An Arkansas hillbilly (oh, and accomplished journalist and thinker) weighs in with a look at the New Year and Donald Trump
BIGLY TRUISMS to start off 2024…..
Let’s start off 2024 with a flat statement that is going to cause this nation severe heartburn and create a cascade of chaotic events for the next 12 months:
Donald Trump is his own worst enemy!
Honestly, the 45th president can’t help it: He is a one-dimensional creature of raw emotion, entitlement, gargantuan appetites, and habit; he thinks something and before he can mull it over for truth, reality, or logic, he says it, blurts it out without using a rational mental filter.
And, with the utterance, be it at a rally of followers or via a social media post, it becomes the ultimate truth in his mind.
More importantly, when he says it, his vast cult of personality raises a chorus of ooooooohhhs and aaaaaaaahhhs and, with the pronouncement being slapped on social media sites, it becomes a living, breathing statement of prophesy, policy, and promised programs.
His constant barrage of rhetorical exhortations and campaign proposals suggest the 77-year-old does intend, without a doubt, to test the power of the presidency beyond any historical precedent.
The policy proposals laid out by his 2024 campaign, and comments from allies of the former president, have painted a vivid picture of his plans.
THEY INCLUDE:
- The mass deportations of immigrants;
- An increase in executions for convicted criminals;
- A total overhaul of foreign policy, with preferential treatment given to strongman rulers of countries like Russia and North Korea.
To prove he is serious about fundamentally changing our democracy, Trump has repeatedly stated he will mandate a “top-to-bottom overhaul” of the U.S. government; you can expect him to use ingrained executive powers to replace thousands of career civil servants with political appointees, loyalists all.
That means all new hires would be vetted and hired not based on qualifications or specific expertise but on political ideology, as well fealty to Trump; he has hinted government workers would be vetted via a civil service test devised by Trumpinistas.
Just for conversation purposes, let’s assume Trump will have a rematch with President Joe Biden in 11 months. It will be a rematch of two old codgers who are 81 and 77 and are more set in their ways than they were during the 2020 election.
Trump is still pushing his central theme – Make America Great Again – and Biden is still running on the slogan – “I’m Not Donald Trump!”
Trump will run on immigration reform and rave on about “unvetted migrants” and how immigrants are “poisoning the blood of America.” He is, of course, ignoring the fact he is a third-generation immigrant and has married two women who were immigrants.
He carefully avoids the theme that he is a product of the immigration system, and so is his entire family.
It is a fact: There is a mess at the U.S. Mexico border but one has to take Trump’s half-baked plans for fixing the problem with a half-grain of salt.
He was, remember, going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, and then he tried to halt immigration by separating parents from their children; his program-pushers lost hundreds of kids in the process. It was the Biden Administration which worked to reunite those separated families, proving there is a difference between displaying apathy and having empathy.
Trump is already ranting about hundreds of thousands of illegals voting in our elections…without one single example of it being true. Here is a truism: Trump lies and, to him, the lie becomes truth and he keeps repeating it.
ADDITIONALLY, TRUMP has also stated he wants to push for a nationwide concealed carry law. (Well, that has “Shootout at Whataburger” written all over it.)
He also put another policy revision succinctly in a recent campaign video: “I will create a special team to rapidly review every action taken by federal agencies under Biden’s ‘equity’ agenda that will need to be reversed. We will reverse almost all of them.” Of course, he will appoint the inspection team that will be instructed to do his bidding.
He will also dismantle (his word) any governmental edict that delivers equitable outcomes in policy or that advocated equity training. He would immediately fire employees hired to implement equity policy.
Just so we’re all on the same literary page, “equitable” is defined as “fair and impartial”. So, Trump, does not believe in fair and impartial treatment of federal employees, or, presumably, any other group.
Can that be right?
Any way you look at it, those are the thoughts, words, and promises of a would-be dictator.
There you have it. If the election were to be held today, for whom would you vote? The aged, seasoned politician who seeks out the opinions of others, from military leaders to subject matter experts, before making far-reaching decisions on policy, domestic or foreign, or the name-calling, school-yard bully who is a serial liar and egomaniac who wants to change our democracy into a dictatorship?
That choice is coming Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, and the clock is ticking.
George Smith views the world from the back porch Bedspring Ridge, a dogtrot house he built in Sutton, Arkansas on old family land on a spot where his great-grandfather’s house once stood. There he lives and opines with his wife BobbieJean and a rescue dog, “Li’l Dawg.” A former newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, he has a master’s degree in business, is a retired director for a global technology company, has been a business owner, student of government and the behavior of politicians. He has been a college instructor, national motivational speaker, community development and festival development consultant and is a published author.