SavannahMann
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- Nov 16, 2016
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If you are honest, you will realize that a Trump Second Term is at best, a coin toss at this point. There are a lot of reasons for this, and I want to take a moment to compare and contrast this Administration, with another one from history. I want to show you where Trump went wrong, the mistakes he made.
Full Disclosure. I voted for Trump. In fact, the 2016 election is the very first election where I voted against Democrats. I have said why many times. I don’t feel the need to cover it again. So far, I have not seen a Democrat who represents the values I have, but we’ll see what happens as time goes by.
To compare and contrast, I want to put things in context. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 with literally everyone against him. He had proposed two ideas that were outrageous. If you say that Trump is facing far more opposition, then you have no idea what you are talking about. The Speaker of the House in the 1980’s was a politician from Boston named Tip O’Neill. Tip O'Neill - Wikipedia
If you think Nancy Pelosi is a dedicated opponent of your ideals, then you have no knowledge of Tip O’Neill. Tip was so powerful he managed to get the “Big Dig” through Congress. Remember the outrage and disgust over the Bridge to Nowhere? A drop in the Pork Bucket compared to the Big Dig. Big Dig - Wikipedia
Tip said that Reagan’s Tax Cuts were dead on arrival. You could find a few Republicans who were willing to sponsor the legislation, but they did so knowing that there was no way on Earth that Reagan would get it through. No way to get it to a vote under Tip as Speaker. It was Dead on Arrival. Then Reagan went and addressed the nation. He sat behind the desk and explained why he believed that a Tax Cut was a good choice. Why it was needed. Congress was flooded with letters, telegrams, phone calls, and Tip bowed to pressure and it went up for a vote. In a Congress with a Majority of the Opposition in power, Reagan got his Tax Cut.
But that was not all. Not by a long shot. Reagan’s ideals for the Cold War. You want to talk about the Deep State and the opposition to Trump like it never existed before? Every single expert. Every Admiral, General, Defense Contractor, Defensive Think Tank, Scientist, Engineer. You name it, they were against any challenge to the Status Quo. Mutually Assured Destruction was such a simple premise. They will never attack us with nuclear weapons because they know that we will respond and wipe them off the map. As long as neither side can win, neither side will face losing, and neither side will attack. Reagan with the Strategic Defense Initiative challenged this basic premise.
People who had spent their entire lives, and careers maintaining this balance of power saw horror on the horizon. The Doomsday clock was set to midnight, or a minute or two before showing that Reagan and his warmongering ways was going to get the world wiped out.
Opponents pointed out that Duck and Cover was a nonsense way in the 1950’s to make the people feel that they were not powerless in the face of Nuclear War. Every pundit, thinker, and defensive strategy expert said that Reagan was wrong to rock the boat.
Reagan got SDI through Congress. Reagan got people thinking about it. And accepting the wisdom. I grew up in a Democratic Household. I remember being a teenager and arguing with my older and theoretically wiser cousin about it. It made perfect sense to me. If someone is swinging a punch at my head, I am going to lift my arm to block the punch. Only an idiot stands there and lets himself get hit. My Cousin pointed out the argument that was accepted. The enemy will just make an anti anti missile to take our our Anti Missile missile.
I joined the left, the center, and the right in screaming our frustration when Reagan walked away from Iceland and the best chance of the 20th Century to get rid of Nuclear Weapons. But Reagan turned out to be right. History showed it. It is conclusively proven at this point. I was wrong.
Reagan faced greater challenges than Trump because Reagan was proposing things that were just accepted as wrong. Yet. Reagan was wise enough to know that calm words and a pithy saying went a lot further than shouts and screams.
When Trump won the election, I was at work. I spoke to my wife at home. We were both shocked. I told her over the next couple days, imagining that Trump would embrace the Reagan example, and rise above the Campaign Rhetoric. I told her that Trump had a good chance of doing a lot more than we could imagine.
Here is why I think it is a coin toss. Reagan took his message to the people. Trump takes his message to Twitter. Reagan never forgot he was the President of all the States, and all the people. Trump has never accepted that those who disagree with him are just as American as everyone else. If anything, Trump has embraced the Clinton model, the Obama Model, and merely turned the knob up to 11. The arrogance, the failings that we’ve all seen, are turbo charged with Trump.
So I think it is a coin toss at this point. Heads a second term, tails, Trump starts looking at an extended Vacation in Monaco, or Switzerland. Reagan wanted to win the political battles, but today, we want to destroy our opponents.
Full Disclosure. I voted for Trump. In fact, the 2016 election is the very first election where I voted against Democrats. I have said why many times. I don’t feel the need to cover it again. So far, I have not seen a Democrat who represents the values I have, but we’ll see what happens as time goes by.
To compare and contrast, I want to put things in context. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 with literally everyone against him. He had proposed two ideas that were outrageous. If you say that Trump is facing far more opposition, then you have no idea what you are talking about. The Speaker of the House in the 1980’s was a politician from Boston named Tip O’Neill. Tip O'Neill - Wikipedia
If you think Nancy Pelosi is a dedicated opponent of your ideals, then you have no knowledge of Tip O’Neill. Tip was so powerful he managed to get the “Big Dig” through Congress. Remember the outrage and disgust over the Bridge to Nowhere? A drop in the Pork Bucket compared to the Big Dig. Big Dig - Wikipedia
Tip said that Reagan’s Tax Cuts were dead on arrival. You could find a few Republicans who were willing to sponsor the legislation, but they did so knowing that there was no way on Earth that Reagan would get it through. No way to get it to a vote under Tip as Speaker. It was Dead on Arrival. Then Reagan went and addressed the nation. He sat behind the desk and explained why he believed that a Tax Cut was a good choice. Why it was needed. Congress was flooded with letters, telegrams, phone calls, and Tip bowed to pressure and it went up for a vote. In a Congress with a Majority of the Opposition in power, Reagan got his Tax Cut.
But that was not all. Not by a long shot. Reagan’s ideals for the Cold War. You want to talk about the Deep State and the opposition to Trump like it never existed before? Every single expert. Every Admiral, General, Defense Contractor, Defensive Think Tank, Scientist, Engineer. You name it, they were against any challenge to the Status Quo. Mutually Assured Destruction was such a simple premise. They will never attack us with nuclear weapons because they know that we will respond and wipe them off the map. As long as neither side can win, neither side will face losing, and neither side will attack. Reagan with the Strategic Defense Initiative challenged this basic premise.
People who had spent their entire lives, and careers maintaining this balance of power saw horror on the horizon. The Doomsday clock was set to midnight, or a minute or two before showing that Reagan and his warmongering ways was going to get the world wiped out.
Opponents pointed out that Duck and Cover was a nonsense way in the 1950’s to make the people feel that they were not powerless in the face of Nuclear War. Every pundit, thinker, and defensive strategy expert said that Reagan was wrong to rock the boat.
Reagan got SDI through Congress. Reagan got people thinking about it. And accepting the wisdom. I grew up in a Democratic Household. I remember being a teenager and arguing with my older and theoretically wiser cousin about it. It made perfect sense to me. If someone is swinging a punch at my head, I am going to lift my arm to block the punch. Only an idiot stands there and lets himself get hit. My Cousin pointed out the argument that was accepted. The enemy will just make an anti anti missile to take our our Anti Missile missile.
I joined the left, the center, and the right in screaming our frustration when Reagan walked away from Iceland and the best chance of the 20th Century to get rid of Nuclear Weapons. But Reagan turned out to be right. History showed it. It is conclusively proven at this point. I was wrong.
Reagan faced greater challenges than Trump because Reagan was proposing things that were just accepted as wrong. Yet. Reagan was wise enough to know that calm words and a pithy saying went a lot further than shouts and screams.
When Trump won the election, I was at work. I spoke to my wife at home. We were both shocked. I told her over the next couple days, imagining that Trump would embrace the Reagan example, and rise above the Campaign Rhetoric. I told her that Trump had a good chance of doing a lot more than we could imagine.
Here is why I think it is a coin toss. Reagan took his message to the people. Trump takes his message to Twitter. Reagan never forgot he was the President of all the States, and all the people. Trump has never accepted that those who disagree with him are just as American as everyone else. If anything, Trump has embraced the Clinton model, the Obama Model, and merely turned the knob up to 11. The arrogance, the failings that we’ve all seen, are turbo charged with Trump.
So I think it is a coin toss at this point. Heads a second term, tails, Trump starts looking at an extended Vacation in Monaco, or Switzerland. Reagan wanted to win the political battles, but today, we want to destroy our opponents.