Why is the Trump presidency such a rolling disaster?

[yallerdawg]

Source: WaPo, by Paul Waldman

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What’s going on? The administration isn’t failing because of some brilliant strategy on Democrats’ part. They’re being weighed down by problems of their own making. In isolation each problem would be difficult but ultimately manageable; together they’re giving the administration nothing but bad days. Let’s take them each in turn:

Abysmal management. Trump was only the latest in a long line of political figures who argued that if someone from outside politics took over the government, he’d whip it into shape with his business savvy and management expertise. The result has been the most chaotic and incompetent White House anyone can remember. As Politico reported Wednesday, “A culture of paranoia is consuming the Trump administration, with staffers increasingly preoccupied with perceived enemies — inside their own government,” creating “an environment of fear that has hamstrung the routine functioning of the executive branch.”

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A disastrous first legislative priority. Republicans may have had no choice but to pursue the repeal of the ACA right off the bat, but they could hardly have gone about it in a less competent way. After seven years of attacking the law, they still hadn’t settled on their alternative, leading to a hastily written plan that not only would create a health-care catastrophe if implemented but also managed to win the displeasure of their members in both the Senate (for being too harsh) and the House (for not being harsh enough). Now the White House is saying it’s Paul Ryan’s fault, Ryan is trying to make Trump share the blame, and the whole thing is spiraling downward. Rich Lowry, the editor of the conservative National Review, writes that the repeal bill “has had the worst rollout of any major piece of legislation in memory,” and has left the GOP “staring into the abyss.”

An impulsive, distracted president. People keep wondering if the latest Trump outburst is a clever ploy to distract the country from whatever piece of bad news is currently vexing the administration. But the one who’s easily distractible is the president himself, and then he in turn distracts his staff and congressional allies. Just look at what’s happening with his accusation that President Barack Obama tapped his phones. On impulse, after reading an article on a white nationalist website, Trump levels a ludicrous and baseless charge, then everyone in the White House has to pretend that it’s serious and legitimate, and they’re forced to answer questions about it for weeks. All that time could be spent advancing an affirmative agenda.

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Much as you can blame Republicans in Congress, including Ryan, for being Trump’s enablers, there’s no doubt that they’re not happy about how things are going. And as time goes on and their minds turn to the 2018 elections, they’re going to start thinking more and more about their own survival. Given that even in the best of times the president’s party usually loses seats in the midterms, they may begin looking for ways to separate themselves from an unpopular president, which is only going to make future legislating more complicated.

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Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/03/16/why-is-the-trump-presidency-such-a-rolling-disaster/?utm_term=.067e4a9a8386

[DonCoquixote]

1. beware of wishful thinking

one mistakes we've made is that we are focused so much on the clown Trump and we have forgotten that Congress has had 20 years to screw itself deep into the ground. You could pretty much annihilate any celebrity congressperson, even Mr. Ryan, even Mr. McConnell and it's guaranteed that the billionaires will have somebody ready to go; not just to maintain what they have, but the hit the ground running to get more. If you doubt this,there are two gentlemen in Virginia who can prove otherwise, but the name of Eric Cantor and Andrew Brat. The former was one of the most vicious conservatives in Congress, the latter is is even more right-wing replacement, and let's have no doubt about the fact that someone in Virginia is probably trying to get someone elected that makes Mr. Brat look like Maxine Waters.

As powerful as a presidency is, and as much is is been far far inflated from what it was meant to be in the Constitution, the real power is Congress, and we have to hold their feet to the fire. We cannot let the GOP all the sudden pretend that Trump was some evil sorcerer that had them under his spell. Yes, the same exact thing goes for Democrats, especially the blue dogs whose backstabbing of both Obama and Hillary helped bring about this mess. As the article indeed pointed out, as much as I would love to think that trumps malaise is due to some brilliant planning, we know it is not. Obama and Hillary are too busy enjoying a vacation that one could argue that he rightfully deserved, especially as both of them could spend years picking the knives out of their backs. However, save maybe Elizabeth Warren, maybe Al Franken, there is no one leading a democratic charge or planning a democratic strategy. If it was not for bunch of people marching, there would be no credible opposition to Mr. Trump. The Democratic Party better realize that if they do not go ahead and make a coherent opposition message, the people, who know that this is not a game, will do so, and they will not fall conveniently back in line when some political person charges up to the front and tries to make it seem like it was very grand idea all along.

And know the above comment was not a Bernie praise, and it sure as hell was not any praise Jill the shill Stein. If there is any silver lining we can somehow mine from these rain clouds it is the idea that whatever emerges will be something that no longer has the expense of feeding sacred cows and white elephants. However, whoever smirks about this being some revolution that had to happen needs to be put to work in the soup kitchens and health clinics that will be the only thing keeping some of the survivors of their grand experiment alive. That way they have to look the people who suffering the so enjoyed in the eyes. Jill Stein, Ralph Nader and all those who voted for them, all those whose grand ego trip for Republicans in power, that goes for you.

This is not the time for gloating, smirking, praying, silence or any of the ever cheap survival mechanisms that some say serve people in the past (even though truth to tell they never really did.) This is the time to maintain the only thing that has ever made democracy work, constant pressure. As bad as things have become, we have managed to go ahead and make even Mr. Trump backtrack a bit, not because he is grown the brain, or heart, or even a spine. It is because even he realizes he is mortal. We need to remind the political deities that yes they are mortal, and no I do not mean by means of violence. For all the just critiques of nonviolent strategies, the truth is making martyrs is arming your enemies with a great weapon. If something happened to Mr. Trump today there would be seven seas of crocodile tears, or even the people who we know hated the man would get on the camera and try to tug at America's heartstrings. No, we do not want the Republicans dead, we want them wishing they were dead, by being stripped naked and shown to be the glorified circus animals they always were.

[Moral Compass]

3. Spot on

The only way the Democrats win in 2018 is by offering a stark contrast to the Republican agenda.

The problem is and has been that the Democratic Party seems to offer only a slight difference these days. The interests that fund them are often the same as those that fund the Republicans.

A key example. Even now, the Democrats are still doggedly defending the ACA, a result of an attempt at a plan the Republicans could and would sign on to. After all, the very genesis of the ACA was from a paper presented to the Heritage Foundation. A version of it was implemented by Romney in Massachusetts and proved very popular.

But the Republicans didn't sign on.

But rather than up the ante and go for single payer or the public option the Democrats are fighting a rear guard action to keep the ACA alive when it needs to be dramatically revamped.

Why? Well, because the Democrats are as beholden to the health insurance industry as any Republican.

The Republicans, however, seem unafraid to just blow everything all to hell.

The only two that are aggressively proposing real solutions to real problems are Bernie Sanders (not a Democrat) and Elizabeth Warren.

Those who do not propose do not dispose.

The Democrats need to start proposing bills that are radical and practical and make a lot of noise about them. What, after all, do we have to lose?

[dalton99a]

2. When Trump calls something a disaster, it refers to him.

[Nitram]

4. Why does a wild bear shit in the woods?