We have a long way to go before we even hit the primaries for the 2020 election and I have by no means decided who I think the best choice is to patch this leaky boat we are sharing in the rough sea. But while all candidates are prone to making radical promises, and while most of us take those promises with a grain of salt and understand that they may not be able to fulfill them all, there are a few things that tend to get lost in the noise and one of them I would like to take a minute to talk about.
When candidates promise big things (universal healthcare, higher wages, gun control, raising educational standards, a stronger economy, cleaner air and water…) you have to really dig into their websites or other literature to find out two things: how they plan to pay for them and who they plan to institute any new policies. Currently, we live in an autocracy where we are governed by fiat (“executive order”) but we are supposed to be a democracy. This is a culmination–we’ve been edging closer to this year after year and now we are fully involved. (Look at the differences–not in number, but in type, between Executive Orders from Reagan and those from Trump.) We cannot simply govern that way for another cycle or people will begin to accept it.
If there’s no legitimate way to pay for a plan on a candidate’s website, ask about it. If they can’t answer, move on to the next candidate. The same is true if the plan is “close a tax loophole that has existed for 25 years and for 15 of those people have been trying to close it.” A president can impose a new tax–as we’ve all seen–but even that is unusual. Usually, you’re talking about restructuring the budget in one way or another. (For what’s within a president’s power, see The President’s Power To Tax.) If you want something to last, and not be undone by the next guy who comes along, you do it the right way.
But beyond that, I want to talk about something our current regime leader said when he was campaigning. He said he knew “all the best people.” Well, as it turns out, he doesn’t seem to know anyone except greedy and corrupt narcissists. People who are willing to destroy whatever he puts them in charge of to line their own pockets. An oil man in charge of the EPA. DeVos in charge of education. Carson in charge of HUD. These are the kind of people he has associated with all his life–the greedy and corrupt, who stepped on others. He was brought up that way. “As long as I’ve got mine, you can literally go die. Decrease the excess population.”
We all focus on the fact that a president is going to be able to fill SCOTUS seats. And so we should. We should ask who s/he would fill them with as part of our decision-making process. But we should also ask ourselves how much experience they have with budgeting, diplomacy, and government. And above all, what does their network look like?
There has been a SIXTY-EIGHT PERCENT turnover in less than three years in the top-level cabinet. And we won’t even talk about the state department which is so badly understaffed that they cannot insure the security of foreign service employees, let alone the fact that we are missing vital ambassadors and the current administration says they have no plans to fill those positions. OK, I guess I was wrong. We talked about it.
Who would your candidate choose to head the EPA? The Department of the Interior? Department of State? DHHS? Department of Energy? Department of Justice? The Department of Education? Does s/he have a wide advisory circle who could to help them fill empty positions and supply information on things outside their own experience? Is s/he willing to understand that the president’s job is about coordinating a massive bureaucracy and that most of the real decision-making isn’t their own job?
Things to think about in the months before you have to make a decision.