELSE” with Trump’s way. Everybody via internet media, are looking for a train to get on. Unfortunately, now, so many realized for the past 50 years, they got on the wrong train. What about the many people and institurions who lost their jobs due to bankruptsies, union lock-outs, economic downsizing, storms, earthquakes. and simply unsuccessful corporate management. We finally have some well experienced, well educated people working for nothing to correct a massive mismangement of our Federal Governmnet for many years by all the parties.
How many students, colleges and universities, scientists, doctors, and other healthcare professionals, newspapers , FB and other social media can repair their cars, make repairs around their homes, or even comprhend civil infrastructure? The next time the elite are in one of their big buildings, look around for the person sweeping and mopping the floors, on a ladder fixing a light etc. We would have more if we had industries to train them with experience. Wedll, soon we will have many more, but we will have to do a lot of training. I am referring to the many people discovered who have been unablr to justify their burden to the taxpayer. I really wonder if we would have survived the world wars if it had NOT been for AMERICAN INDUSTRY and “Rosie the Riveter” and all of the clerical workers who took the time to learn a trade and help the effort. I can only imaging the upcoming SURPLUS budget developements when DOGE finalizes it’s report.!