Warning: This post contains no alternative facts.
1. Access
1. Access
He's the most accessible President in history. Whether or not you believe that tweeting is appropriate for the leader of the free world is beside the point. Writing or calling your elected officials (nationally) usually gets you nothing but a nice automated e-mail or one of their staffers if you're lucky enough to get someone to pick up. Even then, the attention you're paid is usually directly proportional to the size of your contribution to their campaign. With this POTUS, the access is there. You can tell him exactly what you think without having to worry about being tackled by Secret Service, get stuck leaving a voicemail, or trying to explain to some 20 year old that they work for you and not the other way around. And that goes both ways. If you truly want the pulse of the country, his (mis)use of Twitter, Facebook, and the tone of the responses (sans the usual trolls) can give you a better pulse of the electorate than any poll. For a nation that prides itself on representative democracy, written accountability being instantly accessible to the most powerful man in the world is incredibly important. Think about it. The leader of the free world is no more than a tweet away. For the cynics that think he isn't reading them, take a look at what Sean Spicer, one of the POTUS' attack dogs (White House Press Secretary), says about "the media" during his FIRST press conference. They not only read them. They CARE. Future candidates for any national office would be foolish to ignore this.
2. Exposing Our Vulnerabilities
We have the strongest military in the world. No country would dare go toe to toe with us on the battlefield. But the Art of War says that you attack your enemy at his weakest point not his strongest and it's clear that cyber security is our achilles' heel. Every intelligence agency including the FBI believes that the Russians actively sought to erode confidence in our democracy if not control who we put in office. On the former point, mission accomplished. We have never been more divided about how fair our electoral system is. You have Americans who think of themselves as patriots defending a foreign dictator against other Americans because they disagree politically. The incoming president is picking fights with his own intelligence people.
.@FoxNews "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do...— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2017
Even the FBI, who many say had a much bigger impact than any Russian hack, agrees that we were the victims of foreign interference. For the record I firmly believe RT America was created specifically for this purpose. But even if you don't believe Russian interference truly influenced how people voted, the seeds of doubt have been planted. What better way to tear down your enemy by doing what we've been doing to other countries for decades? Sew division and mistrust among its people and just sit back and watch the show. It's obvious that we need to shore up cyber security. Will we? Only time will tell. A house divided cannot stand.much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2017
3. Civics Lessons
If you even halfway paid attention to this election you are more versed now in how our the process works than you were before. The Democrats, the media, and the Left in general analyzed every legal option they could to stop Trump from taking office to death . How many of us knew that you could lose an election even if you won the popular vote? Did you know the Electoral College didn't officially pick the next President until 12/19? How about that Electors were not always bound to vote for who won their state? I certainly was never taught that Electoral College itself was a compromise between the federal government and slave-owning states at any level of school. (My opening argument as to why the system itself is obsolete or in need of serious tweaking by the way.) The "advise and consent" clause that allows the President to pick a Supreme Court Justice is actually up to the Senate? And how much will we learn about conflict of interest laws, the actual powers of the President, and its legal limitations before/if/when Trump is impeached? The first challenge has already been filed. That doesn't even cover the the scrutiny his billionaire cabinet picks are under thanks to major ethical questions and/or questionable qualifications. You'll be a much more informed voter in 2018 (mid term congressional elections) whether you want to be or not.
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| If you didn't vote, your first chance at a mulligan comes in 2018. (Provided Voter ID Laws don't require 2 DNA samples and sub-dermal tracking chip by then.) |
4. Legal Accountability
Building on the last point, the President's questionable business income setup will test the Constitution's ethics clauses like we haven't seen since the Nixon Administration. The upcoming cases against the him will set the legal precedent for all future Commanders in Chief. Is the White House correct in its assertion that conflict of interest laws don't apply to him? We're going to definitively know in the next 4 years. We also now have clarity on what the term "natural born citizen" means in regards to Presidential eligibility. An early campaign attack Trump, and many on the left as well to be fair, used against Canadian-born Sen. Ted Cruz was to question his eligibility to be President. Similar to the way he attacked President Obama for 5 years, Trump tried to muddy the waters and claim Cruz didn't fit the definition of a "natural born citizen."
He was rebuffed as Cruz was deemed eligible by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court due to his mother being an American citizen. That, by extension, means Barack Obama could have been born in the middle of the Serengeti Plain attended to by 12 imams and a witch doctor and was still be eligible to run for President of the United States.
He was rebuffed as Cruz was deemed eligible by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court due to his mother being an American citizen. That, by extension, means Barack Obama could have been born in the middle of the Serengeti Plain attended to by 12 imams and a witch doctor and was still be eligible to run for President of the United States.
End. Of. Story.
Who knows? If we survive this, maybe America can progress enough not think a man or woman with those origins is something to fear but celebrated as proof that America really is for all of us. Not just "traditional Americans."
The legal challenges this President has left himself open to will definitively settle what we should expect from all future Presidents, legally and ethically for generations to come so the next demagogue can't pull the same crap this one did.
The legal challenges this President has left himself open to will definitively settle what we should expect from all future Presidents, legally and ethically for generations to come so the next demagogue can't pull the same crap this one did.
