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tjm's picture

Any president can issue a flurry of executive orders. Most have preferred to be more modest and respectful of institutions. That said, Trump never even hinted he'd be that so, yes, what he said is what we get. But you shouldn't confuse a bunch of presidential edicts with governing. The reason the founders prefered restraint was because they recognized most problems as complicated and solutions as difficult.

Banning immigrants from a handful of countries is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, much less a solution to terrorism. But it sounds good, I guess, if you're a certain kind of political being. Look: 9/11 was dreamed up by a Pakistani, funded by a Saudi, executed by a mixed bag of people only one of whom, a Yemeni, would have been affected by the new order and he was blocked from coming to the US anyway - he couldn't get a visa becaus ehe was a suspected economic migrant.

Moe, to suggest that Obama was unpopular and his policies moreso is simply wrong. Obama left office the most popular and beloved, least scandalous president of the last half century. People liked Obamacare if you called it something else. They loved the policies underlaying it hence Trump and the GOP are struggling to find anything to replace it without duplicating the thing they were replacing. Most Americans are worried about climate change. Most Americans favor progressive taxation. Most Americans think alternative energy is a good idea. Most Americans think qualified voters ought to be allowed to vote. These aren't my opinions - they're borne out again and again in surveys.

And I'd put Hilary's nearest analog as George H W Bush, a dedicated careerist from more or less the middle of the political spectrum.

To the larger point: Of course, people want to get things done. Quick action is preferred over inaction. But what has actually been done other than to alienate most of the world except Putin? Do we really want to destroy the global order because it was tilted to the benfit of rich people? Do we not want economic and security cooperation? Do we not want a more inter-connected world rather than an isloated, hostile one?

Doc, Trump was never an entrepeneur, at least not as we've come to define it. He's a commercial real estate developer. Think Martin Selig. He didn't care about anything but making a deal. Terms? Who cares? It's somebody else's money. That's why he could walk away from so many bankruptcies. It was always OPM. When he finally got driven out of that busines by uncooperative lenders, he brcame a branding impresario. Calling that an entrepeneur is belittling to those who actually are. 

I don't get it.

 

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