Vote for the Team, not just the man
...i.e., consider who would populate the government under Biden, vs. who would under Trump
“Vote for the team, not the man. The Biden administration is composed of professionals both interested in and capable of running a modern country. Trump's previous team was an embarrassment. Should he win, his next administration will be even worse.”
The quote opening this post is what a reader wrote in the comments section of the NY Times, responding to a February 10 column by one of the Times’ house conservatives, Ross Douthat, in which he attacks Biden’s mental fitness for another term.1
That reader’s comment encapsulated my thoughts entirely. Presidents are overrated.
Taken alone, that is. They become wise or stupid, great or pedestrian , and their reigns considered successful or a failure based not just on their character, intentions, knowledge, and skills, but on those of the people they bring with them into government with their appointments.
There is no question that Trump would appoint sycophants to his cabinet, interested only in their loyalty to him, with no concern for their loyalty to the mission of their departments or knowledge of their portfolios. In fact, it is not uncommon for a Republican president to put people who are hostile to the agency’s purpose in charge of them. Think back to two of Reagan’s top appointees, Secretary of the Interior James Watt and EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch (yes, the justice’s mom). Watt, according to a NY Times story, “tilted environmental policies sharply toward commercial exploitation, touching off a national debate over the development or preservation of America’s public lands and resources”; Gorsuch’s short tenure was “marked by sharp budget cuts, rifts with career EPA employees, a steep decline in cases filed against polluters and a scandal over the mismanagement of the Superfund cleanup program that ultimately led to her resignation in 1983” (WAPO).
Joe Biden may look a bit feeble. His speech may be a bit labored or slow. But he has high character and good intentions. He has been in government for virtually his whole life. He knows the landscape. He has come into contact with a wide range of people and he knows their character, values, and skill sets. The people advising him and carrying out his policies can be trusted.
Not so with Trump. This earlier post of mine painted a picture of:
“…an America with a government led by
Secretary of State Tucker Carlson, whose first act is to visit Vladimir Putin in Moscow and announce America’s withdrawal from NATO…
Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, who appoints Jim Jordan as Special Counsel, charging him with prosecuting Bill Barr for refusing to call the 2020 election rigged…
Secretary of Education Ron DeSantis who arrives with a mandate to further whitewash our already whitewashed history books, and burn all existing copies of “Killers of the Flower Moon”…
Minister of Propaganda Steve Bannon and his deputies, Steven Miller and Sean Hannity, who are charged with creating the “message of the day” for State Television…
Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, who was nowhere to be seen when mobs overran the Capitol on January 6…
The newly created Pastor-in-Chief Jerry Falwell, Jr. declares America “ a Christian nation” and institutes a national abortion ban…”
A subsequent Out-Takes and Sidebars entitled Kash Patel: Embodiment of the Incompetent, Unqualified and Corrupt Sycophants Trump Would Ensconce at the Top of our Government also pointed to this real and present danger.
Would it be better if he (Biden) were 20 years younger? Of course.
But history has put us in a situation forcing us to choose between a well-meaning, well-informed, if sometimes gaffe-prone grandfather (note: he has been gaffe-prone his entire career, long before he was a grandfather) and a narcissistic sociopath who would try like hell to become a dictator and oppress whoever he judged as not like him or for him.
I know where I stand.
To my knowledge Ross has never acknowledged or apologized for his…miscalculation stated in an October 10, 2020 column titled “There Will Be No Trump Coup.”