I’m not a fan of many of Donald Trump in general but I respect some things. One is that he seems willing, that he has the personal courage, to do unpopular things because the status quo is not producing results. One example is his continued pushing forward of healthcare. I have complicated points about that but I respect that he’s essentially forced the GOP to do something. What we end up with is a question mark but the cobbled together crap of Obamacare couldn’t last and we need to have a real conversation about healthcare as a nation but couldn’t if we were unwilling to take a step. In my opinion, for example, a single payer is the right choice but I don’t see how one is constitutional given the limit on Congressional power and the need to ‘take’ entire industries by nationalizing them. The heath insurance business alone has hundreds of thousands of jobs – not counting family, related businesses (like marketers, etc.). There is nothing in the Constitution that says Congress has the power to nationalize industry. So I believe we need to talk this through. Maybe we won’t.
I’m also interested in the seeming move of the US embassy to W. Jerusalem. That it’s West Jerusalem is often not mentioned: that’s inside the 1967 borders so it doesn’t affect East Jerusalem at all. But more importantly, the Arab world relies on threats of violence to maintain a status quo of paralysis. That has to be broken up. I also think the US should defund UNRWA. I just saw a report in which ‘Palestine’ is listed as containing the 10th most ‘refugees’ though all these people are Palestinians. How can they be refugees in their own country? The fiction of permanent refugees maintains the conflict that everyone says must be solved, which of course means they don’t actually want to solve it. Prior Presidents haven’t had the courage to upset the apple cart, to call the Arabs on their threats. I remember when Saddam Hussein promised the mother of all battles when we invaded Iraq. Maybe they mean it this time, but not a day goes by without threats from the Arab world so why do we choose to take this one seriously?
Another is that I like the idea he’s himself. I gather people want their President to appear reasonable, meaning to keep his unreasonable behavior behind closed doors. All those self-righteous pundits at news organizations that have protected sexual predators in business and Hollywood and in their own companies want a President like Bill Clinton. You know, articulate and reasoned as he abuses women in private. And the continuing media love for manwhore John Kennedy. JFK was articulate and reasoned and brought Mafia-connected prostitutes to the White House and everyone in the press covered up for him because they prefer their men to act one way in public and another way in private.
And I like the way he upsets the idea of ‘daylight’ in an Administration. I mean the stupid way the media has covered politics for years has been to report how people say things to note if there’s ‘daylight’ between positions. Which the administration then denies. Trump openly criticizes his people and they openly acknowledge disagreements. But again, people want an appearance of conformity because that’s reasonable and articulate and predictable instead of seeing the reality that people disagree and still do their jobs.
I wish I agreed with more of his actual positions.
jomi: playing with perception 