Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit

Sometimes, I feel quite impotent in my anger and it might be self-imposed. Several times in the last nine days, I have started writing only to just delete everything and walk away from it. Not because I don't want to vent my frustrations, but because of what I desperately want to vent about. Not because I think it may upset some people, but because everyone else is talking about it.

In the first incarnation of M&C, I swore to stay away from politics. To me, it was low-hanging fruit. Everyone complained about politics and politicians and “big gub'mint.” With that in mind, I wanted to be the one rampaging asshole who'd complain about things I felt were worth complaining about; guys who can't aim properly when they piss and why people feel the need to clean the house before the cleaning lady arrived.

Don't you worry, those topics will be returning in their due time.

Still, with the passing of time and the start of a new political paradigm, I realize that I can't really restrict myself when it comes to spewing my disdain on the internet. So, I find myself having to cast aside old principles and just get this off my chest.

I have friends on both sides of the bird; left-wing and right-wing. Many of them behave in a manner you'd think they would, so I'll spare you the minutiae. The right-wings can point out every single flaw and humiliation of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, just as the left-wings can do the same for Ronald Reagan and the Bushes. But there is one fact that neither side can ignore when it comes to these men: They were politicians.

They understood the system, they manipulated it, they profited from it. Neither side can disagree with this, regardless of any agenda any President had. As politically-minded as some of my friends are, they are still outsiders to the system. I doubt they understand it any better than I do, and I make no claim to understand it at all. In spite of that, I think it's face to say that if you enter into a system that you have no knowledge of, you run the risk of being manipulated by that system.

Which brings me to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is many things; chief among them, at least as far as the now is concerned, is a celebrity. He knows how to grab attention and keep it, he knows how to deflect criticism, he knows how to obfuscate, he is the very epitome of the carnival barker and the roadside snake oil salesman. He is not a politician. He does not understand the system, and the system is taking advantage of this fact.

Here's a small example to start: The nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary. Start paying attention at the ten-second mark and watch as he looks for confirmation to this pick, even adding that he “thought Chuck wanted it.” Look at how smug and satisfied Paul Ryan looks, and that other guy whose name I do not know. This could be a lot of things, but I'm not entirely convinced that Trump knew who he was talking about.

How about something bigger: Trump admitting that he didn't know he put Steve Bannon on the National Security Council. The article itself is a fascinating read and I encourage you to do so, but if you just want to see the meat of my point because TL;DR...

"But for the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the president’s dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trump’s anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council, a greater source of frustration to the president than the fallout from the travel ban." ~ Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles, Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman, New York Times, 05FEB2017

A little worrisome, don't you think? Not that he signed it, but that he wasn't completely briefed as to its contents. Shouldn't the President be aware of the details of each order signed. This isn't a small thing, either. This is the elevation of a man, one who has no previous record of public service, to a position dealing with national security and foreign policy. Not only that, but it severely neutered two other long-standing advisory positions; those filled by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence.

Two small examples, I know. In my defense, we're not even a full month into this administration. There have been plenty of cock-ups so far, but they're not really part of my point.

I don't think Trump is suitable to hold this office, and not for anything he did or may have done in the past. Even if you ignore that, the man's inability to stay off Twitter [Looks like I was mistaken in the assumption I made in my open letter. - DF], his lack of temperament and dignity that the executive branch demands, and the fact that this is a man who is beholden to his ego and his ego alone, he possesses no knowledge of the system he seeks to use to advance his agenda.

And because of that, the system will use him.

This system will play him like a puppet and once they push him on something that really gets the people rallied against him... and make no mistake, it is not a question of if, it is a matter of when... they will throw him to the wolves. Maybe he'll resign as Nixon did, likely he'll say that he's stepping down because he accomplished everything he wanted to and there was no need for him to stay in office, but it will happen... and then we all get an administration that nobody voted for.

And when that time comes, perhaps we'll have ourselves some PUPPET CUPCAKES!

Though this is one game, I'd rather not play.
Source: The Cupcake Blog