Trump’s presidency has created a ripple effect. A government neophyte with no experience behind the Resolute Desk. It was either democracy at its best, or at its worst. And there are plenty of people who will argue either side. He was president, and that’s the real thorny issue. A person with no legislative experience, no background in international relations, no knowledge of the intricacies and demands of power was picked to lead the free world. No matter how you feel about him or his presidency that had to make you nervous.
I wouldn’t want a mechanic, no matter how talented, to perform my appendectomy. And I wouldn’t trust my dentist to represent me in court.
As odd as the Trump presidency was the fallout is going to be unbelievable. It may never end.
There is no denying Trump made a fortune being president. He hired his daughter and her husband, and both of his adult sons as White House Advisors, meaning they could cash in. It will cause a stampede of candidates rushing to file papers, no experience required.
If nothing else, Trump proved being the president can be good for business. Trump properties all over the world were filled with people. Either told to stay there by the US government or looking to curry favor with the pres. Mar A Lago was swimming in cash. It was a boon for Trump Industries. It was good for Trump, too, he likes nothing more than a camera and a microphone.
It came crashing down around him in 2020. We were back to politics as usual. Trump swims around the edges and tries to be heard, but the news cycles have begun to ignore him. He can still draw a crowd, but it isn’t as large, and his star is fading.
As William Faulkner said, “the past is never dead, it’s not even past.”
In 2016 the cat was let out of the bag. Kanye West ran for president in 2020. It was one of the oddest campaigns anyone had ever seen. His campaign rang with religious overtones and was scattered with bible passages. He was strongly anti-abortion at home and thoroughly anti-interventionist abroad. His platform had real libertarian appeal, though he would have strong headwinds to face in that crowd. He missed the filing deadline in so many states he told his supporters he would give it a shot in 2024.
Elon Musk was one of West’s first supporters. In what has been a noisy series of maneuvers Musk has managed to plant himself on several news sites home pages. He tried and failed to purchase Twitter so he could revamp their policies on the willful spread of disinformation and potentially seditious communication, read as “end the bias against conservatives.” He had a “super bad feeling” about an impending recession and took a scorched earth policy of job cuts, labeled as “sound economic decision making.” He demanded that Tesla employees return to work in person, full time, or not at all, “in your face, Fauci.” All designed to say “Man, I would be in a cabinet level position, Mr. President.” It would make it easier to steer policy toward Tesla, and SpaceX.
Politics has always been an ugly business. There is too much money, and it does weird things to people. Trump has made it worse. He claimed he would go to DC and drain the swamp. He only changed the composition. Instead of career politicians who might be able to accomplish something he turned it into the Brady Bunch goes to Washington.
I miss Pat Paulsen (Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour regular and write in candidate for president from 1968 to 1996). The ultimate outsider, Paulsen once said, “no taxes, let’s just tip the government 15% if they do a good job.” Think of all the money we would have saved.
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