A sliver lining & healing in America?
Originally posted on Facebook 16 Nov 2016
Despite my preferred candidate polling only 3% and the party getting no, seats in congress, or, electoral college votes, there are reasons for optimism.
Trump’s main failing is his support for torture. This speaks volumes about his morals and his lack of regard for the constitution. Unfortunately, de-facto G W Bush supported it too, & there has been at least tacit support from Obama/Clinton. Clinton laughed about Gadaffi’s gruesome fate, gloating ‘we came, we saw, he died’. It is depressing that 95% of US votes were cast for candidates that think this way, but as this seems to be a bipartisan issue, I guess we opponents of torture need to work first on public opinion.
Trump inherits control of an over mighty federal executive that has stepped far beyond the constraints designed by the founding fathers. I don’t understand how so many Americans find it acceptable that the President routinely orders the killing of people (including US nationals) who have never been brought before a court, far less found guilty. In decades gone by, many in the progressive movement would have fought such arbitrary power, but while it was wielded by ‘nice’ Mr Obama, they have been silent. The prospect of President Trump may bring into the mainstream concerns to limit the executive and separate powers. I suspect that some Senate Democrats are already regretting their vandalism of rules that protected minorities. Why do temporary majorities forget that their power is transient? They will be the minority in due course.
As far as been visible from this side of the Atlantic, the main party establishments have seemed to share a common belief in bailing out Wall Street and a view that foreign policy in Afghanistan, Iraq & Libya has been so successful that ‘more of the same’ is the only requirement. This has focused a vast amount of the debate on ‘culture wars’ in which the coastal states try to disarm Middle America, and Middle America worries about gay marriage. Trump offers a chance to have meaningful debate about Foreign policy and the economy. I don’t welcome his trillion dollar stimulus, but at least Trump will propose annual budgets for Congress to debate, a duty that Obama failed to discharge. And, Trump, for all his abrasive talk, seems reticent about foreign wars, even to the extent of thinking WW III with Russia should not be 'Plan A'. Its odd that, in these big policy areas, it is a GOP president, rather than the Democrats arguing for a vast debt-funded Keynsian infrastructure plan, and for a more judicious approach to starting/joining foreign wars, but Trump was a Democrat for a long time, and has traditional Democratic party positions on most things other than identity politics.
Another cause for optimism is Trump's acceptance speech, which seemed inclusive and presidential in a way that the campaign never was. The same can be said of Clinton's concession. If the healing words could be followed by pardons for Clinton, Assange, Snowdon & Manning, we really would have cause for optimism.