The Real Goal (I think)

I used to lament during George W. Bush's presidency that he ran on a promise that government didn't work, and he governed to ensure that his campaign promise came true.

I still believe, generally speaking, that anyone who runs against the government he/she purports to lead is disqualified from the office. In light of that, I came across some interesting commentary on one of my favorite blogs, Gin & Tacos (linked on the right). Here are some excerpts:

The Federal bureaucracy is like the world's most anal-retentive child meticulously building a sand castle for decades. The Trump administration is the asshole who kicks the whole thing down in thirty seconds.

I would agree. It takes time to build things, and it only takes a fraction thereof to destroy them. Just think of how long it takes to bake cookies vs. how long it takes to eat them.

More:

This underscores a fundamental reason that Republicans have the upper hand in modern politics. Their only goal is to tear down as much of the structure of government as possible or, perhaps even preferably, turn it into a poorly functioning tool for channeling government contracts to their hangers-on. Democrats, even in the lukewarm Centrist style of Democrats like Hillary Clinton, want The State to do things. Implementing any policy, law, or initiative in which the government has to do something requires the bureaucratic capacity to do it. 

I would add to this and say that implementing any governmental action that will make the lives of one's citizenry better requires the will to implement such action. Sadly, I see no such will in the modern Republican Party.

What is lost during periods of right-wing governance rarely is recovered.

Agreed again.

As much as I would like to believe that so-called "conservatives" share my goals and simply believe that there is a better way to accomplish them, I am increasingly skeptical of my previous optimism. After 8 years, President Obama was not able to undo the damage done by George W. Bush, who managed to hollow out a substantial portion of the gains made during the Clinton administration on such things as the environment and increasing wages for the bottom 70-80% of wage earners in this nation.

Sigh. As President Obama so memorably said, "Elections have consequences." They certainly do, and we will be living with the consequences of the 2016 one for a long time. All that I ask is that when the predictable and predicted consequences of President Trump's incompetence come home to roost, at least acknowledge that many of us predicted these consequences. As has been said before, it's bad enough that I have to live with these consequences; at least don't insult me by saying nobody could've predicted them.