By Paul Waldman / Excerpt from the The Washington Post
The greatest trick Donald Trump pulled was convincing voters he’d be “anti-establishment.”
Well, maybe not the greatest trick. But in a campaign full of cons, it has to rank close to the top. This was near the heart of Trump’s appeal to the disaffected and disempowered: Send me to Washington, and that “establishment” you’ve been hearing so much about? We’ll blow it up, send it packing, punch it right in the face, and when it’s over the government will finally be working for you again. And the people who voted for Trump bought it. After all, he’s no politician, right? He’s an outsider, a glass-breaker, a guy who can cut out the bull and get things done. Right?
But the idea that he would do this was based on a profound misunderstanding of what the establishment actually is, and who Donald Trump is.
Here’s a report on Trump’s transition from Eric Lipton of the New York Times:
President-elect Donald J. Trump, who campaigned against the corrupt power of special interests, is filling his transition team with some of the very sort of people who he has complained have too much clout in Washington: corporate consultants and lobbyists…
Mr. Trump was swept to power in large part by white working-class voters who responded to his vow to restore the voices of forgotten people, ones drowned out by big business and Wall Street. But in his transition to power, some of the most prominent voices will be those of advisers who come from the same industries for which they are being asked to help set the regulatory groundwork.
For the full article, click here.
Trump will be all about the basic Republican theme: cut taxes on the wealthy. The Little Guys who elected him will get theirs cut too – by a couple of dollars – while the wealthy will get theirs cut big time. Net result: the economic divide will widen, the government will run out of money for social security and Medicare and Republicans will be rejoicing in a job well done.
Just to add to John Lawrence’s note… we should remember that Trump chose to run on the Republican ticket. If he doesn’t stick to the revolution of commoners being ascribed to him by commentators (as yes quite undefined by himSELF) that party will quickly contain him or get rid of him. The GOP that brung him will have to live with him or dump him.
Its so wonderful in this country that outright lying, misinforming, and misleading are protected under the guise of ‘free speech’. Lets see now if we enter a great depression as taxes on the wealthy go down or if we borrow ourselves into an even deeper debt exponentially than righty hero Reagan achieved when the national debt was tripled.
Amen