The following was posted on New Years Day:
It's a great example to use if one is an instructor....something to take great care to watch out for.....and then something to nip in the bud if it appears. A politician...a CEO...anyone really who assumes a position of power by making promises....and then after assuming power is afforded an excuse to go in another direction....this is what has to be watched out for. This is what happened with Donald Trump....but there were only a few of us who spotted it.....and therefore we were unable to nip it in the bud. Repealing Obamacare, building a wall, and giving us a fair tax system would make America great again.....this is what we were told.....something had to be found to subtly change the perception of those promises without the switcharoo of agendas being detected.
Candidate Trump did not really care about the first two promises...and the third was a nuanced promise. The only thing that the typical CEO is concerned about on healthcare for his employees is in what it will cost the company....not necessarily in what it will cost the employees. They were hammered by higher healthcare premiums and Obamacare and passed it on to us by increasing the percentage of what we had to pay. Therefore it was not Obamacare per se that they were concerned about but rather how to adjust the salary package and/or union contracts of the employee. President Trump did not have to actually repeal Obamacare, he only had to get out of the promise. He did that by blaming the Congress....repealing the mandate only cemented the perception of repeal. Problem solved.
The Wall was just as big a problem for him, compounded in that he could not as readily blame the Congress. No they weren't going to give the money but he said that he would get the money even without Congress if he had to. He hasn't as of yet been able to get this monkey off his back so what he has done is skillfully redirect the conversation.....CNN being the most often used whipping boy...but not the only one by far.
Tax reform was the least difficult promise to deal with. No, he had no intention of actually reforming the tax system....but he did have to reform the corporate tax rate.....that was essential in his primary agenda....kept from us in that it was his primary agenda..... which was in making America's corporate base strong once again. He accomplished this in the tax bill that he signed. In the process he turned the sow's ear of an unfair American tax system into a silk purse of a corporate tax reform bill for 401k Americans to put their stock market hopes into. The rest of Americans are just plum out of luck.
So the campaign agenda was successfully changed to an administration's agenda without anyone really knowing what happened. The President was able to do this so easily because his base in the campaign was diverse in that some were driven by principle and honor while others were driven by the desire for financial gain. On the tax issue the latter has been stoked to such a degree that the legislation that was passed is heralded everywhere in conservative circles as a great achievement and a promise kept. If only everything could be this easy for him!
Obamacare in place was not a threat to the primary agenda....and Donald Trump was actually torn on whether illegal immigration was good or bad. A genuine fair tax system would do little to help his primary agenda. President Trump has thus used his Twitter account to redirect our attention in these sticky matters. Jerusalem as Israel's capitol was a great tool for the President's agenda. Evangelicals think that this is important to God so they are totally buffaloed. Taking a few bucks away from the United Nations makes President Trump look like a real leader. Tactics and decisions such as these tend to camouflage the switcharoo.
What about all those federal judge appointments. Folks...we got those judges. Had Donald Trump come up short on that and not even Rush Limbaugh could have saved him. What about the relaxed business regulations and the Dakota Access Pipeline? That's the real agenda stuff....he wants that too. What about the Paris Climate Accord? We had to struggle to peel back Ivanka's fingers on him before he finally did something there. What about the military being strengthened.....it's not! Eleven months into his term and he finally presented a national security strategy that would include "modernizing and maintaining the U.S. military." On this the President this past week called for a "great reawakening." He's alluding here to Ronald Reagan but it's not a 'Reagan Reawakening' we need as much as another 'Great Awakening'....big difference! That would start with humility and repentance....neither of which is in the Gospel according to Norman Vincent Peale.
Everything is appearances today, but appearances, as we all should know, can be deceiving. I listen to the same conservative caller mindset to conservative radio that I have listened to since Donald Trump was nothing but a well-known and flamboyant moneymaker for NBC's The Apprentice (for fourteen seasons!) and they have not as of yet caught on to Donald Trump.
Everything will be moot of course. External factors from the world stage will take over from appearances. Evangelicals will find that God was not behind Make America Great Again. Conservatives will see that they have been used. A great winnowing will occur in the church....circumstances will force this. We will reap what we have sown.
It's a great example to use if one is an instructor....something to take great care to watch out for.....and then something to nip in the bud if it appears. A politician...a CEO...anyone really who assumes a position of power by making promises....and then after assuming power is afforded an excuse to go in another direction....this is what has to be watched out for. This is what happened with Donald Trump....but there were only a few of us who spotted it.....and therefore we were unable to nip it in the bud. Repealing Obamacare, building a wall, and giving us a fair tax system would make America great again.....this is what we were told.....something had to be found to subtly change the perception of those promises without the switcharoo of agendas being detected.
Candidate Trump did not really care about the first two promises...and the third was a nuanced promise. The only thing that the typical CEO is concerned about on healthcare for his employees is in what it will cost the company....not necessarily in what it will cost the employees. They were hammered by higher healthcare premiums and Obamacare and passed it on to us by increasing the percentage of what we had to pay. Therefore it was not Obamacare per se that they were concerned about but rather how to adjust the salary package and/or union contracts of the employee. President Trump did not have to actually repeal Obamacare, he only had to get out of the promise. He did that by blaming the Congress....repealing the mandate only cemented the perception of repeal. Problem solved.
The Wall was just as big a problem for him, compounded in that he could not as readily blame the Congress. No they weren't going to give the money but he said that he would get the money even without Congress if he had to. He hasn't as of yet been able to get this monkey off his back so what he has done is skillfully redirect the conversation.....CNN being the most often used whipping boy...but not the only one by far.
Tax reform was the least difficult promise to deal with. No, he had no intention of actually reforming the tax system....but he did have to reform the corporate tax rate.....that was essential in his primary agenda....kept from us in that it was his primary agenda..... which was in making America's corporate base strong once again. He accomplished this in the tax bill that he signed. In the process he turned the sow's ear of an unfair American tax system into a silk purse of a corporate tax reform bill for 401k Americans to put their stock market hopes into. The rest of Americans are just plum out of luck.
So the campaign agenda was successfully changed to an administration's agenda without anyone really knowing what happened. The President was able to do this so easily because his base in the campaign was diverse in that some were driven by principle and honor while others were driven by the desire for financial gain. On the tax issue the latter has been stoked to such a degree that the legislation that was passed is heralded everywhere in conservative circles as a great achievement and a promise kept. If only everything could be this easy for him!
Obamacare in place was not a threat to the primary agenda....and Donald Trump was actually torn on whether illegal immigration was good or bad. A genuine fair tax system would do little to help his primary agenda. President Trump has thus used his Twitter account to redirect our attention in these sticky matters. Jerusalem as Israel's capitol was a great tool for the President's agenda. Evangelicals think that this is important to God so they are totally buffaloed. Taking a few bucks away from the United Nations makes President Trump look like a real leader. Tactics and decisions such as these tend to camouflage the switcharoo.
What about all those federal judge appointments. Folks...we got those judges. Had Donald Trump come up short on that and not even Rush Limbaugh could have saved him. What about the relaxed business regulations and the Dakota Access Pipeline? That's the real agenda stuff....he wants that too. What about the Paris Climate Accord? We had to struggle to peel back Ivanka's fingers on him before he finally did something there. What about the military being strengthened.....it's not! Eleven months into his term and he finally presented a national security strategy that would include "modernizing and maintaining the U.S. military." On this the President this past week called for a "great reawakening." He's alluding here to Ronald Reagan but it's not a 'Reagan Reawakening' we need as much as another 'Great Awakening'....big difference! That would start with humility and repentance....neither of which is in the Gospel according to Norman Vincent Peale.
Everything is appearances today, but appearances, as we all should know, can be deceiving. I listen to the same conservative caller mindset to conservative radio that I have listened to since Donald Trump was nothing but a well-known and flamboyant moneymaker for NBC's The Apprentice (for fourteen seasons!) and they have not as of yet caught on to Donald Trump.
Everything will be moot of course. External factors from the world stage will take over from appearances. Evangelicals will find that God was not behind Make America Great Again. Conservatives will see that they have been used. A great winnowing will occur in the church....circumstances will force this. We will reap what we have sown.
