Tag Archives: The President

One More: All We Need to Know About the Republican Convention, Part 3

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A few more thoughts from Paul Waldman of The Washington Post (I’ve removed several of the most painfully ridiculous quotes from last night’s horror show):

No one doubted that the Republican convention would be filled with insane fearmongering, bizarrely dishonest attacks on Joe Biden, and tributes to the party leader’s magnificence so over-the-top that they would not be out of place on North Korean state television. But watching the first night’s proceedings, something else came into focus: an entirely different President Txxxx from the one we all know, one whose actions and character are completely at odds with what we’ve watched over the past four years.

To put it simply: This is Txxxx fan fiction.

For the unfamiliar, fan fiction allows fans to take well-known entertainment properties and write their own scenarios into them, creating everything from brief stories to entire novels. What if Kirk and Spock were lovers? What if you threw Harry and Hermione into the “Star Wars” universe? What if the singers from “Pitch Perfect” had to fight zombies?

Or what if Txxxx were a caring, compassionate, totally non-racist person who saved America from the coronavirus pandemic? Wouldn’t that be an interesting twist?

So Republicans decided that the way to handle the crisis affecting all our lives was to present an alternate timeline, a bizarro-universe story in which rather than spending months denying the coronavirus would affect the United States and claiming it was about to disappear, Txxxx was in fact the only one who realized how serious it was.

“One leader took decisive action to save lives: President Dxxxx Txxxx,” said the narrator of a video laying out a fantasy in which Txxxx personally wrestled the pandemic into submission.

Speakers were brought in to testify to how fantastically Txxxx performed and how much America benefited. . . .

You’d never know that over 174,000 Americans have died of covid-19, or that while many of our peer countries, such as Germany, Canada, and South Korea, have the pandemic largely under control to the point where their daily death tolls are in the single digits, America is still ravaged by the virus.

But not in the GOP fanfic. “Just imagine what 2020 would have looked like,” said cancer survivor Natalie Harp, had Txxxx not done such a magnificent job. “Millions would have died. Millions more would have been infected.”’

Just like in all those countries unfortunate enough to lack the benefit of Txxxx’s leadership, like … um … well, anyway, the pandemic is pretty much over, right?

Then there was the rewriting of Txxxx’s character. That Txxxx we all know, the petty, vindictive, crude, selfish narcissist who only seems comfortable around other humans when they’re telling him how great he is? Forget that guy. The convention gave us a fan-fiction version of Txxxx, one brimming with kindness and compassion.

“I’ve seen up close a man who has a deep love for family,” said RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who literally was forced to change her name because Txxxx found the “Romney” in it displeasing. (She’s Mitt’s niece.) . . .

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan told us “how much he truly cares about people” . . .

Former football star Herschel Walker testified too to Txxxx’s boundless love for ordinary people. . . .

Walker also insisted that Txxxx — he of the racist birther lie, “s—hole countries,” and too many bigoted remarks to mention — is actually a great friend to Black people. . . .

Four years ago, the Republican Party said to America: Why not the worst? What if we searched far and wide to find the most corrupt, immoral, ignorant, narcissistic, impulsive, childish, bigoted demagogue in all the land, a guy who cheats on his taxes and has been accused of sexually assaulting women and is a literal con artist, and made him president? Which we did, and we all know how it worked out.

So now they ask: What if we imagined that none of that actually happened? If we imagined a Txxxx who is kind, gentle, and compassionate, and the worst disaster of his presidency, the one that has destroyed so many families and left the economy devastated, never occurred? What if that spectacular failure was actually a tremendous success? Wouldn’t that be great? . . .

Sorry, All We Need To Know About the Republican Convention, Part 2

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I thought we already knew all that we needed to know. But there was a bit more today.

From Charles Pierce of Esquire:

You may not have noticed [I sure didn’t], but the president* was renominated early Monday afternoon. Then he accepted the nomination and spoke for almost an hour. So that means the Republican National Convention is over now, right? Right?

Right?

Damn.

I watched the Roll Call of the States. . . With every vote, a small but noisy claque . . . would hoot and holler in a ballroom in Charlotte that was gussied up and looked like a student’s civics-project facsimile of a national convention. I swear they stuck the loudest yahoos they could find next to all the C-SPAN crowd mics.

And then, to everyone’s apparent surprise, Himself showed up to say thanks and to speak…and speak…and speak. Almost a full hour’s airing of all the usual grievances, and a serious emphasis on what is going to be the theme of this week’s festivities—namely, that any result in November that does not result in his winning will be illegitimate.

They are trying to steal the election like they did the last time with the spying…This is stealing millions of votes. We’re in courts all over the country and hopefully they give us a fair count, because the only way they can take this election away from us, is if this is rigged election.

Earlier Monday, at the House Oversight Committee hearing at which Postmaster General Louis DeJoy proved himself to be one of the smuggest SOBs ever to appear before Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan gave away a little more of the game away. It is clear that, if there’s one second in which the president appears to be ahead after, say, 10 p.m. Eastern time, they will declare victory, demand Joe Biden concede, and then run to every courthouse they can find to stop the counting of legitimate ballots after election day:

. . . We all know what this is about. This is about these guys [Democrats] wanting chaos and confusion. . . I think you know this. They know that, on Election Day, President Txxxx is going to win. They know come the Election Day vote count, President Txxxx is going to win and they want to keep counting six weeks, four weeks…That’s what they want.

It is imperative that we keep an eye on this through line all week and throughout the 60-odd days remaining until Election Day. It’s what they have.

Unquote.

So the Narcissist-In-Chief was nominated early in the proceedings, not near the end, and they don’t want all the votes counted in November. Ok, that’s all we need to know.

All We Need to Know About the Republican Convention

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In olden days, the presidential nominee would appear on the convention’s last night, after having been celebrated almost ad nauseam by previous speakers. He (almost always he) would finally walk out on stage to an ecstatic welcome. “I accept your nomination”. More ecstasy bursts forth.

All we need to know about this week’s Republican convention is that the party’s dear leader will speak every night. It wouldn’t be like him to pass up a chance to be on TV. But why have other speakers? Why doesn’t he simply ramble on for two hours each night. I mean, give the boobs at home what they want.

This is more sober pre-convention analysis from Paul Waldman of The Washington Post:

Much more so than the Republican convention of 2016, when there was at least some drama and dissension — remember when Ted Cruz got booed for refusing to endorse Dxxxx Txxxx? — the one that starts on Monday night will have a much more unified and consistent message. In fact, it will be so unified and consistent that the [Grand Old Party] has decided that it doesn’t even need a new platform.

Policy proposals and an agenda for the future are apparently for the weak. The Republican Party is President Txxxx, and Txxxx is the Republican Party.

To that end, the Republican National Committee adopted this resolution on Saturday, which includes lots of bellyaching about the media being unfair, then reaches its conclusion:

. . . RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda;

RESOLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention;

The Republicans still have their 2016 platform, which you can read if you’ve forgotten just how much they loathe Barack Obama. But four years later, they can’t muster up the energy to debate among themselves whether anything in the world has changed, what the party wants to stand for, or what policy proposals ought to be at the forefront of their agenda going forward.

It’s not just that Txxxx doesn’t care about that kind of policy statement. Nobody else in the party does, either.

After enduring mockery over the weekend — and after weeks in which interviewers would ask Txxxx to describe his second-term agenda, to which he’d respond as though he’d been asked to explain Fermat’s Last Theorem — the Txxxx campaign hastily released a list of  second-term priorities. [e.g. making life harder for immigrants, criminals, terrorists and members of Congress, i.e. term limits].

The truth is that the resolution [not the priorities] more clearly describes today’s Republicans. They have some things they want to do, sure — cut taxes, gut environmental regulations, restrict abortion rights — but mostly, what unites the party is that they hate Democrats and they worship Txxxx. That’s about all you need to know.

There was a time when the GOP fancied itself “the party of ideas,” a place where serious people seriously considered serious questions of policy and society, working to devise creative plans that would move the country in a conservative direction.

And when it offered itself to the electorate, the GOP could boil it all down to a few declarations of principle that could be repeated by candidates for every office from dogcatcher all the way up to president. What do Republicans believe in? Small government, low taxes, traditional values and a strong military. This was a source of great political strength; some people even wrote books telling Democrats they should learn from their rivals and come up with their own easy-to-grasp summation of their ideology.

But no more. Like so many other things, this intellectual impoverishment of the GOP is of its own making, the seeds sown long before Txxxx came along. The party always knew most of its voters couldn’t care less about tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate deregulation, so it fed them a steady diet of race-baiting and cultural resentment so they’d keep pulling that Republican lever. It was inevitable that sooner or later a demagogue would come along and distill it all down to just the nasty parts. . . .

On the vast majority of issues, Txxxx has been more conservative than any [establishment Republicans] dared to hope, in large part because he doesn’t really care what his administration’s policies are, outside of a few areas such as immigration that capture his interest.

The trouble is that Txxxx also doesn’t care about the future of conservatism or the Republican Party. It’s all about him. And as it has remade itself in his image, so too is the party all about him. If that’s the case, why bother putting together a platform?

It’s perhaps fitting that this comes at the same time as the GOP’s opponents have engaged in the most vigorous and passionate internal policy debate at least since Bill Clinton dragged Democrats to the center in 1992. It isn’t just that their presidential primary campaign produced enough policy papers to encircle the earth; it was also a very self-conscious argument about who the Democratic Party is, whose voices it represents and where it wants to go.

Health care, immigration, climate change, the size and scope of the welfare state, policing, civil rights, political reform — all that has been subject of extensive argument among Democrats over the past year, and the Democratic platform wound up reflecting both the center and the left of the party.

It still resists easy summary, because hey, they’re Democrats. But none of it depends uniquely on Joe Biden: He could withdraw from the race tomorrow and hand the ticket over to Sen. Kamala D. Harris, and it would be the same agenda.

Likewise, while there are people who love Biden, there are no Biden cultists. On the other hand, while not everyone in the Republican Party thinks Txxxx is a demigod walking among us, perfect in his every word and deed, it’s pretty much the official position of the party that he is just that. . . .

There Will Be Much To Clean Up

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Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post has some ideas about cleaning up the mess after Biden becomes president (in addition to reinstating regulations and international agreements that didn’t survive this administration’s assault):

From July:

Former vice president Joe Biden has said that if elected, he would not pardon President Txxxx for any alleged crimes. As a political matter, that makes perfect sense; as a legal matter, it smartly leaves options open.

As much as I would love to see the federal government prosecute Txxxx for potential crimes in office, I fear that criminally prosecuting a predecessor would be so destructive and fraught with peril that it would outweigh any added benefits. (If Txxxx committed financial crimes unrelated to his official acts in office, that is another matter.)

That still leaves open what Biden, if he becomes president, should do regarding Txxxx. I would suggest two main goals.

The first goal should be a complete historical accounting of the reams of scandals and abuses of power in the Txxxx era. We usually leave it “to history” to review a presidency, but here we need a swift and definitive legal accounting on issues such as any secret understandings with Russian President Vladimir Putin; the use of federal forces against peaceful demonstrators; the limitations imposed on the FBI in investigating Brett M. Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing; the firings of inspectors general and more. (I would not recommend redoing the Russia and Ukraine investigations, although coming to a conclusion where then-special counsel Robert S. Mueller III would not — on whether Txxxx committed crimes — may be required.)

The second goal should be to investigate crimes by others so as to prosecute them and set an example for future administrations. My suggestion would be for Biden’s attorney general to announce on his or her first day in office that everyone in the Justice Department has two weeks to deliver any evidence of crimes or ethical violations by anyone in the department, up to and including the attorney general. Anyone who does not may themselves be the subject of investigation and prosecution. We need a full fumigation of the Justice Department in particular; only when we know who did what can we go about repairing its reputation.

The model for accomplishing this must not allow the administration to be preoccupied with Txxxx. The ideal setup could be a body similar to the 9/11 Commission that could oversee the entire undertaking with subpoena power and an appropriate budget. As was the case with the 9/11 Commission, this one should be co-chaired by one respected Democrat and one respected Republican (or one Republican-appointed judge and a Democratic counterpart). Given the number of areas of concern, there would need to be investigative teams devoted to separate, agreed-upon topics (e.g., one looking at the Txxxx-Putin relationship, one at misuse of law enforcement, one at illegal directives to department heads on immigration). Set a deadline (a year or two?), and let them do their work.

No one in the administration thereafter should answer any questions or make any comments about the entire undertaking; instead, the new administration must go about the business of governing the country. At the end of the investigative process, a report should be published that includes the findings of each team. If Txxxx has not yet been prosecuted at the state level, the door remains open for Biden to authorize prosecution, but the main task of determining what occurred and who did what will be settled. (Biden should also ask for a recommendation on whether to change Justice Department guidelines that prevent prosecution of a sitting president.)

Biden’s team would do well to think through this now so a decision can be announced after November, if he wins. The transition after the election should not get sidetracked from the normal task of setting up an administration. In any case, a truth commission may be key to preventing a Txxxx-type presidency from occurring again.

From August:

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has plans for the economy, green energy, fighting the coronavirus pandemic and much more if he wins in November. But while pursuing all that once in office, he would also need to clear the decks from the Txxxx administration. We have discussed the issue of prosecuting President Txxxx — let the New York district attorney work his will and set up a truth commission to explore wrongdoing among Txxxx administration officials — but the issue goes beyond the president’s personal misdeeds.

First, every agency and department should release all documents the Txxxx administration previously withheld from congressional subpoenas. Find them and post them online. Every page. That should set the scene for a transparency initiative from the new administration. Freedom of Information Act requests should be answered promptly. Claims of executive privilege should be asserted only in the most limited circumstances, such as national security. White House logs of who comes and goes should be posted online, as well.

Second, the new administration should vigorously pursue each and every credible charge of perjury committed by administration witnesses over the past four years. Perjury is difficult to prove, but incomplete or misleading testimony to Congress can also be actionable. This should set an example of zero tolerance for lying to Congress.

Third, the Justice Department needs a thorough review of its filings under the Txxxx administration. Did the department lie to any court? Did it improperly withhold documents from any court? There is an ethical obligation to inform courts of any such conduct. The perpetrators, if still at the Justice Department, should be fired and their alleged wrongdoing referred to state bar authorities for professional sanction. (Beyond examining evidence of falsehoods, the department will need an inspector general to review any other cases of professional misconduct, whether in facilitating or ignoring illegal conduct or in allowing political motives to taint investigations or cases.)

Fourth, scientific and other outside boards disbanded by the Txxxx administration and information scrubbed from websites should be restored. Each agency or department should withdraw and/or correct previous publications, studies and reports that did not adhere to the highest standards of scholarship.

These are concrete items a new administration can initiate — and what better time than when one party controls the House, the White House and possibly the Senate? But there is also the power of example. The White House and the president personally set the tone. If the White House press secretary misstates something, he or she should correct the record promptly. All press secretaries are there to emphasize the positive and downplay the negative, but whoever holds that job has a solemn obligation not to intentionally misstate facts. When the press secretary does not know something, say so.

And the president himself should take fact-checking seriously. If he got something wrong, do not repeat the assertion — or at least modify it. When the president gets something wrong, he, too, should correct the record, thereby setting a standard for the entire administration.

No administration is 100 percent candid or factual, but the acceptance of lying as a matter of course, the encouragement to say easily disprovable things, must end. We deserve a president and administration that at least tries to stick to the truth.

Just Do It

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The Washington Post editorial board is launching a series of editorials that might be called “Stating the Obvious”. But this is well-done:

After he is nominated at a pared-down Republican convention next week, President Txxxx will make this argument to the American people: Things were great until China loosed the novel coronavirus on the world. If you reelect me, I will make things great again.

Seeking reelection in the midst of the worst public health crisis and sharpest economic downturn of our lifetimes, this may, realistically, be the only argument left to him. But, fittingly for a president who has spoken more than 20,000 lies during his presidency, it rests on two huge falsehoods.

One is that the nation, his presidency and, above all, Mr. Txxxx himself are innocent victims of covid-19. In fact, his own negligence, ignorance and malpractice turned what would have been a daunting challenge for any president into a national disaster.

The other is that there was anything to admire in his record before the virus struck. It is true that the economic growth initiated under President Barack Obama had continued, at about the same modest rate. Mr. Txxxx achieved this growth by ratcheting up America’s deficit and long-term debt to record levels, with a tax cut that showered benefits on the wealthy.

But beyond the low unemployment rate he gained and lost, history will record Mr. Txxxx’s presidency as a march of wanton, uninterrupted, tragic destruction. America’s standing in the world, loyalty to allies, commitment to democratic values, constitutional checks and balances, faith in reason and science, concern for Earth’s health, respect for public service, belief in civility and honest debate, beacon to refugees in need, aspirations to equality and diversity and basic decency — Mr. Txxxx torched them all.

Four years ago, after Mr. Txxxx was nominated in Cleveland, we did something in this space we had never done before: Even before the Democrats had nominated their candidate, we told you that we could never, under any circumstances, endorse Dxxxx Txxxx for president. He was, we said, “uniquely unqualified” to be president.

“Mr. Txxxx’s politics of denigration and division could strain the bonds that have held a diverse nation together,” we warned. “His contempt for constitutional norms might reveal the nation’s two-century-old experiment in checks and balances to be more fragile than we knew.”

The nation has indeed spent much of the past three-plus years fretting over whether that experiment could survive Mr. Txxxx’s depredations. The resistance from some institutions, at some times, has been heartening. The depth of the president’s incompetence, which even we could not have imagined, may have saved the democracy from a more rapid descent.
But the trajectory has been alarming. The capitulation of the Republican Party has been nauseating. Misbehavior that many people vowed never to accept as normal has become routine.

A second term might injure the experiment beyond recovery.

And so, over the coming weeks, we will do something else we have never done before: We will publish a series of editorials on the damage this president has caused — and the danger he would pose in a second term. And we will unabashedly urge you to do your civic duty and vote: Vote early and vote safely, but vote.

Unquote.

Hell, you can vote early, vote safely, vote late, vote unsafely. Just vote.