We
elected a random policy generator president.
Sure, it may seem to many of us that
president-elect Trump has been intentionally ambiguous about many of his policies,
in order to keep his foreign and domestic rivals guessing, so he can stay one
step ahead of them. Others among us may believe that he is simply the ultimate
flip-flopper, and that he only changes his views when it is politically
expedient, and necessary to gain support.
Still others believe
that he is genuinely indecisive, and that he lacks knowledge about many policy
topics. Perhaps he is like many young people today; maybe he stopped taking
things seriously a long time ago, so much so that now, he can't even tell when
he's being sarcastic, and so he paints himself into a corner until he has no
choice but to double-down on his often outrageous and dubious assertions. And
maybe the fact that he repeatedly gets away with it, is the fault of a Fourth
Estate that keeps giving him 72 hours to change his mind before he gives an
interview that’s to be taken as his final say on the matter.
But one thing
seems certain: Donald J. Trump is a walking illustration of particle physicist Werner
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle; the less you know about his position, the
more you know about his momentum, and vice-versa. As a comment on a political
spectrum meme recently explained, “Trump is too high-energy and all-over-the-place to stay in one
quadrant”. Politically speaking, Trump is an unpredictable particle; God only knows
where he is going, but he is going there fast.
The meme
Another similar meme
Another similar meme
After all, this
is a man who simultaneously campaigned on the promises of achieving
"universal health care" while also "getting rid of" the
state lines that inhibit the freedom of interstate commerce in health insurance
purchase. Therefore it should come as no surprise that he has backed off from
his pledge to repeal the deceptively-named Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act, vowing to keep in place the part of the law which requires plans and
issuers that offer dependent child coverage to cover young adults until they
turn 26 and qualify for open enrollment.
So too is he the
man who, during his campaign, described himself as "100% pro-life",
even going so far as to consider the possibility that women could be punished
in the event that abortion were to be outlawed; whereas 17 years ago he told
Tim Russert that he described himself as “very pro-choice” and “strongly for
choice”, adding that he hates the concept of abortion, but did not wish to ban
the arguably infanticidal procedure known as partial-birth abortion which he now
supposedly wants outlawed. Recently, Trump has stated that Roe v. Wade can be overturned, and that he intends to nominate
Supreme Court justices who would seek to do so.
Not only that; Trump
has backed off of his pledge to appoint a special prosecutor to the Hillary
Clinton e-mail case, and ensure that she go to prison. What’s more, he has also
backed down from his promise to overturn the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges - in which the Supreme Court ruled that states
be required to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and recognize same-sex
marriages which are valid in other states – calling it “settled law”, and
adding that he’s “fine” with gay marriage.
But we’re not
finished: since early 2016, some have speculated that Trump’s proposed wall on the
U.S.-Mexico border will not be a physical one, but merely a “symbolic” wall;
among them Trump foreign policy and terrorism adviser Walid Phares, who in
September told Paris-based news channel France24, “Trump’s wall is only
symbolic, and the candidate only launched this extreme policy proposal to raise
attention.”
This came the
month after Trump asked an audience in Austin, Texas whether undocumented
immigrants with otherwise clean criminal records, who have lived in the United
States for several decades, should be deported. The spontaneous crowd-sourcing
poll, which he conducted eight times in a row (in order to get a clear answer)
revealed that that audience slightly favored allowing them to stay, but did not
favor allowing them to become U.S. citizens. That night, Trump said he agreed
with a man in the audience who favored deportation, adding “We’re going to come
out with a decision very soon.”
Additionally,
Trump’s support of the Fourth-Amendment-ignoring proposed “No Fly, No Buy”
legislation (although he acknowledges that some people on no-fly lists and terror
watch lists do not belong there), seems somewhat at-odds with his support for expanding
the legality of concealed-carry permits.
Trump’s apparent
inconsistency on abortion, Obamacare, same-sex marriage, deportation and the
wall, and gun control, demonstrate a stark contrast to the principle behind his
stated position on the taxation of businesses; that is, the principle of
providing the kind of certainty that leads to safe and stable investments in
domestic employment. On the other hand, these so-called “positions” seem to fit
his foreign policy theme of intentional ambiguity.
So what are we
to make of a president-elect who wants to privatize public infrastructure, and outlaw flag burning, while also keeping
gay marriage legal and promising to turn the Republican Conference into a “workers’
party”? Is Trump indecisive, is he a moderate, or is he a shrewd negotiator
determined not to let anyone read his poker face?
Perhaps he is
simply Door Number Three from the game show “Let’s Make a Deal”. Maybe he is a
pretty pink box covered with question marks, sitting on the desk of “Simpsons”
billionaire C. Montgomery Burns, for which his supporters are willing to trade
away not only Door Number One and Door Number Two, but also the freedom to make
a decisive, informed choice between them.
"The box, the box!"
Speculation
abounds regarding whether Trump’s difficulty getting along with the Republican and
Democratic establishments will hinder his ability to get his policy objectives
through. So too are many asking whether his supporters will let him get away
with betraying them on the issues of health, abortion, marriage, immigration, and
guns, if that is indeed what he even intends to do.
Donald’s Trump’s
indecision and doubling-down – coupled with his disagreements with his often
unruly supporters, and the division which his Austin audience revealed in
August – demonstrate that he is a Schrödinger’s Candidate; that he has let the
cat out of Pandora’s Bag, but is having trouble putting it back into the tube
of toothpaste.
On the other
hand, maybe Trump is the cesium atom,
the American public is the cat, and we’re
in a quantum superposition of states until Inauguration Day. Maybe we’re in the
midst of a transition period, in which America – in a demonstration of faith,
through a single capricious vote – has already been made the Great-Again which
it never wasn’t, but we also just
experienced the worst thing that has happened to this country since 9/11. And what
are the odds that that is true? As a
wise man once said, “Don’t ever tell me the odds.”
So the questions
remains: “Random number generators have won wars, but can a random policy
generator fix a broken country? Will Donald Trump, the Human Wonder-Waffle,
unite what is arguably the most divided electorate this country has ever seen?
Will he manage to forge even a tentative alliance with the quasi-nihilistic so-called
‘moderates’ of each major party’s establishment?” In this writer’s opinion, we find
our answer in what yet another wise
man once said: “Sticking together is what good waffles do.”
Two patriotic Americans of opposing political parties
break bread in a symbolic gesture of cooperation
Addendum:
Readers interested in exploring this topic further may wish to look up the definition of the word "demarchy"; or visit this page, featuring an article about Trump's relationship to the aether): https://pepethefrogfaith.wordpress.com/
Originally Written and Published on November 16th, 2016
Edited on November 17th, 2016
Addendum Written on January 19th, 2017
Readers interested in exploring this topic further may wish to look up the definition of the word "demarchy"; or visit this page, featuring an article about Trump's relationship to the aether): https://pepethefrogfaith.wordpress.com/
Originally Written and Published on November 16th, 2016
Addendum Written on January 19th, 2017
Expanded (second political spectrum added) on June 28th, 2018
