The Specter of Illegitimacy Haunts Trumps First 100 Days

[L. Coyote]

The Specter of Illegitimacy Haunts Trump’s First 100 Days
By Jonathan Chait

Donald Trump narrowly won his party’s nomination despite the clear misgivings of his party’s professional class, which viewed him as erratic, uninformed, and dangerous. He won the presidency despite losing by an unprecedented three million votes nationwide, with the benefit of extraordinary interventions by the FBI director and Russian intelligence to help criminalize and discredit his opponent. All these things add up to a crisis of legitimacy. And yet, rather than confronting the crisis of legitimacy hovering over them, all the actions Trump and his governing partners have taken over their first 100 days have deepened it.

Trump may have few traditionally defined achievements so far, but he has redefined the institution he occupies. Before Trump it would have been outrageous for a president to withhold his tax returns, and unthinkable for one to retain business holdings in office. Breaching both of those bygone norms together has created a change much larger than the sum of the two. He has constructed a full-on nontransparent oligarchy. The arrangement is more easily recognizable to autocrats than to Americans, which is why China’s government identified Jared Kushner as what is known in their system as a “princeling.”

Trump’s Republican allies have shut down Democratic bills to compel the president to disclose his tax returns, and raised no objection as his family has used his office to leverage their brand across the country and the globe. They have likewise slow-walked investigations into whether his campaign colluded openly with Russian hackers, or whether it was simply the unwitting beneficiary. Whatever comes out, the already-public evidence — from the financial ties between Russia and numerous Trump advisers, to Trump’s open exhortation for Russia to hack his opponent’s emails — implies the most devious subversion of the national interest since Richard Nixon covertly sabotaged the 1968 peace talks in Vietnam.

The most shocking degradation of office is the lowering of the standards of the office he has carried out. Whatever doubts Trump inspired about his fitness for office seem naïve in comparison to what has transpired. The president is childlike, impulsive, ignorant, and ostentatiously lazy. .................................

[hlthe2b]

1. Spot on... worth a full read...

"Yet while the fears of what Trump might do to the country out of malevolence have subsided, the fears of what he might do to it out of incompetence have grown. Trump became president because America’s political institutions failed. What remains to be seen is whether those institutions can separate Trump’s failure from the country’s."

[lovemydogs]

2. I agree with the post above. You must read the full thing

The biggest danger with Trump is the republicans ignoring and covering for him. Their greed and need to push the most odious policies against the country and its people overrides their hypocritical posturing about patriotism.
They do not care if they destroy the country, damage the presidency permanently, cause thousands of deaths or fail the country to the point of the country losing its place in the world and alienating our allies.
All they care abut is dogma and power and money.
And what damage they cause, so be it.
And having an idiot like Trump only helps them

[malaise]

3. MUST READ

Rec

[JI7]

4. meanwhile NYT feels there is a need to say something good about him everyday

[wryter2000]

8. The e-mail address they listed doesn't work

I got my "nice something " back.

[renate]

5. I hadn't heard the term "child monarch" used about him before

Even then, regencies are usually more stable.

[ismnotwasm]

6. K&R

[Javaman]

7. "partys professional class, which viewed him as erratic, uninformed, and dangerous."

well, tRump didn't disappoint! he's all those things and more.

[2naSalit]

9. K&R

[world wide wally]

10. And every speech he gives is like a campaign speech in which he vilifies his opponents

This only divides the country more and more. I have never seen a more hated President, and some have been pretty damn hated.