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Memories of the 28th Century

Incremental Change

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The news media just marked the 100th day of the Trump regime. There were plenty of articles, but they were somewhat lacking in content, because Trump hasn’t done anything, for which we praise the Gods. We are not surprised that he has done little, because politicians seldom do much; although they like to make it sound like they did a lot. If you look at the records of most presidents, then you will noticed that few of them did much. The position is more about keeping Congress from going wild and about watching the bureaucrats. Many two term presidents did so little in the second term that they were barely there at all. There is a long tradition of taking long vacations at home for one’s second term. Washington started the custom, but he lived quite close top Washington, D.C., so it was different from Reagan taking a month at his place in California.

It is true that the government that governs least governs best, but few presidents would make claims about how little they did. Coolidge would try to claim to have done even less than he did, but did do part of the rebuilding of the U.S. Navy in expectation of a war with Britain that never happened. He backed tax cuts and the immigration act of 1924 and the Indian Citizenship Act. That’s pretty impressive for someone who served for more than six years as president. On the other hand Reagan served two full terms, and the Iran-Contra affair, a tax cut, Escalated the War on Drugs, Reaganomics, fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers, supported the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, conquered Grenada, attacked Libya, etc.
And we can contrast that with the two terms that Bill Clinton served. Clinton sent American troops to die in Somalia and Yugoslavia, cut taxes, restricted the Second Amendment rights of citizens, made noise about “healthcare reform”, had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, was impeached but not convicted, signed NAFTA. I don’t remember where he took vacations, but in his second term he seemed to try to avoid being in DC. It turns out that he took vacation s on Martha's Vineyard, where Obama also whiled away time instead of trying to do evil to the American people.

But to get back to the matter at hand, I is clear that Trump is on the way to becoming as good a president as Coolidge was, and that is quite an achievement. But Trump still hasn’t learned that the activist model of Clinton is not good for anyone, and it often leads to someone becoming a target for laughter in later times. I don’t expect anything good from Trump, but if we compare him to Richard Nixon of evil repute, we see that Nixon is vastly superior, not just a little better. Even when we look at their known crimes, Nixon was penny ante compared to the use that Trump has made of official office to enrich himself, and Nixon had most of two terms to enrich himself, but he had already done that adequately, while Trump appears to be pulling in substantial sums of money in violation to the emolument clause of the constitution.

In and of itself, taking vacations is good, and for a U.S. president to take time off is good, and when doing things it is usually a better idea to do a little bit at a time. Eisenhower is regarded as one of the better presidents of the twentieth century, because he didn't heap great piles of change on the people; the courts were busy doing that, and he just enforced the court rulings. But Eisenhower did play golf quite frequently. I don't know whether he was any good at it, but it did seem to fill a lot of his time, so this is another example of how Trump appears to be following a good example, but Eisenhower did not violate the emoluments clause. He enforced court rulings regarding desegregation, and he did warn us about the military-industrial complex, and he did send troops to help train Vietnamese troops for Diem and helped plan the Bay of Pigs Invasion; although it wasn't started until after he left office. But he also countered the USSR in the beginning of the Cold War. He was dealt a bad hand, but he played it well.

If Trump continues to follow the plays of Coolidge and Eisenhower, then he will end up being respected as president, but it appears that he would rather use Harding's playbook and let his friends rob the country. He should remember that Harding died, and we got Coolidge instead. Trump was dealt a good hand. It would be easy for an intelligent man to be regarded as a great president after two terms of Obama, but Trump is trying to do too much. One little step after another would do better.







http://us-presidents.insidegov.com/q...ccomplishments

http://us-presidents.insidegov.com/q...ccomplishments

Comments

  1. MANICHAEAN's Avatar
    Dear Peter

    I am very grudgingly beginning to think that Trump's brashness is being curtailed by some realistic setbacks that you previously predicted.
    He is learning on the job, and though he will never admit a mistake, he is cunning enough and ruthless enough to turn on a sixpence ( if he knew what that was!)

    As for meaningful presidential past-times there is plenty of material. Eisenhower had an affair with his English driver, but then with the stress of his wartime job he needed it. J.F Kennedy and Clinton both liked the ladies, but at least the former was discerning in his choices. Your side of the Pond you do not appear to have any that really hit the bottle, but I might be mistaken. And Trump does not drink as I believe it had something to do with the death of his brother at an early age.

    Best regards
    M.