Food for thought. Does the President Matter?

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   tsmogposted 7 months ago

   A thought provoking article from Reason online magazine comes along with
   
   How Much Does the President Matter? published at Reason (July 5, 2024)
   We've now had two consecutive presidential administrations deploy versions of this same argument in response to questions about the fitness of the man allegedly running the federal government.
   
   https://reason.com/2024/07/05/how-much- … pid=306332
   
   "During an appearance on MSNBC earlier this week, former Obama administration official Jeh Johnson argued that, effectively, the election is about picking an administration, not a president."
   
   Let the underlined part sink in.
   
   ". . .  Over  4 million people work in the federal government's executive branch, and only one of them is Joe Biden (Donald Trump). Most are full-time, nonpolitical appointees, but each president gets to make about 4,000 appointments (including the roughly 1,200 positions requiring Senate confirmation). The presidency is obviously about more than one man."
   
   The phrase 'Over 4 million people' refers to the Executive branch. For details what that entails go to The Executive Branch by the White House.
   https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-wh … Americans.
   
   Just for additional thought dig deep into the Heritage Foundation Project 2025. The whole plan is about setting up the administration. Nothing about Trump in it. Only that who ever becomes the new conservative president do this and that to assure how the new administration works.
   
   The Mandate for Leadership / The Conservative Promise
   It is also called the 180-Day Play Book
   https://static.project2025.org/2025_Man … p_FULL.pdf
   
   What does Trump say? A Fox News article just hit the street on July 5, 2024 at 3:56pm EDT
   Trump slams Heritage Foundation's transition plan, claims parts are ‘ridiculous’ and ‘abysmal’
   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump- … us-abysmal
   
   Thoughts, criticisms, or accolades.

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   1. 69

      Ken Burgessposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      This was the shift you saw in the Dem Party's messaging by Tuesday of last week (the week after the debate).
      
      You are not selecting a President, you are selecting a Party, a team.
      
      That (above sentence) is the jist of their message.
      
      There are two problems with that.
      
      The old saying, the fish rots from the head down... if you have someone completely incompetent at the top, its hard for the people below to get the job done right no matter how good they may be.
      
      In addition, if you have an incompetent leader/front-man how many more incompetent people do you have on the team supporting him?
      
      In the Biden Administration we have seen the incompetence in his Administration casts a pretty wide net, and most people given positions of importance in Biden's Administration are equally inept for the job.
      
      A good Administration makes things better for Americans and for the world.
      
      We have issues here at home, exacerbated by poor leadership within, and we have worsening relations abroad... which brings me to my second point.
      
      Biden has been an international laughing stock, the other world leaders know full well he is mentally incapacitated, led around by his wife Jill, they didn't just find this out during the debate.
      
      They meet with Biden and his entourage for hours on end, this is the man that met with Xi in San Fran, and while the dignitaries were still here, called Xi a dictator during the press conference.
      
      I'm sorry, a dysfunctional individual suffering from dementia should not be who is put up there to represent as "the leader of the free world".
      
      It always matters who the President is, unless you believe we are at the stage where National leaders don't really matter, because there are higher powers behind the President really making the decisions... a Deep State... or a New World Order.
      
      The problem with both the Deep State and New World Order (International Order) ... is that the whole world isn't playing along... clearly.
      
      Russia, China, and others march to the beat of their own drummers.
      
      And right now Russia, China and many others are uniting, all with the conviction to dump the dollar... some of them, more and more of them, with the idea of doing away with 'the bully on the block' all together.
      
      They are emboldened by this idea because we have a weak ineffectual President, an incompetent idiotic VP, and an Administration of misfits that seem incapable of getting anything right.
      
      Under the Biden Administration we have an America that looks just as divided as it did under Trump, we have 10 trillion dollars more of debt with nothing good to show for it.  We have 10 million more migrants needing government support to contend with.  And we have World War breaking out in multiple regions of the world.
      
      For a sane mind, that is cognizant of what is going on throughout the world, as well as at home, there should be nothing more frightening than the idea of the Biden Administration continuing on for another 4 years.

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   2. 82

      GA Andersonposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      Yes, the president does matter. The Reason author is either a nut, or just chumming the waters.
      
      Truisms become truisms for a reason and Ken's fish one covers all the others. Does a ship need a captain, a team, a coach, etc.?
      
      GA

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      1. 69

         Ken Burgessposted 7 months agoin reply to this

         The argument made in the Trump examples, in the Reason article...
         
         Speak more to the fact that they hampered and hindered his efforts, because he was a 'populist' President, and that the 'establishment' worked against those things he was trying to do.
         
         The Border is a good example, various parts of our government, be they the courts or Congress, hindered Trump's efforts... and still despite that he was able to make arrangements with Mexico to toughen up on their Southern border and allow the migrants to stay outside America on their Northern border.
         
         We may not like Trump's delivery, you may buy into his level of incompetence, but he is still America 1st... he is not putting UN Agendas ahead of what is best for Americans... he is not allowing hundreds of billions of dollars to flow to Iran so they can fund a international network of terrorists, etc. etc.
         
         What we have in Biden is someone who is even more incompetent, that no-one on the world stage fears or respects, and in addition to those flaws he DOESN'T put Americans or America 1st... he caters to the UN Agendas and International efforts to undermine America and Western society on the whole. 
         
         If Trump is a bad choice... Biden is a suicidal one.

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   3. 58

      Willowarborposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      Project 2025 does not specifically mentioned Trump but many of his circle have been involved in its creation.  Many of the authors of the document are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration.
      
      The project’s director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was featured in one of Project 2025′s videos.
      
      Ben Carson, Trump's former housing secretary; Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser under Trump, Mark Meadows; and Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump are all involved with project 2025. 
      
      John McEntee, a former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, is a senior adviser. McEntee told the conservative news site The Daily Wire earlier this year that Project 2025′s team would integrate a lot of its work with the campaign after the summer when Trump would announce his transition team.
      
      From Axios..
      “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is ghoulish Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”
      
      Trump is desperately trying to distance himself from this document but his stated plans for a second term fall completely within the project 2025 outline.   
      
      Roberts  (the head of the Heritage Foundation) told the NYT  that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ This includes leading Project 2025. 
      
      He is speaking directly to Trump's ego.  Something we all know Trump can't resist.  He will be the stooge they've been looking for to carry out the agenda. 
      
      My conclusion?
      Project 2025 is being run by Trump allies, modeled after Trump’s words, and designed to allow Trump to enact his dangerous agenda to be a ‘dictator on day one'.

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      1. 69

         Ken Burgessposted 7 months agoin reply to this

         Well lets see what it says:
         
         This book is the product of more than 400 scholars and policy experts from across the conservative movement and around the country.  Contributors include former elected officials, world-renowned economists, and veterans from four presidential Administrations.  This is an agenda prepared by and for conservatives who will be ready on Day One of the next Administration to save our country.  The Heritage Foundation is once again facilitating this work, but as our dozens of partners and hundreds of authors will attest, this book is the work of the entire conservative movement. 
         
         Scarry stuff right?
         
         The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before.
         
         Scary stuff.
         
         As Americans living at the approach of our nation’s 250th birthday, we have been given much. As conservatives, we are as much required to steward this precious heritage for the next generation. On behalf of our coalition partners, we thank you and invite you to come join with us at project2025.org
         
         Sounds utterly deplorable.
         
           Look at America under the ruling and cultural elite today: Inflation is ravaging family budgets, drug overdose deaths continue to escalate, and children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries.
         
         Overseas, a totalitarian Communist dictatorship in Beijing is engaged in a strategic, cultural, and economic Cold War against America’s interests, values, and people—all while globalist elites in Washington awaken only slowly to that growing threat.
         
         Moreover, low-income communities are drowning in addiction and government dependence.
         
         Contemporary elites have even repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known today as “The Great Awokening.” And now, as then, the Republican Party seems to have little understanding about what to do.
         
         Most alarming of all, the very moral foundations of our society are in peril.
         
         Very alarming radical perception right there.
         
         As such, the authors express consensus recommendations already forged, especially along four broad fronts that will decide America’s future:
         
         1.     Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect
         our children.
         
         2.     Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.
         
         3.     Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.
         
         4.     Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls “the Blessings of Liberty"
         
         That is it!  I cannot, in good conscience, allow myself to read one more word!
         
         This is blasphemy! These are the words of radical extremism like I have never witnessed before!
         
         This makes Mein Kampf look like a children's book in comparison... the evil is dripping throughout their words!
         
         Whatever it takes, whatever must be done, they must be defeated!

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            wildernessposted 7 months agoin reply to this

              Gotta love it!

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