Paul Campos links to the invaluable Finan O'Toole of the Irish Times. O'Toole makes the case that Trump is both a logical extension of Reaganism and yet something new. Trump took Reagan's rhetorical contempt for governance and made it the overreaching condition of his administration. Reagan's contempt for government was really nothing more than a way to deprive the Poors, especially the Darkly Hued Poors, from accessing resources. Reagan was about destroying Pell Grants and food assistance. He loved the state when it came to military spending.
Gingrich and McConnell took what essentially a bumpersticker and made it a philosophy. Trump made it something else. His contempt for government and its functioning was aptly summed up, as O'Toole notes, by Trump throwing out Chris Christie's transition plan. It could also be summed up by disbanding the Pandemic Task Force. Or a million other things.
Trump is manifestly incompetent. We saw that this weekend in his helpless floundering on the Covid Relief plan. He (rightly) noted that direct cash payments of $600 (different from UI benefits, though no one seems to get this) were insufficient. So he was going to veto the bill. In the tumult that followed, he allowed the Democrats to stake out their position in favor of the $2000 while Republicans in the Senate said, no, a week before the special election in Georgia.
Brilliant.
As Josh Marshall notes, this is a demonstration of incredibly weakness on Trump's part. He looks the fool. Of course, when has Trump been legitimately strong? When has he shown an ability to do the job? What is so paralyzingly painful is that 74,000,000 Americans thought he was doing a good job and deserved another term. Trump has achieved nothing of real substance that can't be erased by Biden's administration. The tax cuts won't survive a Democratic Congress. The Wall is a fragment of what he said he was going to build. Infrastructure Week is a punchline.
All Trump has accomplished is negative. He has - along with memories of Dubya - deeply damaged America's standing with its allies. He has rolled back environmental regulations and accelerated global warming. He opened the door to a nuclear Iran that Obama had nailed shut. Most of all, he did serious damage to the institutions of American electoral democracy and the rule of law.
Because of the latter, O'Toole argues, rightly, that it is not enough to let Trump slink off to Mar A Lago. He and his vile creed need to be eradicated.
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