Home Contact Register Subscribe to the Beacon Login

Sunday, November 13, 2016

SALLY MORRIS:  IT’S TOO EARLY TO “DISBAND” #NEVERTRUMP

Okay.  Congratulations have been given out to the winner, we’ve all admitted we were wrong about who would win.  Conservatives long ago were resigned anyway – when Indiana handed us the mitten.  So it really didn’t go down all that hard. 

It’s fine for everyone to come together and hope for the best now, but the calls for “disbanding #NeverTrump” are a bit premature.  The man hasn’t even taken office yet and already we are seeing a dismantling of the campaign promises Trump ran on.  I want “prosperity” as much as any loyal Trumpie, I want peace and national security.  I want to slow down the flood of unvetted immigration, and I want to see that “conservative, originalist” Supreme Court Justice.  But I am also a sane and sober person and I don’t live in wonderland.

We already heard today that Trump is backing away from getting rid of Obamacare.  How many of you out there voted for Trump because you want to get rid of Obamacare – which he termed a “disaster”?  Not me, of course – I didn’t vote for him because I didn’t believe him. 

We wonder what will be the next disappointment.  We most likely won’t have to wait long.  Here’s something I am waiting for.  In the first Republican debate, Trump was asked pointedly if he would put his assets in a blind trust if he were elected.  In keeping with his fun-and-games approach to the whole thing, he winked and said of course – he’d turn everything over to his children to run.  Miraculously, there was no follow up.  Did he think this was proper?  Did he care?  Did anyone care?  It disturbed me – a lot.

Perhaps for the same reason he doesn’t show us his tax returns, he doesn’t want this issue raised.  It seems to have been forgotten.  It is a custom of long standing that a president insulate himself from personal gain at the expense of the country.  Inasmuch as Trump burned most of his bridges for financing in America, and has turned to foreign sources to build his palaces and golf courses, going, for example, to Russian oligarchs, it is germane.  He has business dealings everywhere from Dubai to China.  His unfettered admiration for Vladimir Putin and Putin’s own preference that Trump be the president smacks of unsavory relationships.  Perhaps never have we needed the insurance that a president is not gaining personally from the office as we need it now.  You need to remember that this was the guy who admired Hillary Clinton.  She was a textbook on how to milk foreign relations for personal gain.

Trump bragged about his deals with all kinds of people.  He bragged about “using the system” – which means the bankruptcy laws as well as the eminent domain doctrine.  He openly admitted that he bought politicians.  Recently he rented Pam Bondi, Florida’s Attorney General, with a $25K contribution.  Florida is the venue for his Trump University fraud case, which was scheduled for later this month.  Of course, one thing Trump understands is leverage, so I predict that there won’t be any case heard against the guy who now runs the IRS.  Trump has all the cards in his hand right now and we have no illusions that he is another George Washington. 

So I would say, now it matters.  It’s no longer conjecture.  You won.  Let’s see your tax returns, and let’s get those assets (if, indeed, they really exist) into an ACTUAL blind trust.  (If these assets DIDN’T exist before,I’ll bet it won’t be long before they do.)

As regards the rest of the package, let’s wait and see.  Will he lower taxes?  That would be a plus.  Will we have an end of unvetted immigration?  That will be nice.  We know now that Obamacare is cemented in place under Trump.  In any case, it is not time yet to “disband” the #NeverTrumpers.  Time will be the test.  Will he prove us wrong?  Maybe.  Will he prove us right?  More than likely.  Will we discover through Trump’s tenure, that character, finally, does matter after all, that “character is fate”? 

So, uncork the champagne, raise your glass and toast the end of this year’s ugly, disappointing and disastrous election year, but don’t put away your #NeverTrump hats, pins and T shirts.  I’m hanging on to mine just in case.   It might prove that those who hurry to embrace Trump just because he won in some spirit of burying the hatchet will find themselves beclowned yet again.  As Reagan wisely counseled:  Trust but verify.

Click here to email your elected representatives.

Comments

No Comments Yet

Post a Comment


Name   
Email   
URL   
Human?
  
 

Upload Image    

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?