320 Years of History
Gold Member
Intelligent people stand irrevocably stand on principles, but not on positions. What that means is that when the facts of the situation change, bright folks alter their position, and they do so within and using the framework of their well considered principles as the guide for what their revised position will be.
The practical problem with Trump's recent immigration shift is that the facts haven't changed, the politics have. And the practical problem is an explicit outcome of having no rigorously arrived at principles.
For example, I have one overarching principle and it's quite simple: the Golden Rule. Beneath that, I have additional principles, that come in at various level of my decision making.
As goes immigration, Trump drew a line in the sand, as it were, and got some 15 million people to line up behind him based overwhelmingly around the assertion that "Americans cannot get jobs that pay enough to afford them a reasonable existence." He identified the 11M illegal immigrants, in particular Mexicans, as one of the reasons that's is the case, the implication being that deporting the 11M illegals, again mostly Mexicans, will make the jobs folks need available.
Some 15M people agreed with Trump and gave him the GOP nomination. Time and time again, those people were told a host of things including that Trump would not hold to his deportation promises, that he was wrong about the impact of illegal immigrants on jobs, that he could not be trusted to stick to the thematic and literal substance of his remarks, and so on. All those poorly educated white males responded with, "Oh, no! Trump's right and he's gonna do what he says. 'You' don't know what you are talking about. It's the media," and a host of other deflecting and non-sequitur rebuttals.
Now here we are, and Trump's reversing his position 75 days before the election. Why? Because he never thought it through to begin with. He didn't have any core principle -- other than do/say what it takes to win at the time -- that governed his choices on immigration policy. The fact is that Trump is more interested in being President than he is in what policies he pursues as President. Mark me. If Trump becomes President, what he tries to implement and what he has been promising for the past 16 months will bear no resemblance to one another.
The practical problem with Trump's recent immigration shift is that the facts haven't changed, the politics have. And the practical problem is an explicit outcome of having no rigorously arrived at principles.
For example, I have one overarching principle and it's quite simple: the Golden Rule. Beneath that, I have additional principles, that come in at various level of my decision making.
- innocent until proven guilty
- own equally one's strengths, weaknesses, successes and failures
- details matter just as much as the big picture does
- context is "everything"
- communicate directly, clearly and precisely, always; don't make people guess
- the truth that stinks is better than the lie that smells good
- goals --> strategies --> tactics --> plans --> actions --> results --> measurement
- when looking for whom to blame, look first in the mirror
- the lesser of two evils is still evil
As goes immigration, Trump drew a line in the sand, as it were, and got some 15 million people to line up behind him based overwhelmingly around the assertion that "Americans cannot get jobs that pay enough to afford them a reasonable existence." He identified the 11M illegal immigrants, in particular Mexicans, as one of the reasons that's is the case, the implication being that deporting the 11M illegals, again mostly Mexicans, will make the jobs folks need available.
Some 15M people agreed with Trump and gave him the GOP nomination. Time and time again, those people were told a host of things including that Trump would not hold to his deportation promises, that he was wrong about the impact of illegal immigrants on jobs, that he could not be trusted to stick to the thematic and literal substance of his remarks, and so on. All those poorly educated white males responded with, "Oh, no! Trump's right and he's gonna do what he says. 'You' don't know what you are talking about. It's the media," and a host of other deflecting and non-sequitur rebuttals.
Now here we are, and Trump's reversing his position 75 days before the election. Why? Because he never thought it through to begin with. He didn't have any core principle -- other than do/say what it takes to win at the time -- that governed his choices on immigration policy. The fact is that Trump is more interested in being President than he is in what policies he pursues as President. Mark me. If Trump becomes President, what he tries to implement and what he has been promising for the past 16 months will bear no resemblance to one another.
