I find myself once again writing about Donald Trump. Believe me I’d rather be fishing, as they say. But here I am voicing my opinion about what in my experience is the worst president of my life. That says something because I’m no spring chicken, I’m a 64 year old voter.
Here’s my issue:
Donald J. Trump, president of the U.S. functions as an autocratic leader, but thanks to the forward thinking of the (U.S. Constitution) framers, because they created a three branch government which separated each branche’s powers. These Separation of Powers were designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. The framers made sure that the constitution was not giving any branch of the new government too much power. The separation of powers provides a system of shared power known as Checks and Balances.
Three branches were created in the Constitution. The Legislative, composed of the House and Senate, is set up in Article 1. The Executive, composed of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments, is set up in Article 2. The Judicial, composed of the federal courts and the Supreme Court, is set up in Article 3
Each of these branches has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited, or checked, by another branch.
But when one party controls all branches of our government, bills and laws, rulings and executive orders can be passed that are unfair to the other party and it’s constituents. For example, Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court by president Trump. After much deliberation (done, in my opinion, simply to appear to be fair) the Senate, which had the majority and was of the same party as Trump, confirmed his appointment, despite the fact that half of the country objected to this appointment.
The Senate, referred to as the upper chamber, and the representatives (aka congressman or congresswoman) referred to as the lower chamber, combined form Congress or the Legislative branch of government.
To simplify the three branches:
The Congress (legislative branch) make laws. The executive (President) executes those laws, and the Supreme Court (judicial branch) interprets the law.
While no government is perfect, due to these separation of powers, the United States, a country of laws, technically protects each of it’s citizens.
Many people confuse capitalism with democracy. One is an economical system
the other a form of governance.
Democracy is a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting. Ours is a representative democracy where each citizen votes to elect representatives.
Capitalism is an economic system. In it the government plays a secondary role. People and companies make most of the decisions, and own most of the property.
The Trumpian style of governance is to continuously repeat lies until those lies become accepted by many (his base). Trump vilifies his opponents, belittles those that do not agree with him and uses his platform as a bully pulpit.
Since his election to the presidency, Trump has slowly been deteriorating our standing in the world. By pushing the envelope to the brink, so to speak, he has been chipping away at the constitution. Among the many traditions he has ignored has been the releasing of his taxes, a tradition started by a republican president, Richard M. Nixon, and embraced by every president since. Every president except Donald Trump.
Trump picks candidates for federal post based on their propensity to view things as he does. That is the case with Attorney General William Barr. Barr is not acting in the best interest of the nation. Instead he operates almost as Trumps personal lawyer.
The (Robert) Mueller report did not vindicate the president, it merely stated that there was not sufficient evidence to accuse him of collusion. That is the same thing as a criminal getting acquitted because of insufficient evidence even though everyone knows he committed the crime.
Any reasonable person can hear the president’s many contradicting statements, his out and out lies, and his refusal to cooperate with the House of Representatives. As a result, many want congress to initiate impeachment proceedings. Speaker Pelosi, on the other hand would rather go slowly and continue to gather more incriminating data on this administration before going down that road.
The house, which is currently controlled by the Democrats is the body that must initiate these proceedings. This of them as a grand jury – before a grand jury can indict, they must have sufficient evidence. The Senate, which is controlled by the president’s party, the republicans, is the body that must judge the proposed impeachment, think of them as a court where a trial is held. Two lawyers present their case and the judge (the Senate) finds guilt or no guilt. In some cases their is an acquittal, which as we already know is granted because there is not enough evidence. Acquittals have absolutely nothing to do with guilt or no guilt it is simply based on who has the better (argument) evidence.
So, the Trump saga continues. I’m pretty sure this will not be my last post about this administration.