WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A 2017 DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENCY

…The Speaker of the 2016 “do-nothing” US House of Representatives

 

Some items for an American 2017, being run by the Republicans…and it ain’t pretty.

 

As we approach January 20^th, “A day of infamy for the American public”, we should also be aware of what to expect from a US government totally run by a Republican Congress; a GOP president that is a congenital liar; and an equally split US Supreme Court.  Below are some items of what to expect in 2017:

 

Item #1: The Washington Post has written a number of articles for what to expect after the inauguration of Donald Trump.  In fact, the do-nothing Congress of the past three congresses has now stated that, all those wasted years in the former congresses were just “their getting prepared for 2017”.  According to the GOP House Speaker, Paul Ryan, all of the “nothing accomplished” for 2016 was to get a pot-load of conservative bills ready for a Republican run 2017 US Government.

 

Therefore, if you believe that fable, The Post also says that “Congressional Republicans are set to enact the most conservative agenda since the 1920s,” and President Trump will probably be going along with them.

 

Rather than having a Democratic president standing in the way of the GOP, the soon-to-be-inaugurated Donald Trump seems ready to sign much of whatever they send him into law. This just shows how ready a GOP Congress is to push through a conservative makeover of government, and how little Trump’s unpredictable, attention-grabbing style matters to the Republican congressional game plan.

 

It will not be a huge shock if we see deep tax cuts for the rich, Obamacare repealed, and Wall Street deregulation go forward, even the “populist” elements of Trump’s supporters are expecting this without any protests.

 

Item #2: CNN has an interesting item predicting that 2017 could bring on much more political tumult than we saw in 2016.  But this activity may not be just within the US borders.  Crucial elections will be occurring this year in France and Germany.  (These countries are both expecting the Russians to be attempting to hack into their election process for reeking havoc to their democracies.)  This is where the same anti-establishment backlash that produced Donald Trump and Brexit could offer opportunities for those European nationalist leaders who oppose all Muslim immigration.  This would further erode the European unity that has been occurring since the end of the World War II era.  In addition, the rising powers of China, Russia and Iran are closely watching the developments to determine whether these Western convulsions will give them an opening for advancing their own interests.  As CNN also points out, President Trump’s erratic, impulsive, and unpredictable approach could exacerbate all these trends.

 

Item #3: The New York Times looked closely at the question of how much damage Trump can do on dealing with climate change. This is all based on Trump’s comments that climate change is all a hoax, and that one of his transition teams first actions was to ask for a list of the names of Obama’s government employees that worked on climate change projects.  The end results of all this could be pretty bad.

 

In the worst case, with a sufficiently pliant Congress, Mr. Trump could roll back a full decade or more of progress on climate change.  To meet the climate goals within the Paris Agreement, the world needs an American president who would have to pushed hard to accelerate the energy transition.  It is clear that Mr. Trump will not be that president.  So, as Washington goes into reverse gear on climate change policy, the seas will continue to rise and the cold and heat waves will get worse.  (2016 is already listed as the hottest year in recorded history.)

 

But there is some good news.  The transition to more renewable energy does proceed and in many US states they have already accepted mandates limiting carbon emissions where even Trump may not be able to reverse those activities.

 

Item #4:  The other good news is that Obamacare has had an impact on far more people than is commonly understood.  It’s not just for the 20 million people who have health insurance through the individual ACA / Obamacare exchanges or Medicaid expansion. Under Obamacare, senior citizens pay less for Medicare coverage and for their prescription drugs. Many Americans have received free contraceptives, mammograms, colonoscopies and cholesterol tests.  In addition, small business employees with older and sicker workers have not been slapped with super-high premiums.  Unfortunately, for the Republicans, they do not have the ability to understand that Obamacare could have anything that is beneficial.  To them, those properties simply don’t exist, so this probably won’t figure into any of their thinking in the least.

 

Item #5:  One of my favorite op-ed writers, E.J. Dionne, has reminded us that Trump’s election, combined with other global events, makes it clear that the threat to our democracy is very real.  The small-d democrats have unfortunately gotten out of the habit of offering robust philosophical defenses of our form of government they apparently take for granted.  For 2017, supporters of American democracy need to stand up in its defense. They must be vigilant against violations of the democratic rules of the game, especially here in the United States. To coin a phrase from our new president-elect, “Keeping America Great” means protecting all of the institutions that have made America’s greatness possible since its inception.

 

Unfortunately, it is needless to say that the congressional Republicans have shown they will do nothing to rein in Trump’s threat to America’s democratic norms, which is already proceeding on multiple fronts.

 

Item #6:  The Nobel Economist, Paul Krugman has made a key point about what to expect from a Trump presidency. He states that “The corruption won’t be limited to the very top. The new administration seems set to bring blatant ‘self-dealing’ into the center of our political system. Abraham Lincoln may have led a “team of rivals”; Donald Trump seems to be assembling a “team of cronies”, choosing billionaires with obvious, deep conflicts of interest for many key positions in his administration.”

 

As an example of this, just Google, Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, “Tillerson, Rex”.  Republicans are unlikely to act as a check on this front of Trump’s cronies.  This will be left to Senate Democrats to use the confirmation hearings to force whatever they can do to bring it out into the light.  But even with that, the GOP will have the votes to overcome most of the Democrats opposition.

 

Item #7:  The Wall Street Journal looked at the racial make-up of the new House of Representatives.  It is interesting that the racial composition of each party’s congressional wing “mirrors” the voters who elected it.  As examples, white men will account for 87% of House Republicans, the same as the last congressional session.  It’s interesting that 87% of President-elect Donald Trump’s votes this year came from white American voters.

 

The racial composition of House Democrats is only 41% white, a 2% drop from the prior US Congress. And of those that voted for Hillary Clinton, only 55% of the Democrat voters for Hillary Clinton’s were white. 

 

The racial composition of the Democratic Party continues to look more and more like today’s real America.  Unfortunately, too many of this year’s normally Democratic white voters drank the Donald Trump Kool-Aid and voted for Trump.   And the Republican Party continues to shrink and look like the America of 1950.

 

Once again I say, 2017 to 2020 is going to be an interesting and potentially dangerous time for the average working or retired American.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017