The Most Normal Thing about the Trump Administration
In one area (with an important caveat) this has been a pretty normal administration.
One thing I am struck by in the middle of the entire SCOTUS discussion is that it is mostly normal. Trump’s nominations to date are normal for a Republican president and the reaction from the opposition is what we would expect. The whole discussion in the Senate (e.g., Collins and Murkowski and the behavior of red state Democratic Senators and their electoral calculations) are all pretty true to form. Really, the basic script of these things has been followed pretty closely.
Had it not been for the whole Merrick Garland affair, this would be the most normal thing about the Trump administration. But, of course, the way the Republicans handled that vacancy has created a great deal of tension and was a maneuver that will go down negatively in the history of democratic government in the US. This, of therefore, even makes the most normal thing about this administration abnormal. This is no small caveat.
(I will also note that the TV reality show vibe of the announcement are a bit odd, not that far off from the norm).
(I will also note that the TV reality show vibe of the announcement are a bit odd, not that far off from the norm).
That was weird even for a basketball player.
Trump’s base is the normal everyday GOP. There’s no mystery and no difference. Tax cuts and white supremacy–that’s it.Republicans who are sneering at liberals for thinking Roe will be overturned will laugh in a second if it is. They don’t care. They think women are chattel and they’re defensive when women call them out on this. The anti-Trump critics like Ben Sasse would let him rape their daughters in return to 100 grand. Normal Republicans tired of elitists and they would pay fortunes to get their dumb brood into Harvard. The GOP craves power and they suck at everything other than craving power and it’s completely destroyed them as human beings, which is why Trump is President.
Trump’s nominees are normal because he’s outsourced them. Picking a judge is hard and there is no way he would have the patience to do the actual hard work needed to sort out candidates for himself. Heritage gave him exactly what he wanted: a list of candidates he could meet and choose from. And thank goodness. If he had to do it himself, it would be a fiasco (Justice Jeannine, anyone?). I just wish the rest of the government would figure out a way to box him in on every other decision.
@Modulo Myself: They think women are chattel
And if we’re going to argue the point on that level, your side is made up of the mass murderers of innocent children. I’m not sure that debate works out quite as well for you as you expect.
Mike
@Hal_10000: there is no way he would have the patience to do the actual hard work needed
I wouldn’t vouch for Trump’s attention span but the man ran for President and won practically by himself, and that’s after spending years in the mildly competitive world of high-end real estate development and then reinventing himself as a celebrity at an age when most famous folk have been relegated to “Whatever happened to…?” features in People magazine. The suggestion hard work had nothing to do with any of that is kind is silly.
If you want to keep up with the “I KNOW Trump” shtick, you can’t give yourself away like that.
Mike
Sure, if “practically by himself” means “with an assist from various foreign interests”.
@Modulo Myself:
@Modulo Myself:
Speaking of normal, we have the normal boneheaded leftist commentary.
@MBunge: You need some executive time.
@rachel:
And $400 million from the GOP and what was estimated to be ~$5 billion worth of free airtime from ratings-greedy ‘news’ operations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/somebody-just-put-a-price-tag-on-the-2016-election-its-a-doozy/
@MBunge:
Trump’s casinos went bankrupt and he failed, spectacularly, at selling vodka. Anyone who can’t make money promoting gambling and peddling booze is…an idiot.
@rachel:
Don’t forget all the help he got from James Comey and FTFYNT.