I would think that too, but the people I’ve talked to who knew him said he was very involved with his advisors. Even though he might not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, he surrounded himself with capable people. Not my kind of people, but people who were very good at being neocons.
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shudder
I admire the restraint of your comment.
GWBIII reminded me of Byron on the other George III (quoting from memory)
“The king who comes has head and all entire
And never knew much what it was about
He did as does the puppet, by its wire.”
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Well, that is EXACTLY the issue.
I lived in the DC area for several years. People who aren’t in DC don’t really get how it works. All of these people who think a business person can do better in DC than a politician don’t get that the government doesn’t run like a business. You can’t just go and fire people; those jobs are protected. People can and will sue the government to maintain their jobs and their privilege. People in DC get power by amassing big work forces underneath them. It’s called “Empire Building.” You can’t just take their employees away from these powerful managers. There’s a ton of legal hurdles that have to be overcome in order to make any change in the day to day workings of the government.
And so what is going to happen is what happens anytime an outsider gets elected to office - the insiders take over because unless you know how stuff gets done in DC you can’t function.
Trump will be a figurehead and the actual politicians he brings into his cabinet will run the show.
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He’ll get other people to do the actual work - there’s no way he’ll do any of it, it was never his intention. Of course, this will be somewhat obvious, and I’m not sure how he’ll publicly justify not acting as president after being elected as such…
A bunch of people who have no idea how government works just elected someone with no better idea. America’s poor educational system finally bit it on the ass, bigly. I have to wonder how many of the people who voted for him as a reforming outsider have noticed how quickly he filled the White House with the very insiders he was running against.
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Upvoted. My brother works as a consultant to the Federal government; his job is to explain to them why they can’t change anything. He seems to have a job for life.
This happens all the time. In the 1800s the British monarchy became figureheads and the Prime Minister - who is not elected - became the real power. Basically, the bits of government that face the outside world directly acquire all the power; hence the Mikado in Japan, rough translation “honorable portal”, who eventually took over the actual executive role of the Emperor, then became the Emperor in name. See also “Grand Vizier”.
Reince Priebus safely installed, Trump now has the power to enact Republican policies and that’s it; though he might get Air Force One gold plated.
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There are replacements being developed for the current VC-25s. I wonder how much he will screw around with those. Luckily, he’ll be out of office before they come into service.
Don’t count on anything. I have one word for you: Reagan.
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My faith is grounded in military procurement programs slipping to the right.
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The whole “charter” system is just a way for con-men to privateer off the education budget, not a reform system. My brother has been trying to lead up various charter schools for years and has gotten completely screwed over by a series of charlatans. He’s seriously for innovative education; they are seriously for trying to take education dollars and turn a profit off of it.
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