So far Trump’s ‘team’ seems to beg credulity. His picks include people who hold antithetical views to what he
claimed during his campaign. Working class? His labor secretary is against
minimum wage and improvements in working conditions. It remains to be seen if
the Secretary of Labor is anti-Union. So what will the secretary do to improve
things for the working class? Or is his responsibility to serve the employers
by ensuring a pool of labor is always available no matter what? If that is
true, then what does ‘no matter what’ include? Cheap hourly rates? Ready skill
sets the employer didn’t have to pay for? Or a ready overseas market in which
the employer can move his operations to avoid American labor?
Education Secretary? She has supported proposals in the past
to pull funding from public education in favor of providing vouchers for
citizens to use to pay tuition at private schools. In other words, the rich can
have such schools – and have – whenever they want because they have the private
resources to pay for them. Public schools however, need public support to
excel. If they don’t poorer citizens – anyone who isn’t rich – must use their
voucher to pay for schooling elsewhere, but the vouchers don’t cover the full
cost so the citizen has to dig deeper into his pocket to pay the rest of the
tuition. Equal access? Hardly.
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency? He favors
drilling in wilderness and protected areas for more oil. He favors lesser
restrictions on air, water and soil protections so cost of manufacturing and
commerce are less. This will produce dirty air, water and soil, but who cares,
huh? Despoiling the planet is OK as long as it allows someone to earn more money.
But what happens when the planet can no longer sustain such despoliation before
sustainability of our lives is in mortal danger? Oh, I guess the answers to
such problems can be asked and answered later!
Attorney General doesn’t believe in equality? So protected
classes of historically subservient peoples in our own country will no longer
have protection from discrimination? Does this include women, too? Like your
mother, aunt, sister, granddaughters, and lover? Who gets to decide which woman
is discriminated against and when? Will they lose their right to vote? How
about deciding against having children? Will they be made to bear children? And
what of their right to just say no? And gay citizens, will they be once again
forced into the closet? Whose superiority are we actually protecting? And race.
What about all the racial protections and progress we have so earnestly worked
for and gained these past 60 years or more? Will they be abandoned in favor of
a white supremacy agenda? Just who is in charge here?
Secretary of State – will this be a person who is able to
work with broad differences among hundreds of nations and gain confidence,
equanimity, equality, and fairness among them all, or most of them? For whose
gain? America ’s?
Russia ’s?
the Middle East ? Or mankind? Will peace be
pursued? Will continued hegemony of ideology be stabilized in regions all over
the globe no matter what? Will health and human values be uplifted or diluted
in such dealings? And for what gain?
Money? Power? Hegemony, again? Or will this Secretary of State work
tirelessly for peace and well being for the largest number of human beings on
the face of the planet? Just what is the goal of the Secretary, anyway? And who is in charge of defining that?
Housing Secretary – will this position actually address the
needs of the homeless and the poorly housed, living conditions that threaten
the well being of the very inhabitants of such dwelling places? Does America care
about its people or not? And how do we warranty that life quality rises above
bare minimum levels? Who decided such
questions? Who even asked these questions? And will the proposed Secretary
seriously carry out such missions tirelessly for the benefit of the people of
his nation?
National Economic Adviser – is this person in charge of
making life wonderful for bankers, investment houses and mortgage providers? Or
is he/she entrusted with helping the economy function smoothly for the benefit
of the most people? Will he or she serve the interests of specific industries? Will
he favor the rich over the poor, or will he support the yearnings of the middle
class? Where is the middle class in all of this? Who is the middle class and do
they matter at all in the broad scheme of things?
National Security Adviser – will this person look equally
over all the threats posed against America and wisely advise the
President of hidden threats and dangers? Will this person truly see into the
murky waters of international intrigue and plot a course of safety and wisdom
for the USA ?
Or will he scheme to do the right things for just specific people, industries
and regions? How do we know he is not acting with treason? Who watches over
such a position? And why should we trust this person?
Secretary of Defense – will this person maintain civilian
controls over the military or will he favor the military mindset and
willingness to go to war; what else will we do with a prepared and ready
military but use it? Huh? Why is it we do not have military in charge of
military in America ?
Why was this policy of checks and balances installed within our constitution
and government ethos? Will the military-industrial complex be served at the
expense of all else in our nation? To what end does the military serve the
nation? Who asks these questions, and when? And then who judges the validity of
the answers?
Homeland Security – will this person be up to the task of
planning large scale responses to external threats to the nation? As well as
responses to natural calamities that threaten the country as much as an
external attack? How do we measure the potential of this person and decide he
or she is up to the job? Why should we trust the decision to appoint this
person to the job in the first place?
And so many more positions to consider. The list is long.
This is the inner circle of the President’s cabinet. These are the people he
will listen to – or ignore – when multiple voices are needed to be heard at
times of crisis and need. Will the
President have chosen well these voices? These minds? These people of wisdom
and experience and probity?
Or is this a joke being made at the expense of the American
people and freedom lovers all over the globe? Is American democracy itself
being mocked? If so, doesn’t that include you and I? and how did ‘they’ who are making the joke decide who was the goat of the joke? Is it you? Me? Someone
other?
Who decides these things? Who is in charge here?
I hate to break it to you but we are in charge, the voters
and citizens of this country. That is what democracy means, entails. We get to
decide these things one way or another.
Should the current president elect think otherwise he needs
to remember this:
He questions established authority and won enough votes to
gain office. He played the trust card among his voters. He claimed they didn’t
trust America
anymore. And he won the election, at least in the Electoral College.
But this argument cuts both ways. He needs our trust in his
actions. So far he doesn’t have mine or a majority of Americans. That trust has
to be earned every day. Each day. Not just some.
So far things are not promising. Trust appears to be absent.
Beware the trust issue! It matters to each and every one of
us.
December 20, 2016
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