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| In 2016, The Globe envisioned a Pres. Trump. |
The conservatism Reagan espoused still continues to permeate our political culture. However, Reagan's leadership was, at times, surprisingly pragmatic and conciliatory. As such, his presidency's detrimental societal impact, on the liberal progress of the New Deal and Great Society, was mitigated. His administration ultimately fell short of the tremendous fear that Democratic figures like Carter exhibited in 1980.
Fast-forward over three decades later and another impactful election is held in 2016 between two candidates who also are dramatically different: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. During the campaign, liberals like Clinton (and I) warned of the frightening prospect of Trump's hand on the nuclear button, the possibility that he would succeed in undoing many of President Obama's policy achievements, and the likelihood that xenophobia would define his immigration approach.
Much of what Clinton and her fellow Democrats predicted about a Trump presidency has come true. Similar to the developments that took place after 1980 though, Trump's administration has, so far though, fallen short of the worst fears imagined. It should be noted that, barring Trump's removal from office or his unlikely resignation, there still remains over three years (at least) of the Trump presidency so I am sure the President will test our imagination.
Another distinction between the Reagan era and the Trump era thus far has also been that, unlike Reagan, Trump has shown virtually no willingness to work with congressional Democrats to advance scaled back versions of his agenda. From his perspective, he does not have to since Republicans control Congress (the Democrats held a large majority in the House throughout the Reagan presidency).
But in a striking similarity to the Reagan administration, the Trump administration, despite all of its repulsiveness, has been restrained by our institutions, political pressure, and other crucial external factors. Consequently, President Trump has been unable to or unwilling to carry out even more nightmarish policy. On election night 2016, as it became clear Trump would be the 45th President, I feared a war with Iran or at least the end of the nuclear agreement, a total ban on residents from Middle Eastern countries that would survive legal challenges because of presidents' broad authority in that realm, the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the bombing of North Korea, withdrawal from NATO, new surveillance measures (including a registry) targeting Middle Eastern immigrants, the elimination of the Legal Services Corporation and the Community Development Block Grant (among other domestic agencies), the reauthorization of torture, the addition of new detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.
Some of these outcomes may unfortunately still come to fruition particularly since, at least with regards to the legislative goals, Speaker Paul Ryan leads a defiantly right-wing House of Representatives and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell leads a Republican caucus that is usually mostly united. But so far, President Trump has not succeeded in these aims nor has he even tried in many cases to carry out these efforts. He has flat out failed in some instances and succumbed to the political tides, and other pressure, in other instances -- and has been dragged kicking and screaming into those relieving decisions that he detested.
Don't get me wrong: Trump has been horrid -- a disastrous president who has stoked fear among nonwhites and immigrants with his rhetoric and actions, tarnished our reputation in the world, and succeeded in squashing key Obama-era policies that protected our climate, public health and safety, and civil rights. That he has not been even worse should not obscure how dangerously effective has has been especially in quiet ways like reshaping Justice Department policies through his Attorney General, the retrograde Jeff Sessions. Nevertheless, beneath all of that, there is still the aforementioned unfulfilled that frustrates him and his allies.
The reason the absolute worst has not come about is because of the sustained pressure the public, courts, and the press have placed on Trump and elected Republicans. Our exceptionally proactive and rich civil society has demonstrated, through activist uprising and judicial wisdom and dogged journalism, that Trumpism can be restrained. Consequently, it is up to all of us to defend those time-tested institutions -- free speech, free press, checks and balances -- to protect all of our rights, liberties, and protections. We can't expect President Trump to emulate President Reagan in advancing pragmatism but we can expect him, or at least his GOP allies, to fold under pressure. As Joe Biden would say: "keep the faith."
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UPDATE: This post has been updated on September 5, 2017 to reflect the fact that President Trump is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. As I said above, this post should not be construed as any kind of defense of Trump as he has over three years to demonstrate how horrendous he can be and, even up to this point, he has already been repulsive.
UPDATE II: This post has been updated on May 8, 2018 to reflect the fact that President Trump is renewing previously suspended sanctions on Iran and withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran deal. It should be noted that DACA, referenced above, has since been saved by federal courts but Trump continues otherwise to enact harmful, draconian immigration policy. Trump is proving again that he is a uniquely awful leader; we have it within us to do what we can to prevent further harm by voting for progressive candidates this fall.
UPDATE III: It is summer 2018 and quite possible this post is increasingly obsolete, especially in light of the horrible week we've had as Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement. I still maintain that I truly was concerned that the outcomes of a President Trump would be even worse than they have been so far. Having said that, the awfulness of the effects of this administration's policies continue as the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the President's travel ban.
Perhaps this post came too early in Trump's presidency for there to be an accurate statement made about expectations vs. reality. Still, we have blunted even worse damage to our society through our activism and mobilization. We must show that spirit at the polls in November. For our civil rights and civil liberties, it is absolutely imperative.
UPDATE IV: It is spring 2020 and amid the national unrest currently with over 100,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, millions out of work, and racial injustice plaguing our country, Donald Trump's leadership has been abysmal. Trump's lack of an adequate testing plan and his dismissal of early warnings of the novel Coronavirus led to the worsening of the disease. A recent Columbia University study found that had social distancing measures taken place just one week earlier, we could have saved 36,000 lives. A lack of leadership from the White House has made a global pandemic significantly worse.
Meanwhile, Trump has badly mismanaged the economic recovery effort. The Paycheck Protection Program, intended to help small businesses, was more beneficial to larger corporations than initially advertised and the execution of the program was disastrous. Meanwhile, the administration continues to try to restrict access to food stamps and refuses to open a special enrollment period for Affordable Care Act exchange coverage.
With regard to recent protests in light of George Floyd's tragic death at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, Trump has threatened protestors and undone vital Obama Justice Department reforms on police brutality. He routinely still engages in racist rhetoric from the bully pulpit of the White House. Things have truly gotten bad. I thought it'd perhaps still be even worse in some ways with more overseas military intervention and deeper domestic cuts (including an undone ACA; instead, the law still stands remarkably). But I certainly did not envision a global health pandemic badly mismanaged all happening at the same time as police violence and ensuing protests leading to the tear gassing of protestors. It is so important that we vote November 3 to remove Trump from office.
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UPDATE: This post has been updated on September 5, 2017 to reflect the fact that President Trump is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. As I said above, this post should not be construed as any kind of defense of Trump as he has over three years to demonstrate how horrendous he can be and, even up to this point, he has already been repulsive.
UPDATE II: This post has been updated on May 8, 2018 to reflect the fact that President Trump is renewing previously suspended sanctions on Iran and withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran deal. It should be noted that DACA, referenced above, has since been saved by federal courts but Trump continues otherwise to enact harmful, draconian immigration policy. Trump is proving again that he is a uniquely awful leader; we have it within us to do what we can to prevent further harm by voting for progressive candidates this fall.
UPDATE III: It is summer 2018 and quite possible this post is increasingly obsolete, especially in light of the horrible week we've had as Justice Kennedy just announced his retirement. I still maintain that I truly was concerned that the outcomes of a President Trump would be even worse than they have been so far. Having said that, the awfulness of the effects of this administration's policies continue as the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the President's travel ban.
Perhaps this post came too early in Trump's presidency for there to be an accurate statement made about expectations vs. reality. Still, we have blunted even worse damage to our society through our activism and mobilization. We must show that spirit at the polls in November. For our civil rights and civil liberties, it is absolutely imperative.
UPDATE IV: It is spring 2020 and amid the national unrest currently with over 100,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, millions out of work, and racial injustice plaguing our country, Donald Trump's leadership has been abysmal. Trump's lack of an adequate testing plan and his dismissal of early warnings of the novel Coronavirus led to the worsening of the disease. A recent Columbia University study found that had social distancing measures taken place just one week earlier, we could have saved 36,000 lives. A lack of leadership from the White House has made a global pandemic significantly worse.
Meanwhile, Trump has badly mismanaged the economic recovery effort. The Paycheck Protection Program, intended to help small businesses, was more beneficial to larger corporations than initially advertised and the execution of the program was disastrous. Meanwhile, the administration continues to try to restrict access to food stamps and refuses to open a special enrollment period for Affordable Care Act exchange coverage.
With regard to recent protests in light of George Floyd's tragic death at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, Trump has threatened protestors and undone vital Obama Justice Department reforms on police brutality. He routinely still engages in racist rhetoric from the bully pulpit of the White House. Things have truly gotten bad. I thought it'd perhaps still be even worse in some ways with more overseas military intervention and deeper domestic cuts (including an undone ACA; instead, the law still stands remarkably). But I certainly did not envision a global health pandemic badly mismanaged all happening at the same time as police violence and ensuing protests leading to the tear gassing of protestors. It is so important that we vote November 3 to remove Trump from office.
UPDATE V: I am thrilled the President was voted out of office. Unfortunately, he continues to be a destructive leader. That includes inciting a violent mob of domestic terrorists who rampaged through the U.S. Capitol, ransacked offices, and attempted a coup. Did I fear that things would get *even worse* than this? I am not sure honestly.
As I mentioned in the last update, there are things that have not happened that I feared would have happened were it not for important activism. That includes a new foreign war, the repeal of the ACA -- and an even worse response to a crisis like COVID-19 (like one that did not contemplate any serious economic relief). That some of those fears did not materialize is again of course in no way because of Trump; it is in spite of him. I did not anticipate there would be such significant public and political resistance to Trump. I did not expect such mass mobilization against him over the years but instead we got a powerful resistance movement that has inspired amazing democratic protest. That's why things have not gotten worse. We should never underestimate our power as citizens.
