Hi Toni,
Trump does things differently, all right! He does things other Presidents have rarely ventured: ill-considered, off-the-cuff comments that show his vitriol and hatred nakedly. His fondness for tweeting attacks on the press, opponents and anyone he considers a threat to his self-styled autonomy have been regarded by many as his way of circumventing formal procedures such as press conferences and such that previous Presidents of America routinely used to convey matters of policy and subjects of interest to their populace. To me, it is alike to children in class passing coded messages to each other on slips of paper so as to avoid censure by a teacher. With the difference that his messages are unencrypted, and the teacher(s) are his staff - sometimes expressing frustration at his bypassing chain-of-command protocols: witness the leaders of the military branches shock when he issues statements without their prior knowledge concerning troop movements/deployments. Also witness a gaffe revealing elite Seal team members' identities > https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/27/trump-iraq-location-tweet-troops-visit-revealed .
I'd opine the past ways _have_ worked - just not in the direction you yourself desire, maybe? As for the Dems going too far left, some have, as I noted in another thread - the "We'll see" one, I think. A "rational society" is of course a very subjective term - The Greek and Roman societies are regarded by historians as quite rational yet they both deemed slavery an acceptable practice. The British Empire can likewise be considered a rational and 'modern' society and had/has many laws we now incorporate into our American system of adjudication including large tracts of common law, etc. Yet they subjugated entire races, permitted crimes against humanity that nowadays are rightly considered heinous and horrific, and even set aside an entire continent (Australia) as a holding tank for prisoners and other "undesirables". So one persons 'definition' of a rational society can and will change according to time and circumstance, and may clash with another person's definition at even the same time and place.
There's no proof I'm not racist either - I think everyone has some remnants of aversion to "the other" - such being "hard-wired" into the species as a defense against warring tribes - but I think as we educate and familiarize ourselves with those different from ourselves either in appearance or
custom or mores we recognize the vast amount of things we all hold in common. This to me is the crux of the best features of us as **** Sapiens - we learn, we get new data from science that shows our innate leanings and "gut level" instincts are not always correct or even "rational" - some are strictly "reptile brain" functions that work most of the time to ensure our survival, but don't apply so much or even at all in our modern, densely filled society.
As for me criticizing President Obama - if I recall correctly, during the time he was Pres. I mostly was not here on S.E. - I 'd 'dropped off the radar' here for various reasons, one being the constant political "flaming" going on. I can't recall exactly when - I think it was shortly after 2002 though too many moons have gone by for me to be sure. Anyway, though I might not have expressed dislike/contempt for some of Obama's deeds and maneuverings, I was not always in support of him. I was not aware of his "hostility" towards law enforcement, just that he wanted some changes made in police matters concerning racial issues predominately > https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/08/why-so-many-critics-of-president-obama-insist-that-he-hates-police-officers/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eb12b00cbd3f . This covers the subject evenly, I think.
No conspiracy ? Maybe so, technically, but does it not strike you as "fishy" that so many of his operatives such as Kushner (who is also "receptive" to foreign info, many say such being illegal) and Manafort, Cohen, and others involved in the scandal have been sentenced to prison for dissembling and outright lies? To the frickin' FBI?
You are correct I don't like Trump. I don't hate him though, I think he's the product of a tyrannical father and upbringing that encouraged his bullying, "take no prisoners" worldview and behaviour. Particularly his notion of "winners" and "losers" - you're either one or the other in his mind, no gradations at all. Fits in perfectly with his "zero-sum game" policies also - the idea that _someone_ has to lose in a deal so someone else - preferably him, can "win". This may apply in business deals, or not - many "deals" are satisfactory to both parties, such being the norm in "modern society". I think he truly enjoys "screwing" the other party in his business deals - witness his many non-payments to contractors in his buildings and properties. Such being technically legal, mostly, but also mostly immoral. He got a reputation in the real estate biz as a "welch" at worst and a "slippery guy" at best, which is telling of his moral code or lack thereof. Witness also his joy at not paying taxes - he crowed he was "smart" for doing so and getting away with it, which is similar to such that happened with GE and other corporations who were deemed too important for the economy to be allowed to fail naturally in a rough time for the businesses - the auto manufacturers here in the U.S. have been given "passes" on their taxes for that reason in the past. Does this make him a smart cookie or a charlatan? I'd say the latter. His bankrupt casinos and "brands" such as Trump University were bailed out, almost gratis to him, for the sake of perhaps getting more money out of a solvent business in the future rather than a broken "empire" which in my opinion should have been allowed to collapse. Maybe then his charade of being a successful businessman would be apparent to all and we would not now be enduring his tenure as the Buffoon-In-Chief he has become...
Rick "Maybe a record for post length, for me!" Jones