Constructive criticism

Well maybe not…

Just read an article (actually yesterday) that talks about the incoming administration and the transition. The article is: “Who will really be the next President of the United States?” by David Rothkopf and can be found on Foreign Policy Magazine online.

I wanted to comment on this article and make some of my own comments on the transition based on this article and other thoughts I have. Instead of trying to break it down piece by piece I am going to just go through my usual running dialogue style. You might want to read or peruse the article to help get an idea of some of my framework or make sense of some of my comments. And I promise this won’t be in a constructive well written format that follows a set pattern. Yeah… it is me writing.

To start I am going with my first criticism. Republicans have always touted they want to reduce federal spending. Well looking at Trump’s burgeoning team, this should be a problem for any real spend thrift conservative in Congress. I truly believe that as a conservative we can and most definitely should find a better way to spend our taxpayers’ money and still maintain an effective government where needed.

What is developing, according to the article, in my opinion is Trump’s administration is going to fail on both counts. The article discusses large development of overlap of many of the executive administrative functions. So first off, more bureaucracy is going to cost more. And more important with all the competing elements this article describes the effectiveness of policy is in serious trouble. (not that I want Trump to be effective) If the many elements discussed are put in place who truly is going to have the President’s ear? And if all these different groups are fighting for his ear how much is he going to hear that is honest. With Trump’s ego needing to be fed at a constant rate, people will be skewing all sorts of information that any decision Trump makes will be seriously watered down in its effectiveness.

How many “yes men” does a man need to succeed?

Imagine a major foreign policy development that needs an immediate response. There were at least five different organizations mentioned that will be vying for their idea to be the dominant one within the sphere of influence, yet with that much competition how can we trust he will be getting a truly holistic assessment of the situation.  And if Mr. Priebus is the gate keeper for contact with the President, what happens when he is overwhelmed with the situation. His experience is kissing the back end of people to become the head of the Republican National Committee. How does this play out when various interests are trying to convince the President what needs to be done when Mr. Priebus’ loyalty is to all the people that helped him along the way.

And does Trump’s closest confidants bypass Mr. Priebus so no one has an idea of what is being said to the President. He, by action, is already proving what works for him comes first. Unfortunately, what works for him by far is not going to be best for the people, and maybe not even much of his own administration.

This problem is growing daily and he is not sworn in as President. And even by chance if some of what is being told to him is effective policy, how much buy-in will he get from the competing factions within his administration. At some point, someone must implement.

And back to cost…. Not only do the taxpayers have more bureaucrats to pay, more computers to buy, more telephones to be bugged, more emails to be hacked; we should worry that there is no flexibility in policy so if everyone is going to bend his ear the same way so they can be heard, what message is sent to Congress, the Press, us, to assure us the best option is in place or at least one that can be managed and evaluated. Do you think anyone in his administration will listen to outside opinions? Will we be ramrodded with one sided policy that our Congress will be ineffective in blocking?  What cost then?

I know we always have partisan politics. That is one cost that we hope and pray someday we can actually overcome. Imagine this problem on steroids.

I am a stout believer our federal government is way too large. There are too many overlapping agencies etc that can be meshed into something more reasonable and still achieve at the very least what they do know and maybe with some streamlining more. Yes, less is more and this really applies with the Titanic that is our government. To be effective in the modern world we must be able to act and react very quickly. Adding layers upon layers of people that touch the problem only adds to the problem. And as discussed above gets in the way of a solution that is somewhat effective for our country.

Everyone always complains about Benghazi, well part of the problem was no one wanted to take charge of the information because of: A) accountability B) who defines the decision maker) C) who contacted who and host of other problems not associated with the actual scandal of what happened.  This had something to do with Ms. Clinton since she is the top, but it also had something to do with the whole labyrinth of our government. And now a “Republican” is going to add to this problem. And yeah, he is the decision maker of ……”his brand” The “brand” comment is from the article and I agree he will spend more time creating the brand of his Presidency, but what product do we get from this brand. There is going to be a cost to this that has more to do with the size of the federal budget.

The article also talks about how people coming into a new administration set themselves up for success. There was a bit of history in the article that made for some enjoyable reading. We need to learn from this history to get an idea of who might be the major player(s) as the administration takes shape and takes off. Of course, as I say this, I know there will be people watching for this so they know who to go to for their own benefit.  Again, who is the gatekeeper and are we sure it is him? Mr. Priebus is new to the inner circle of Trump.

And I have made some outlandish statements in the past as to why people seem to be so beholden to Mr. Trump. If anything comes close to my paranoia posts, who is going to stand up to him when it matters? Or even if I am wrong, given Mr. Trump’s history for self-appreciation who will argue a counter point if Trump historically shuts down. As previously mentioned partisan politics is bad enough… here we really go.

Overall the article makes some good assessments and points about the transition. We can only hope he (and I) are way off the mark…..or the cost of fixing post Trump is going to be much more than the cost of his tax breaks to the wealthy. Oh yeah, you know the people he is putting into his cabinet.

If the middle class is the backbone of democracy, then we can all start singing Don McClean’s American Pie……. “bye bye Miss American pie, I drove my Chevy to the levy, but the levy was dry, them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye singing this will be the day that I die…” the music is fading fast on our country, our values, our people, our Constitution.