A Wasted Presidency

[babylonsister]

https://politicalwire.com/2020/06/10/a-wasted-presidency/

A Wasted Presidency
June 10, 2020 at 11:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

Rich Lowry: “If he loses in November, it won’t because he pursued a big legislative reform that was a bridge too far politically. It won’t be because he adopted a creative and unorthodox policy mix that alienated his own side. It won’t even be because he was overwhelmed by events, challenging though they’ve been.”

“It will mostly be because he took his presidency and needlessly drove into the ground, 280 characters at a time.”

[LymphocyteLover]

1. and because he was an unremitting asshole completely unsuited for leading this country

not to mention the lies and crimes and treason

[kentuck]

2. Unfit from the beginning.

Time for Lowry and like-minded to face the truth.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. I've No Sympathy For Present-Day Conservatives

A political movement that can sort through the better part of two dozen candidates and then propels someone like Donald Trump into the White House has serious flaws in both it concepts and operating procedures.

To the right-wing lurkers reading this post, THIS man, THIS administration, is the best you can put forward?



And then you wonder why it fails?



If you wonder why the thoughtful, responsible American patriots you drove away joined Team Donkey, this is just one iteration of what caused us to walk away in dismay and anger.

And no, we ain’t coming back.

[zipplewrath]

4. Think of the last 5.

Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1 and 2 and Trump. I know they venerate Reagan, but otherwise they aren't even big fans. And Reagan couldn't even get nominated these days.

[Vogon_Glory]

10. As one of this board's not-so-liberals, I'd disagree with you on Tricky Dick and Pater Bush

But let’s get real here. The 1988 elections were over thirty—THIRTY—years ago. By the 1992 election, Movement (so-called) Conservatism had gripped the Republican Party so tightly that George HW had to hop through hoops just to get re-nominated.

Whatever our disagreements about Republicans past, thirty years is a long time. I think we can say if there is no hope for the Republican Party to learn to govern responsibly.

Let it die.

[jaxexpat]

11. "Let it die." Good idea, great really.

Even from one whose head is maybe still in the sand about Nixon and HW Bush. It's not a smug, purist, platitude and attitude to deny essential disrespect for the rule of law as acceptable in one's choice for executive. Should be a requirement, otherwise what's the point of an informed electorate?

[zipplewrath]

16. It's a bad string

You have the crook, the brain addeled, Pres. Thyroid Storm, his warmongering son, and the idiot. That's not a really good string. You can try to defend some of their policies, but it seems to suggest that the only way for the GOP to govern is with these kinds of people in charge. Worse, it seems to suggest that these are the kinds of people that appeal to the GOP. Look at all of the candidates that they overlooked over the years and chose vastly less capable nominees. Looking back, the best they've offered as candidates are probably Dole and Romney. And they both lost because of their inability to appeal to much of the GOP.

[Vogon_Glory]

17. I would argue that the crook and pater Bush weren't that bad

But to argue about them is a waste of time. Neither Nixon nor Poppy Bush would have a snowball’s chance in a red-hot Hell of getting the Republican Party nomination, and the 2016 election and all that led up to it since Nixon’s Southern Strategy shows that the rational, competent responsibly-governing Republicans are but a minority in their party (Not even a plurality), and are likely to remain so—even with direct intervention by God Almighty.

To discuss a successor party to the Republican Party is putting the cart at least a full pasture before the horse, so far away that I doubt I’ll live to see it even if I live to be 100 (I’m 65).

The last mostly-competent Republican President left office on January 20th, 1993. As much as I dislike posting predictions, I’d say that there won’t be another.

[zipplewrath]

18. The imperial presidency

It was the concept, pushed by the Nixon administration, which we now see playing out again in this administration. It was also pushed by the Bush II administration. We/the GOP may nominate someone with better political skills, in the future, but the underlying problems that we saw with Nixon, lived on in many ways in the subsequent administrations, and the party itself. Getting rid of Trump won't change that.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Actually he drove the country into the ground, and all it stands for, all previous actions

to make it 1935 again. Historians will struggle for a hundred years, was it really a Nazi renaissance? Or was it ideas reverberating in a blow-fish mind?

[The Blue Flower]

6. Lies, insults, smears, crazy tweets, conspiracy theories, alienating allies, undermining democracy

That's all he's got. These do not make a presidency.

[BeyondGeography]

7. He's a loser and the only thing he could ever run was his mouth

And the faithful bought it. He’s the destiny of a Republican Party built on very big and deeply cynical social and economic policy lies.

[Solly Mack]

8. It couldn't end any other way. It was always going to be a

waste - for the country. Though I mean it in the lay waste kind of way.

Trump is destruction. His very nature. His character. His very being.

Trump has no guiding principles. He has no strong beliefs.

Other than Trump. Other than himself. He is his own and only reason for everything he does. What he can get out of it. How it benefits him.

Trump, his conservative support from high profile names, as well as his sycophantic followers are parts of a symbiotic whole. Through mutualism, each part benefits in some way, though the followers are more like the effluvium by-product of the other two.

Trump courts them but he would never allow them inside his home.

The conservative power brokers/rightwing religious money movers/thought shapers need their votes but they don't want them coming into their homes either.

Both Trump and the conservative power base feed the clamoring crowd their much craved sugar water of absolution. Absolving both the conservative collective and the individual of responsibility for economic and social deprivations by placing the blame on the other.

With appeals to prejudice and fear that keep people ignorant, that keeps them cheering their own oppression,
Trump and the Republican power structure perform a neverending sleight of hand - constant deceptions.

Convincing them that three and four jobs is patriotic and that America has the best health care in the world, even if they don't have access to it. The important thing is getting to chant "We're number 1" until that good feeling takes hold.

Deception after deception, chewing their supporters up until nothing is left of them but pavlovian responses.

This is what we are up against. Fellow citizens who have been conditioned to accept any brutality, any atrocity, to believe any absurdity as long as they get to feel good about themselves.

[canetoad]

25. Very well said

[Solly Mack]

27. Thank you.

I'm so tired of them all.

[usaf-vet]

9. To begin with he wasn't elected he was INSTALLED with the help of a foreign power.

[liberalla]

13. There should be an asterisk behind his name forever more.

An asterisk with the notation that he was illegitimate from the start, as you state.

[usaf-vet]

14. I'd settled for a federal prison number for him including a set of sequential numbers for his kids.

To make them really significant I would suggest a number sequence all starting with 666-1111 and ending with 666-9999.

Once they all have their assigned numbers the sequence would be retired as no other individuals could possibly compete with the Trump grifters.

[liberalla]

15. YES, 45 in Federal Prison would make me happy. And deny him tweeting privileges forever.

[Evolve Dammit]

12. Unprecedented dismantling of democracy, governmental institutions and stacking the courts with

right wing judges. It's been very successful for those that wanted smaller government, less democracy, weakening of civil rights and subverting the rule of law for political purposes and avoiding any accountability.

[Grins]

19. I read it all..

While Lowry is toad-spittle on most everything that is conservative and Republican, he seemed he could be a bit rational. I thought.

I was wrong. After reading this - I was wrong. This is mental gymnastics that would make Romanian gymnasts cry.

Last comment: Lowry is the editor of the Reich-wing white power pamphlet, The National Review. So why is he featured in the Political Wire? Why give him another platform to spread his propaganda?

[Wounded Bear]

20. I wish it was only "wasted"...It's been brutally damaging to our country...nt

[Maven]

21. Hillary's presidency is the one that was wasted.

Or should I say, stolen from us.

That thing currently squatting in the White House isn't a president at all.

[ooky]

22. It would not have been possible to have sent a more worthless piece of shit

to the White House.

[babylonsister]

23. I never knew there were people like him.

He resembles no one I have ever met.

[ooky]

24. Me either.

This has certainly been an eye opening "presidency" if nothing else. I knew it wasn't going to be great the night he was "elected" but I never would have imagined something this bad in my wildest dreams. Anything this bad one would expect to be marched out of the White House long ago.

[dalton99a]

26. Because he is a career criminal.