You would think for all the “change” the Republican voters supposedly desired they wouldn’t keep repeating history.
Memories must be short with Republicans, since it only requires them to revisit the last Republican elected to the Presidency starting in the year 2000 to draw the parallels.
Like Trump, Bush was a Plutocrat. He was one of the richest people to be elected President, he even owned a MLB baseball team at one time, let alone the family political lineage. And like Trump, all of his wealth was handed to him. Neither of them had to pull themselves up from their bootstraps, despite that being a favored sentiment when blaming the poor and less fortunate for not being succeed in life like they were able to do. They have nothing in common with average people in this country and could never relate to their strife let alone have empathy for it.
One could easily argue based on their merits alone they would underachievers if they were not handed every single advantage possible. It is really hard to lose when you’re spotted 25 miles in a 26 mile marathon.
One could also argue that neither had as much interest in actually working and governing for the betterment of the country, but their desire was mostly rooted in ego. Both are by from the “best and brightest” that had ever occupied the office, and almost by default it meant their VP’s would be brighter, more clever and more involved than VP’s in the past — making these President’s easily manipulated and in some regards a puppet to the people directly underneath them.
We saw terrible cast of characters, in terms of humanity and judgement fill the vacuum with GW (Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Bolton, etc), and not we are seeing the same with Trump. We are even seeing the same GW era neocon retreads slithering their way into this administration along with a new cast of “America’s Least Wanted” individuals at their respective fields. Remember how just over a week ago people were losing their minds because the Clinton Foundation (the foundation, not Hillary) accepted money from foreign governments? How is no one losing their shot when the people Trump is hiring are directly receiving money from foreign governments? WTF?!
Sorry to digress…
The difference is with GW there wasn’t countless, proof positive scandals that should have disqualified him before took office like we have with Trump. There was just too much and all of it pointed to this being a disaster. GW and his circle weren’t so ignorant to the rules and optics that they would promote nepotism, let alone the day after the election. The GW administration will always be tainted with some of the shadiest self-serving manipulators in history but this is already shaping up to be infinitely worse.
This administration does not look like it will have any “best and brightest” involved at any significant level, regardless their views or leanings. Experience is the most important quality for top level positions that involve such complex and sensitive moving pieces on a geopolitical level. Instead of relying on that Trump has tapped yet ANOTHER underachiever who was handed everything by his father in his 35 year old son-in-law, Jared Kushner. This is the same person who like GW was reportedly was an unremarkable student and would not have been admitted to the Ivy League on merits alone. In Kushner’s case apparently name legacy wasn’t enough though, so his father made significant donations to both Universities to make it happen. The only reason why I don’t think the children are being cited as regularly is not because they he doesn’t want them intimately involved, but because in their deluded minds giving your son-in-law with such power is not a big deal compared to appointing your actual offspring. That, and because he said the kids would be running the business so he painted himself into a corner — but it has nothing to do with respecting why nepotism is a bad thing. Hell, it is really the whole point of this story: if Kushner or his kids could not or did not want anything close to public policy job, let alone near a cabinet job in the past they have no qualification to be near one just because Daddy is president. And really, the same holds true for Trump; he has no qualification to President and we’re all about to see why it is necessary when the first nominee in my lifetime to have no governing experience takes office. It is ridiculous, disgusting and insult to this nation.
I could understand the memory lapse if GW turned out to be good president, but even most Republicans after the fact acknowledge his tenure was a debacle that resulted in the collapse of the economy and a major and unnecessary loss of blood and treasure built on lies that destabilized an entire region that may not ever be undone in our lifetime — not mention are magnitudes unsafer than we were on 9/11 thanks to the radicalization their policies created. So how could Republican’s get so fooled again by electing another Plutocrat instead of someone with ambition, smarts and motivation to be a tried and true self-made success — the type that can apply their herculean effort to the herculean task that is moving the country forward. Someone who came from the gutter or main street can understand the country, relate to the country and have empathy for the country. These people cannot, no matter how hard they try — which is typically little.
They even tried to do the exact same thing with Mitt Romney, who while by all standards seemed to be much intelligent than both Trump and GW, and clearly much more sane than Trump, is yet another Plutocrat born into riches and power. Why the hero worship and adoration for the people who would have needed to work harder to fail than succeed? Do people not realize just how easy it is to make lots of money when you have lots of money to leverage? Their success does make them qualified to run the country, and really in the state of the country now where income inequality is at record levels it should be a disqualification because it is this same world view they are indoctrinated with since birth that fuels it.
History has repeated itself… even down to the Democrats winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college. If these almost insanely similar set of circumstances from 2000 are any indicator of what we are in for now this is going to be a shit show of epic proportions. We will be lucky if the treasury is not looted five times as much as Cheney and company did. We will be lucky if we are not in a major conflict. We will be lucky if the economy doesn’t come crashing down. We will be lucky if all the government is doing is recording everyone’s phone calls.
So why do Republicans keep repeating history and expecting a different result? Is it because they are insane, or is because they just want to live in the past? I’m going to go watch Dumb and Dumber to see if I can find any answers.