[Vision2020] I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

Wed Sep 5 17:11:08 PDT 2018

Bogus resistance. The author is just trying to cover his a** so he'll be
welcomed into polite society after the Trump administration goes up in
flames. The actions are fine, but the tone is too vulgar.

*What does this resistance fighter think are Trump's -- excuse me, the
Resistance's -- good policies? "Effective deregulation, historic tax
reform, a more robust military and more." So: the destruction of the EPA
<https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-epa-is-poisoning-our-children/>, HUD
<http://nahbnow.com/2018/02/trumps-fiscal-2019-budget-seeks-18-3-cut-to-hud-budget/>,
et alia; massive tax breaks for the rich
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/30/the-richest-americans-get-a-33000-tax-break-under-the-gop-tax-law-the-poorest-get-40/>;
and a wasteful and dangerous increase in military spending
<https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22727400/john-mccain-defense-spending-bill-donald-trump/>.
The resistance fighter doesn't say anything one way or the other about the
administration's other controversial policies, such as the Muslim ban, the
ongoing attempt to stack SCOTUS to kill Roe, or the ICE child-stealing
atrocities. You think that's because this person doesn't have an opinion
about them -- or because this person doesn't want you to know what it is?  *
http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2018/09/stephen-miller-welcome-to-resistance.html
Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA

On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 3:26 PM Moscow Cares <moscowcares at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of the *New York Times* at:
>
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html
>
> ———————————————
>
> I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
>
> I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to
> thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
>
> The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed
> essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in
> the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would
> be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay
> anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our
> readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting
> process here
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/reader-center/oped-questions.html>.
>
> President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a
> modern American leader.
>
> It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is
> bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might
> well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.
>
> The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior
> officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to
> frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
>
> I would know. I am one of them.
>
> To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the
> administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already
> made America safer and more prosperous.
>
> But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president
> continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our
> republic.
>
> That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve
> our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided
> impulses until he is out of office.
>
> The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works
> with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that
> guide his decision making.
>
> Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little
> affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free
> markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted
> settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.
>
> In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the
> “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade
> and anti-democratic.
>
> Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless
> negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective
> deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
>
> But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s
> leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
>
> From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior
> officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in
> chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations
> from his whims.
>
> Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in
> repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed
> and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.
>
> “There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one
> minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated
> by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major
> policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.
>
> The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung
> heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as
> villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to
> keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not
> always successful.
>
> It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that
> there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we
> are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
>
> The result is a two-track presidency.
>
> Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a
> preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of
> Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine
> appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
>
> Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration
> is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called
> out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the
> world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
>
> On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of
> Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy
> in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him
> get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed
> frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the
> country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better
> — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
>
> This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the
> steady state.
>
> Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the
> cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process
> for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a
> constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the
> administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s
> over.
>
> The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but
> rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low
> with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
>
> Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans
> should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high
> aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
>
> We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example
> — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.
> Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.
>
> There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing
> to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday
> citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to
> shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.
>
> ———————————————
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20180905/a16c47da/attachment-0001.html>