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A Second Term
I had the opportunity to listen to Paul Begala being
interviewed on the Campaign HQ a few days ago, and I was struck
particularly by one of pieces of advice he gave. He suggested that,
since we all kw people who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, our
objective should be to encourage them to vote for Biden in November,
not by revealing to them all of Trump's past misbehavior, his
tendency to engage in outright casuistry, his "tax cut" which gave
billionaires a big payday, his handling of COVID-19, and on and on.
Begala pointed out that people already know this. He also pointed
out that knowing the worst about him in 2016 did nothing to stop
people from voting for him. Begala's suggestion was this: All people
need to become informed about his plans for a second term.
One plan we can assume exists (I've looked on his website where
there is no indication of what he intends, by the way) is the
continuation of his efforts to destroy Obamacare. If past action is
any indication of future action, then it's probably a safe bet that
anything Obama was even tangentially involved with will be
dismantled, rendered powerless, or decimated entirely.
Aside aside from Trump's chipping away at the public's having access
to affordable health care, we can also assume that more
environmental protections will be ended, more species will be
threatened, the level of toxins in the water and pollutants in the
air will be increased, and the safety features that exist in
workplaces will be removed. Indeed, already the safety features that
were ordered on all oil platforms after Deep Water Horizon have been
removed, putting in danger the workers on those platforms who might
well have voted for Trump in 2016.
We can assume, also, that Trump will continue to use "acting" as a
way to put at the head of various agencies and offices big GOP
donors, past cronies, and current sycophants. Using the term
"acting" ambassador or "acting" head of this or that has allowed
individuals to take up positions of influence without being vetted
by Congress. Hence, at the moment, we have as Postmaster General, a
Trump donor who is rapidly dismantling the US Postal Service.
We can assume, also, that the GOP Senators and Representatives will
continue to fall in line behind him, giving him the freedom to do as
he pleases without reprimand or consequences.
We can predict the resignation of more Inspectors General so that
there will be little to no oversight about how our money is being
spent. We can also predict that these positions will not be filled
or, if they are filled, they will be filled either by Trump
sycophants or by people with no background in the job.
What we can't assume is that the country will come together to
wrestle COVID-19 to the mat, that Mexico will decide to pay for
Donald Trump's wall, that "good clean coal" will be mined, that
racists will cease to be emboldened, or the any form of gun control
will be adopted.
So setting aside Donald Trump's rebarbative personality, we need to
address what will happen from 2020-2024 if Trump is re-elected. And
if you just had the thought "He'll never be re-elected," you might
want to relive in memory the night he was elected in the first
place.
Elizabeth George
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