"Who Else Besides Trump?"

  

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Who Else Besides Trump?”

November 19, 2024

 

“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community,

they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

                                                                                               Senator Charles Schumer

                                                                                               The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC

                                                                                               January 3, 2017

 

“Too much power has been delegated to unaccountable bureaucrats.

Undoing this is necessary to restore American greatness – but

fraught with risk. The unelected elite are powerful and fight dirty.”

                                                                                                Liz Truss

                                                                                                Prime Minister, Great Britain, 2022

                                                                                                The Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2024

 

The paradox in Senator Schumer’s statement – a statement unchallenged by Ms. Maddow – is that he admitted to (and would have agreed with) Ms. Truss’s words written five years later – that unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats exert unacceptable power over our nation’s most powerful people, let alone the rest of us. Neither he nor Ms. Maddow acknowledged the irony embedded in their exchange.  

 

……………………………………………………………….

 

As I wrote on November 6, I felt relief, not joy, with the election’s verdict. But as my wife and I spent six days driving around Pennsylvania and Virginia visiting grandchildren, I thought of the election and its consequences. And I concluded that the growing power of the state and its threat to individual freedom has become so powerful that a traditional Republican candidate might not be willing to confront such an oppressive force – that it would take an individual unafraid to incur the wrath of the administrative state. 

 

There is no question that a government that looks after 335 million people needs a professional bureaucracy. The President and the Executive Branch appoint roughly 4,000 individuals, a tiny fraction of the two million federal civilian employees. The Hatch Act, passed in 1939, prohibits partisan political activity among civilian employees in the executive branch of the Federal and District of Columbia Governments, even as it excludes those Presidential appointees whose jobs depend on Senate confirmation. Nevertheless, violations of the Hatch Act have become rampant in recent years, especially in intelligence agencies and within the Justice Department, as “lawfare” was waged against Mr. Trump and some of his backers.

 

It is, though, the natural instinct of people to defend their jobs, to expand their bureaucracies; it is how they personally advance. It is why slaying the dragon of government bureaucracies is so difficult. But unchecked government growth leads to inflation, bloat, bias, waste, and ultimately to either a government that collapses, or one that assumes dictatorial controls. That being an unpleasant prospect, some restrictions on that growth must be imposed, no matter how unpopular.

 

Is Mr. Trump the right man for the job? Obviously, the question is unanswerable. It is not that I am without concerns. Some of Mr. Trump’s nominations, especially former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, I find troubling, as I do the possibility that he might use “recess appointments” to bring on board those who may not receive Senate confirmation. Adhering not only to the words of the Constitution, but also to its intent, is paramount to the survival of our Republic. However, when I weigh what Mr. Trump proposes versus what has happened overseas, at our border, to inflation, to crime in our cities, and to our culture, schools, and universities over the past few years, I side with those calling out, “Halt!”

 

…………………………………………………………………….

 

Mr. Trump does not satisfy the traits I seek in a friend. He is crude. His bluntness in public is rude. He is incapable of humility. He seems barren of humor, especially the ability to laugh at himself. He is not introspective, nor does he seem to have an interest in history, or even in political philosophy. I don’t understand his love affair with the three trillion-dollar cryptocurrency market, and I believe markets that size should be regulated. I wish he had nominated Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo to be in his cabinet rather than the abrasive Matt Gaetz or the untested Pete Hegseth. But none of us get everything we wish.

 

Character is important, but that and my personal preferences are not necessarily the qualities we need in a political leader when we are drowning in debt, living with a collapsed border, and enduring an education system – the most expensive in the world – that has failed our youth, all at a time when cultural issues are more important to elements of the Democratic Party than defending the country’s citizens. The problems we face are not unique to the United States. Classical western liberalism is under threat, as western democracies seem to have forgotten that individual freedom needs defending against those who seek power, as exemplified by dictators in countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Evil, as the Bible teaches us, is ever-present. The United States is not perfect as we all know, but its form of government, and the liberty it provides the individual, is unique in the annals of human history. It is a country that has benefitted from capitalism, that understands the critical nature of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” encourages entrepreneurship, a country that offers, not equality of outcomes but equal opportunities to those who have ability and aspiration. Trump is a fighter for those things he believes in, for working-class people – regardless of race, nationality, or gender – and for all those who love this country, warts and all.

 

Despite being harried by a media that hates him and hounded by political opponents who used the power of the state to try to destroy him, and opposed by bureaucrats who do whatever it takes to defend their turf, he never quits. He is tenacious. The media and his political enemies claim he wants to become a dictator, but they don’t listen to all that he says – if they understood his proposal for a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – they would realize he wants to limit the power of the state, to remove onerous regulations and to reduce the taxes that fund the leviathan that has become our federal government. Writing about DOGE in Saturday’s New York Sun, Newt Gingrich stated: “Unearthing what is wrong and discovering what could be right is the ultimate contribution of this project.” A smaller government, with power returned to the people, is the goal. Nevertheless, there are risks. Can Musk and Ramaswamy work their magic with DOGE, without disrupting the economy and/or financial markets?

 

Mr. Trump is not my ideal of a President, but I understand why history called him at this moment: Respect for the opinions of others, accountability and personal responsibility are traits needed but in short supply in the media and in our governing classes, as the world moves further into the 21^st Century – a world that will never be free from enemies to democracy. Will Mr. Trump be up to the task of navigating these shoals? I don’t know, but I suspect it will take someone outside the slipstream of politics as usual. We need a course-correction – a secure border, increased defense spending, mutual respect, an assurance that the concept of personal responsibility is alive and well, and accounta

"Where Has Time Gone?"

 My wife and I had a wonderful trip through the farm country of central Pennsylvania and the horse country of northwestern Virginia last week. We visited three student grandchildren. There was no talk of having classes cancelled, or of having been offered milk and cookies. We were uplifted by their positive outlook, their youthful enthusiasm, and their intellectual curiosity. They made us optimistic for the future.

 

I had begun this essay before we left, but daily drives of three and four-hours provided time to think more deeply on the subject – something personal to each of us, yet universal in its appeal. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“Where Has Time Gone?”

November 16, 2024

 

“It is strange how much you can remember about places like that

once you allow your mind to return into the grooves that lead back.”

                                                                                                  E.B. White (1899-1985)

                                                                                                 “Once More to the Lake,” 1941

                                                                                                   Essays of E.B. White, 1977

 

Where has time gone? Shaving, I am reminded of the song: “All I see is an old man/ Where a young man used to be.” Dressing, I think of J. Alfred Prufrock: “I grow old…I grow old… I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled.” All this causes me to, momentarily, yearn for the past. “Backward turn backward, O Time in your flight,” wrote Elizabeth Akers Allen in 1883, “Make me a child again just for tonight.” 

 

But when I think of the ever-increasing speed with which time passes, it is not of my own childhood, which stretched out for years, or even that of my children who took their time growing up. It is of my grandchildren I think. We expect special moments to last forever, even as the seconds and minutes tick by. Was it eighteen years ago that a photograph was taken of Caroline and me at the Hillsboro Club in Florida, each with an armful of squirming grandchildren? Now, the oldest is working in New York City and the youngest in her penultimate high school class. “How did it get so late so soon?,” asked Dr. Seuss. 

 

Time is tricky. Each day consists of twenty-four hours and each hour is comprised of sixty minutes. Yet as we age, each hour and day represent a smaller fraction of our lives. So time, which stretched interminably when we were children, is compressed as we age, with days and weeks flying toward our inevitable end. But time, as Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, “leaves its shadow behind,” in its impact on those we knew. 

 

To our children, but especially to our grandchildren, we are the continuum of history, that the past is never gone. It lives on in memories, letters and photographs. It affects those who come after – it is the shadow to which Hawthorne refers. I recently came across a photograph of my great-grandfather, born in 1837, whose name was Sydney Williams, holding his only child (also a Sydney Williams) shortly after his birth in Vevey, Switzerland in 1873. Looking at the photo gave me pause to consider all that has transpired during the 187 years since the birth of my great-grandfather – of how progress improved our lives. Yes, the past remains.

 

White’s essay, quoted in the rubric, is of taking his son to the lake where his father would take him. The final sentence reads: “As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” When we think of time, we recognize our mortality, and that, with the exception of God’s love, nothing is eternal. Respect for the past, tradition and values is not antithetical for a desire to improve the quality of the lives of our descendants. To our grandchildren, when they reach our age, we will be historical figures to their children and grandchildren. They, too, will think of the passage of time, of the impact we have had (which we hope is positive), and how the world has changed – which we pray will be for the better.    

"The Election - 2024"

                                                                     Sydney M. Williams

We leave on our visit to three grandchildren later this morning, but I did want to make a comment about the race.

 

With both the New York Times and the Washington Post calling Trump the winner, I believe it is safe to say he prevailed in his bid.

 

It is not joy, or even satisfaction, that I feel this morning in Trump’s victory. It is a sense of relief that Harris did not. The greatest threat to our Republic and to the concept of democracy is a government that has too much control on and influence over our lives. Acting “in the greater good” are words that sound pleasing but suggest government is insinuating its way into our lives. The greatness of America has always been law-abiding people acting independently, with responsibility to their neighbors and communities, while being accountable for their actions. It is not government that has made us the most fortunate people on Earth.

 

Trump’s personal (and unattractive) idiosyncrasies will be kept in check by the office he inherits, by the machinery of government, and by the media. Progressive Democrats, had they won, would have managed the government unchecked. Eliminating the filibuster and the Electoral College would rip the heart out of the idea of a Republic. Adding to the Supreme Court, and giving Congress oversight, would upset the concept of separation of powers. Allowing the District of Columbia to become a state would violate the Constitution. Sadly, mainstream media, in their preference for progressivism and in their hatred for everything Trump, never questioned these ideas.

 

I sincerely hope that Trump keeps his gloating to a minimum, that his talk of retribution dissipates, that he re-thinks his ideas of uneconomic tariffs, that he brings back his Abraham Accords, and that he supports Ukraine in their fight for freedom. 

 

The United States remains that “shining city on the hill,” with her Statue of Liberty beckoning the poor and the oppressed. We should live to the standards those words imply.

 

Sydney Williams

November 6, 2024