permafrost wrote:
Just sent to me this AM.. Part of a Quora post???
One would think that after leading an angry mob to attack the seat of American democracy, Trump would be on trial for sedition.
One would think that after losing majorities in the House, Senate, and the White House, the Republican leaders would denounce Trumpism and start from scratch.
One would think that no one in their right mind would suggest that Donald Trump could run for president again.
The sad fact of the matter is the leadership of the Republican Party is so morally bankrupt, so bereft of ideas and so weak that it is very possible the nomination is Trump's for the taking.
It's the American people who must decide that they've had enough. They would have to hand Trump a loss so devastating that the Republican leadership will have no choice but to become a viable party again.
If they don't, then the American experiment is probably over.
Just sent to me this AM.. Part of a Quora post??? ... (
show quote)
The Biden presidency is not normal
On a personal level, Biden is clearly more “normal” than Trump—although treating Biden, a career politician worth nearly $10 million, as the height of normality is rather stunning. The goal for the establishment media isn’t to point out merely that Biden is a sort of American Everyman. It’s to use that supposed normalcy to disguise the fact that his agenda is absolutely abnormal.
The dirty little secret of the Trump administration is that despite Trump’s personal abnormality, his agenda was well in line with past precedent and with mainstream American opinions on everything from taxes to military policy.
Trump did not radically shift American policy. Biden will.
Within the first five days of his presidency, he issued 30 executive orders, compared with four for Trump, five for Barack Obama, and zero for George W. Bush. Those executive orders included the endorsement of a radical reinterpretation of American history; killing the Keystone XL pipeline, along with its attendant estimated 11,000 American jobs; forcing the military to allow troops to undergo gender reassignment surgery; and forcing federally funded institutions to allow biological men who identify as transgender to compete alongside biological women, among others. He is reportedly pursuing an immigration plan directed toward reopening America’s borders. He has staffed his Cabinet by intersectional box-checking.
Biden’s policy is indeed radical. But because Biden is presented as a normal person, we’re supposed to ignore all of that. We’re supposed to simply be grateful for the “return to normalcy”—complete with caving to the teacher's unions that seek to keep schools closed indeterminately, reentering a long-dead deal with the Iranian theocracy, firing government staffers with whom he disagrees and lying openly about the vaccine distribution plan he inherited.
Meanwhile, our media pat themselves on the back. It’s rare to see a profession declare itself irrelevant, but that’s what many in the media are doing these days. According to Stelter, it’s “refreshing” that Biden’s team promises accountability and transparency. According to Margaret Sullivan of The Washington Post, the media must learn their lesson from the Trump era and cover Democrats more sycophantically.
Biden might be a relatively normal guy, but none of this is normal.
And pretending it represents just another way for the media to reject legitimate criticisms of an administration seeking radicalism right off the bat.
https://www.gazettextra.com/opinion/columns/shapiro-the-biden-presidency-is-not-normal/article_59e1da66-4210-5690-84f1-c7741d58fc2a.html