By Edwin Cooney
He’s only been
president exactly 59 days (okay two months) today, but the All American Judge
(that’s me) has made his assessment of United States of America President
Donald John Trump’s character, judgment, and qualifications for office -- and
it ain’t pretty! Now, wait a minute all you Trump lovers before you
explode. The judgment ain’t pretty, but that doesn’t mean it has to be
permanent -- let alone final!
There are
1,461 days in every presidency. President Trump has only been in office
59 days as I issue this judgment! Some presidents such as George
Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had established
their positive reputations by their 59th day in office. That was primarily
because all three of these presidents symbolized the people’s requirements or
possessed such personal charisma which thus enhanced the peoples’
pleasure. For most presidents, more time and the outcome of events had to
occur before they could be at all evaluated. Before briefly mentioning
President Trump’s liabilities -- both personal and official -- I offer his
greatest asset, namely, his unpredictability. Undoubtedly, he’s a free
spirit. No one, not even his fellow Republicans, can count on what he
will do in a pinch! So far he has followed the traditional GOP faith in
deregulating business activities, rolling back “Obamacare,” proposing tax
cutting legislation, encouraging the return of Americans’ jobs from overseas,
opposition to anti-climate change legislation, and the overall decentralization
of “big government.” Additionally, he’s kept his word to nominate a
Conservative judge to the Supreme Court, and he’s kept his word to Americans,
whose fear he aggravated and benefited from during the late campaign, to
protect us from the worse scourges of undocumented aliens. However, there
looms alongside his “GOP faith” his actions and reactions to the world in which
he, plus you and I, live.
It’s my
judgment that we’re living under government by tantrum! Whosoever
displeases this president must be disgraced, destroyed or both. Over the
last 59 days President Trump has quarreled with four governments, Mexico,
Australia, China, and now, our oldest and most traditionally friendly ally,
Great Britain. (Strangely enough, so far, the president has been wisely
cautious in the face of defiance by both Iran and North Korea!)
Even worse it
becomes increasingly clear that President Trump is inclined to cuddle up to
Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Would you have predicted a year ago that the
rank and file leadership of the Republican Party would view Putin’s activities
with anything less than alarm? Had John McCain’s campaign in 2008
discovered that candidate Barack Obama was snuggling up to the Russians, do you
doubt that there would have been a righteous outcry along with charges of
treason emanating from Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin if not from the
GOP National Committee? Additionally, the president has questioned the
patriotism of judges who’ve sought to modify his restrictions on travel and
immigration.
Finally,
President Trump has lessened the integrity of the office he currently holds by
charging, without proof, former President Obama with spying on Trump Towers,
during the late “sacred” campaign. (How “sacred” was the campaign when
candidate Trump asserted that he might not acknowledge its outcome if Hillary
the Bad were elected?)
Look, I know
it’s easy to judge! That’s why I’m the judge this week -- I like “easy”
as much as you do! However, the conclusions one reaches regarding the
performance of a public official - perhaps especially if he is the president -
is limited in value because it can only evaluate the present. It doesn’t in any
way master, let alone evaluate, the future! Regardless of whether or not
I approve the president’s performance, I can’t, so far that is, support any impeachment
charges against him and, even more, there is, as I see it, a glittering
possibility over the horizon.
With history
as my witness, I recall three presidents who unexpectedly shocked their
ideological supporters during their presidencies. As Bill Clinton began
his second term in the spring of 1997, liberal Democrats were shocked to see
the president supporting GOP efforts to curb traditional welfare benefits to
the nation’s poor and disadvantaged. The result was welfare reform which
required welfare recipients to participate in job training programs in order to
qualify for benefits. According to statistics I read at the time, the
number of people receiving welfare benefits dropped from 12.1 million to 7.2
million by the close of the Clinton administration. The liberal “Slick
Willie” grasped for credit, but Conservatives countered by insisting that
they’d forced the president to go along with the idea of welfare reform.
In the fall of
1983, Conservatives were flabbergasted when President Reagan responded rather
mildly to the Soviets shooting down of Korean Airlines flight 007 which
resulted in the deaths of 269 passengers including 60 Americans, among them,
Conservative Georgia Democratic Congressman Larry McDonald. A censure and a 90-day
suspension of Soviet flights into the United States was the only official
response by the Reagan administration. It was the type of reprimand that would
have done Jimmy Carter proud.
Finally, there
was Richard Nixon’s opening to China that shocked traditional Conservatives and
eventually saw former President Richard Nixon celebrating, with considerable
pride, his “Journey for Peace” to the People’s Republic of China and his
appreciation of that “Godless Communist” Mao Tse-tung. Old line Republicans
like Tom Dewey, Everett Dirksen, and certainly John Foster Dulles, would have
never understood! Pat Nixon may in fact have worn “…a respectable
Republican cloth coat” which would definitely have “played in Peoria.”
However, Richard Nixon’s new friend Mao Tse-tung would never have been even
tolerated in Peoria! It’s this type of possibility that keeps this
“judge” of our intrepid president interested in what will come next.
Donald John
Trump hasn’t studied government and how it works any more than most GOP
Conservatives have objectively studied the benefits of Obamacare! John
Boehner recently asserted that at no time in his 25 years in Congress have
Republicans even thought about offering America a healthcare program. The
truth is, they’re just not interested in providing the public with assistance
in countering the costs of maintaining their health!
Okay! I
must confess the following. Occasionally I get into a conversation with
someone whose regard for the president is akin to mine. Then, quite often
my friend will assert that we’d be much better off if Vice President Pence
replaced President Trump. My response is “No thanks. Pence is too
ideological, too morally self-righteous, too smooth, too persuasive and too
predictable!" I’ll stick with “Donnie Johnny" even if he may throw something
dangerous during one of his periodic tantrums! He may be a wrecking ball, but
he’s a GOP wrecking ball - as such, he’s not my problem. I’m just watching!
Yes, indeed, I
judge President Trump’s first 59 days a huge flop. Government never has
and never will function like a business. I would hope by now that
President Trump has discovered that he can’t just order people and events to do
his bidding. However, if you subtract 59 from 1,461 you get 1,402 and, like it or not, Donald John Trump is the President of the United States of
America probably for the duration!
RESPECTFULLY
SUBMITTED,
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