Who Is Really Equipped to Be President?
Read Time:5 Minute, 10 Second
by Donald A. Collins
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
~Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)
16th president of US (1809 – 1865)
The rhetoric of this Presidential campaign has been judged over the top, but of course in looking back on the history of prior campaigns one is not surprised that some of the infamous quotesithdraw after losing by a big margin in Indiana. Cruz called Trump a “serial philanderer” and “pathological liar” in blistering attack. You can view his remarks here.
The second “criticism” of Trump is by Barack Obama who says Trump “isn’t equipped” to be president, again available for your review here.
While Trump is far from my perfect choice, he started his rise talking about building a wall between Mexico and the US. The contentious issue of real immigration reform has never been legitimately addressed by either party. Obeying our laws on immigration has not been fashionable for either party for decades and a toothless bill offering comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) has never been coupled with meaningful provisions for enforcement. For example. Why have we not seen our Congress passing a permanent E-Verify program which is mandatory for all employers? Clearly the answer is that neither party wants real enforcement so they can pursue their self-interested, greedy objectives which come at the expense of all average Americans of all races, creeds and political party. Bill O’Reilly whose views I don’t often agree with put up a powerful rebuttal to one attack that called Trump a racist.
In a March interview with Trump, Bill O’Reilly bluntly told Trump that no Mexican government would pay for a wall, nor will we be deporting illegal aliens without years of legal controversy in our courts, nor will we be banning Muslims coming into the USA when we need their help with Middle East politics, and that his claim of Muslims celebrating after 9/11 was overstated, or that John McCain is not a hero, and that Carly Florina and Megan Kelly had valid points.
O’Reilly then said on his recent show, The O’Reilly Factor:
Now, I like Jorge Ramos (e.g. Of Univision who called Trump a racist), he’s no phony, but he’s absolutely blind on the Trump issue. And he has no bleeping clue about what we do here, obviously. Maybe Jorge objects, because I will not brand Donald Trump a racist. He is not. He doesn’t care what color or race somebody is. It is not racist to want to shut down illegal immigration or brand Islamic terrorism a deep threat.
That’s not racist. It is not a mark of fascism to hold other countries accountable for treating America unfairly. In addition, I’m not in the nitpicking business. Trump and every other politician misspeak at times.
The gotcha game is cheap and boring. For example, if you really believe Donald Trump is courting the KKK, you need to get some fresh air.
Back again to assessing possibilities if Trump were the nominee and if he were elected. Famed investor, Warren Buffett commented that the election of either Hillary or Trump would not hurt his companies.
I found this statement in line with my view that what has happened here is that many American citizens have awakened to the fact that their two party system is badly out of sync with their best interests. For example, Senator Sanders win in Indiana shows that Hillary is not all that prized by her party. No wonder with the prospect of open borders which far exceed that record of Obama which has been woeful.
The two party record of adding 100 million aliens to our population without a vote since 1965, of sending our jobs overseas without thinking of its effect on the unemployment, of ignoring the wholly absurd evil of the Citizens United decision which allows large corporations to give unlimited money to the candidates of their choice who are thus bought and paid for when these corporate titans ask for votes. These are but a few of the warts.
So obnoxious, self-funding Trump has hit the chord which has now propelled him to the nomination.
Now, Folks, what do you do? As the most dangerous man ever to serve as US President, George W. Bush, a Yale “C” student opined “There is no training program for President.”
Comparing curriculum vitas won’t necessarily lead us to the best decision, but the rhetoric to date is not what should govern your final decision.
As Wikipedia tells us “Rhetoric (pronounced /ˈrɛtərɪk/) is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the capability of writers or speakers to inform, most likely to persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the European tradition. Its best known definition comes from Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it ‘the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.’”
Sadly, it does not foretell who would be best among our choices. And we have in our past made some really bad ones.
As Mr. Lincoln noted, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time and that is what both our major parties have been trying to do for decades. Trump, far from being my hero, surely upset the anti US citizen games of both party’s elite establishments. Now, the ball is in your court, Folks. So you and I will obviously be listening closely to the rhetoric as the Fall campaign ensues.
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA.
Originally published at ChurchandState.org
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
More than anything else, to me his demonstrated lack of knowledge or understanding of the Constitution is more than a little, um, distressing? offputting? (should be) disqualifying? Although I have to admit that, although all members of the federal government swear to “uphold the Constitution”, I find it very unlikely that many of them know what that says or means! I think that the president and all Senators and Representatives should be required to take and pass an exam on the Constitution! I wonder how many of them would need to take classes in order to do so!
Most of them would have to take classes Marsha.
It seems that, at this point, one may want to look at what records are available on Donald Trump. First, let’s look at his claim that he is self funded. That is not totally true. His company loaned his campaign $17.5 million while he has personally put up a mere $250,000. Assuming he gets the nomination he can pay his company back the $17.5 million from campaign donations and thus the self funding becomes less than truthful. Secondly, he claims to be a great business man and has always made great business decisions and started great businesses. The record says otherwise. If one thinks back to the Trump Air Shuttle, Trump Travel Agency, Trump Mortgage, Trump University, and the Trump Casino in Atlantic City maybe those were not his best times at bat. Trump has made his money largely in real estate and in marketing his brand on things like ties made in China and shirts made in Bangladesh. He runs his resorts well it seems as well as his real estate holdings and he is a good reality star. However, try to name one thing that compares to making the decision Obama made in going into Pakistan to get Osama Bin Laden. He claims to be a good negotiator but he has already mentioned that he would default on the country’s debt. That is not negotiating, that is quitting and leaving others holding the bag, just like he did with his company in Atlantic City. Sure it might be legal but the ramifications for the country’s economy, and possibly the world’s economy, are somewhat larger that a casino in Atlantic City.
The issue of whether Trump is in bed with the KKK or not is less interesting than the fact that when questioned about that he denied even knowing who David Duke was but was known to have criticize him in the past. Just like other things that he has conveniently mis-remembered like pretending to be someone else as his publicist, which he now denies but admitted in court that it was him. Think about that for a moment while you think about Hillary being questioned for 11 hours by the Republican led committee on Benghazi which we know now, from the committee chair, was simply a witch hunt trying to destroy her. The details she had to recall and go over, many of them for the second time, on the record. How would the Donald have fared? The answer is not well because he is an incredibly thin skinned person. The issue is less about whether Trump is a racist than it is about how he sees himself compared to other people. He simply sees himself as being better than everyone, or at least most everyone else, in the world. When he says he is the best, he truly means it in every sense of the word. He means that he believes that he is perfect and no one else is perfect and if you challenge him on it, in any way, he strikes back like a cornered animal.
I think they call that extreme narcissism, which may be a personality disorder.
Oh he is certainly a narcissist in the extreme. People used to say that about me, but I was mild compared to this monstrous man.
Mike, comparing you to Drumpf is like comparing a crumb to a loaf of bread in terms of narcissism.
Well thanks Bill. I think 🙂
Is it fair to comment that Fiorina made a valid point or two while indulging in fraud? Karl Marx made valid points and for what it’s worth perhaps the Devil did too. That doesn’t mean Communism works or that good and evil are the same thing.
i once had a professor of music history who joked that the only people who couldn’t tell the difference between Mozart and Ditters von Dittersdorf were those with a degree in Music history. Are we looking at the same thing here?
I don’t like the argument based on the presumption that both parties indulge in image making and marketing strategies and so are not to be distinguished. I think the choice is more blindingly clear than at any time in my life and perhaps our history.
I still find it hard to believe we are actually in the world of Donald Trump for president.
It’s scary indeed Michael, and even more scary when you think that about 10 million people love the guy.