[Vision2020] I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
Debi Robinson-Smith
debismith at moscow.com
Wed Sep 5 17:15:08 PDT 2018
In the age of Trump, how does one define "too vulgar"?
Just sayin'
Debi R-S
On 9/5/2018 5:11 PM, Ron Force wrote:
> 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
> <mailto: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
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