Therein lies the problem...you stand for nothing fence-sitters take pride in standing for nothing…you love to tinker on both sides of the fence…it‘s twice the fun..right?
Everybody taking a firm position / taking action and not fence-sitting is a “Fanboy” while you Meglomaniacs play everybody’s friend and do nothing to make a difference.
Look, your idea of an absolutely perfect candidate is never going to run…you will never agree with EVERYTHING any candidate runs on.
At some point you Smartest Guys In The Room are going to have to engage.
I stand for the Constitution. You do not. I stand for the freedoms granted us in the Bill of Rights, and I argue and donate and do everything possible to defend those rights. You do not.
Here is how I define a Fanboy. Your hero Trump can do no wrong. Everything he did was brilliant. The problem is you set the bar so low that anyone who screamed insults at the side you hate, was a great guy. Exactly what we needed.
I opposed Obama when the FBI was caught lying during the Bundy Ranch debacle. I’ve pointed this out many times. I opposed Obama’s involvement in Syria. I posted about that too. I opposed Hillary because of her complicity in both Libya and Syria among many other reasons.
I decided in 2016 to give Trump a chance. Again, I figured the worst he could do was about what Hillary would have done. Sure enough, he was a major disappointment.
I expect Presidents to screw up for the first few months. Nobody is ready on day one. Nobody. It takes time to get used to the pace, the technical issues. But let’s talk about why I don’t like Trump and thought he was mediocre. At best.
The President comes up with an idea, or his staff brings him an idea. Ok, now, we need to figure out if we can do that. So you consult with the White House Council’s office to find out what laws are affected, and what changes we need to consider to either the idea, or the laws. It also needs to be run over to the State Department to see if it violates any Treaties, or understandings, with allies or opponents.
This takes time. Obviously. There is research and all that sort of thing to do. Fine though, no problem. Take your time and do it right.
So the staff comes back and explains to the President what they’ve found, and what changes need to be made to the idea to be both legal, and acceptable given our treaties and understandings.
Let me explain an understanding for you. It isn’t written down. It is verbal, and based strictly upon honor of the people involved. Understandings like we would not kill KGB agents. The Soviets would not kill CIA agents. We would trade for them if they were caught, and so would they. See Frances Gary Powers.
These understandings were usually worked out verbally. And to everyone’s advantage. By not killing the KGB agents, we allowed the CIA to gain intelligence, which is what they were supposed to do. Hard to get intelligence if it is a James Bond movie where everyone is trying to kill everyone else.
So these understandings aren’t really written down, we just don’t do it, and neither do they. But if you start, so do they.
So ideas the President has need to be vetted and examined. What laws are at an issue, what treaties, and what understandings. Trump detested this delay. He figured the Government, including Congress, was like a board of directors, and would do what he told them. He figured Lawyers were there to get you out of trouble later, not stop you from getting into trouble. Or at most made through the use of language, whatever you were doing, legal.
The key to this is the Chief of Staff. The Chief of Staff takes the President’s desires, and figures out what can be done, legally, and then reports back what he’s found. Also the Chief of Staff runs interference to insure the President doesn’t get his time wasted by idiots and fools who want to do crazy shit like build a road for a wolf.
Now this process has been developed over decades. Every administration does it. Every administration needs to do it. Nixon did it. Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush 1 and 2, and even Obama. Kennedy, LBJ, and the list goes on and on and on.
This process is necessary. It is required by the position. But Trump, he can’t wait. He has a brainwave a minute. And he wants to tweet about it right now. This makes the White House and the Administration look chaotic and irrational. All anyone can expect is that the lunatic in the Oval will go with whatever crazy knee jerk response that comes to mind.
So after the staff explains what can be done along the lines that Trump wanted, they would go and huddle up and start to write the talking points to control the narrative. The press secretary would start to get her ducks in a line, and would leak a little information to friendly reporters to get them leaning in the right direction.
In the meantime, Trump angry that he didn’t get what he wanted, sends out a tweet that he’s doing this anyway.
When several cops are holding their weapons on a suspect. The commands are supposed to be issued by one. The senior, or first officer present. This is called one voice. One command. This prevents conflicting and confusing instructions being issued to the person held at gunpoint. This reduces the chance that they’ll have to shoot. Because one cop is shouting show me your hands and another is screaming don’t move, and a third is screaming get down, on the ground. Anything the guy does at that point is going to get him shot by someone. One voice, one message, one command.
In Business, the companies do the same thing. One voice, one message. If someone approaches you for a comment, you tell them I don’t have one, but you can call Public Relations and they’ll be happy to address your questions. Thanks. Have a great day.
Everyone does this. Everyone except Trump. Trump didn’t want to follow this time tested and adapted by everyone else in the whole wide world technique. So the image coming out of the White House was again, Chaos.
This was celebrated by the Fanboys like yourself. Trump is taking charge. Trump is showing who is in control. Trump is taking it to the Libs. The problem is that other than the fanboys to the left and right, it sent a different message to the rest of us. Irrational, unpredictable, and wildcard were the kindest thoughts we had.
My wife was a Trump Supporter far longer than I was. Until finally she’d had enough about 2019 or so. Finally she wanted to know, demanded really, why someone hasn’t gone and smashed Trump’s phone to get him the **** off of Twitter.
Trumps wounds were all self inflicted. He should have learned in the first couple months that everything he said was going to be torn apart by the left. He should have stepped back and let his staff do their jobs, and manage the message. He refused to learn, and refused to do this.
Let’s say you see a guy. He is opening a door into his own face. Every time he goes to the door, day after day, weeks and months later, he opens the door into his own face. Would you think he was strong, determined, proud, or showing that door who is boss? No. You would think he was an idiot or a fool.
Now, you know how I saw Trump. A fool too proud, or stupid, to listen to his staff. A Martinet who refused to listen to the experts he employed to help him.
I’ve said this before about Trump. About all Presidents. We don’t expect them to be perfect. We do expect them to learn, and to take responsibility for their mistakes. Jesus Christ Clinton apologized for lying and while everyone saw him as a liar, there was no mass demand for him to be removed from office.
No President will ever please everyone. But Trump forgot he had to please a majority of the people. And that was his mistake.
