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A Trump presidency: autocracy or futility

Donald_TrumpMany people who don’t support Obama say he has been a divisive figure, and a top-down president, who imposes his belief system upon the American people. Examples given are the Iran nuclear deal and the Affordable Healthcare Act. Some of these people are undoubtedly Trump supporters, and see him as the antidote to the Obama presidency.

From our perspective, however, a Trump president brings with it the very real danger of more top-down governance, simply from the other side of the spectrum.

Do we want four more years of divisiveness and Washington-imposed dogma? Trump says he is not Washington (he’s not) and that he’s representing what many Americans are thinking (that’s probably true). But what happens when he gets to Washington? Faced with a Congress that doesn’t support him (let’s not forget that the Republican establishment does not support Trump), he likely will have resort to executive orders. We see this happening not only because of Congressional stonewalling, but because Trump himself always refers to his past as a businessman and CEO. He’s used to behaving in that kind of top down manner. He’s basically telling the American people that he’s planning on having a somewhat autocratic presidency.

There are other democracies that have, in recent years, been run by plutocrats. One was Silvio Berlusconi, the president of Italy for what seemed like over a decade (he kept coming and going). He was also a CEO, a very successful business, who thought running a country was like running a business. A man who really had no respect whatsoever for the political process. At the same time, many Italians loved him, because they felt he was “strong” and purported to be making Italy a better country. (It didn’t really turn out that way.) Comparisons to Berlusconi aren’t 1:1 as Donald Trump seems far more genuinely concerned with the future of America and seems less motivated by the glamor of the presidency and using the position of power to further his business dealings than with making changes (agree with his proposals or not). We also do not see, at all, the corruption and immorality that riddled Berlusconi’s presidency in Trump. But the comparison is valid in that it shows the difficulties of transitioning from business to politics.

If Trump becomes the nominee, it would behoove him to choose as a vice president a politician deeply engaged with the political process and law making, and on good terms with the Republican establishment. Otherwise we see only two directions for a Trump presidency: autocracy or futility. The latter will happen if Trump doesn’t somehow garner Congressional support and begin to express an appreciation for the democratic process of governance; the former will happen if he fails to do the latter.




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