The Damage of Trump's Low Bar Presidency Is Worse Than You Think

[babylonsister]

Ruh roh. He's lost rethug apologist Matt Lewis.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-damage-of-trumps-low-bar-presidency-is-worse-than-you-think?ref=home


The Damage of Trump’s Low Bar Presidency Is Worse Than You Think
What will we come to expect of our elected leaders when he is gone?
Matt Lewis
05.07.18 4:44 AM ET


We are so distracted every day by the latest Trump scandal that it becomes hard to recognize the collective damage being done by his presidency.

It's not just the breaking of the norms. It’s is the massive lowering of expectations that people will have in their politicians and their governing institutions.

Take this past week. We were told three different story lines on one separate story after it was revealed—in a wholly separate matter—that Trump had dictated that glowing 2015 health report from his doctor.

But it's more than just the misdirection and mistruths. It’s the cynicism that accompanies them. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) now says the VA is unmanageable. “I’m not sure anyone can run the VA,” he confessed, as the nomination of Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson to head Veterans Affairs teetered in the balance. “It’s so big, it’s one of the biggest bureaucracies in the federal government.”

Meanwhile, President Trump says he thought the job would be easier and that nobody knew how complicated health care would be.

He has, in short order, created The Low Bar Presidency, an administration in which we have grown to expect that the spokespeople mislead, that cabinet officials are corrupt, and that the commander in chief is learning on the job.

Most of us are shocked in real time. But the existential question is whether the Low Bar Presidency ends when Trump's tenure does. Or will our expectations forever be lowered because of what he has managed to do less than a year-and-a-half into office? Will we assume, from here on out, that our politicians lie so cavalierly to us? That they misuse our taxpayer funds for the betterment of their private lives? That they are incapable to meeting the challenges of governance? If so, the costs could be horrifying.

snip//

The end result is a public that doesn’t trust its government to tell the truth—or have confidence that it can properly function. It is the Low Bar Presidency. And not only does it rejigger our expectations and change our level of tolerance for this kind of behavior in real time, it also invites the next president (regardless of party) to act this way too down the road.

Call it normalizing bad behavior, or creating permission structure, if you will. We have broken the seal; the genie is out of the bottle.

[manor321]

1. Repubs

Republicans have been viciously attacking government for decades. This end result is to be expected from their attacks.

[Freethinker65]

2. Deconstruction of the administrative state is going as planned.

Why is anyone in the GOP surprised?

[tanyev]

3. Well, if a Democrat becomes president, the GOP will very quickly find their moral outrage again.

[FakeNoose]

21. We can all feel justified in turning deaf ears to them when it happens

Am I right?

[John Fante]

30. Precisely.

Last edited Mon May 7, 2018, 02:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Look how quickly conservatives were shot down for feigning outrage over Michelle Wolf's jokes. They've NEVER had the moral high ground, but thanks to their devotion to Trump, it's laughable when they even pretend to now.

[Nay]

29. Ain't that the truth. As long as it's their guy, they truly don't care what he does.

Mainly because there are a lot of delusional people who think they will be BETTER OFF without an effective government. This is nonsense, of course, but they've been told that for a whole generation now. They believe it.

[unblock]

4. The bar is only low for republicans

Ford was sincere but inept, and pardoned Nixon, effectively normalizing crimes in the pursuit of electoral victories.

Reagan normalized coded hate and greed, and led one of the most corrupt administrations ever.

Poppy was in on electoral crimes and also presided over a corrupt administration.

Shrub was incompetent and sat by while Cheney and others ignored the constitution, tortured people, outed cia operatives, and destroyed emails.

Donnie lowered the bar? Hardly. He merely made what republicans have been doing obvious.

His only real sin in the eyes of these hand-wringing republicans is a lack of subtlety.

[CrispyQ]

7. This.

They all still vote with him, even the "honorable" ones like McCain.

[StevieM]

14. Don't forget George HW Bush pardoning the Iran-Contra offenders. (eom)

[unblock]

15. good one. then again, who's got time for an exhaustive list of their malfeasance.

[jayschool2013]

16. Don't forget that Shrub killed and maimed

hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and tens of thousands of Americans, including my cousin, because of lies.

As big a nightmare as our current occupant is — and that's a gross understatement — Bush's war crimes still take the prize. Twitler may just be getting started, however.

[unblock]

20. sorry about your cousin.

it's always hard to compare potential to actual results. shrub certainly had multiple, epic fails, including iraq and the financial crisis.

donnie has the *potential* to be vastly worse, but he has not clearly achieved such failures yet. then again, it's hard to say what damage he has done already. much depends on how the republican party proceeds after he's gone, one way or another. the "lowering the bar" topic du jour expresses this. he may already have damaged our institutions and our trust in them irreparably.

[jayschool2013]

32. Thanks

I use this analogy to this point in Hair Twitler's reign:

Bush:Trump=Gas Explosion:Slow Gas Leak

Either way there's a lot of damage. One just takes a little longer.

Of course, if we go to war with Iran, Hair Twitler will be worse.

[Cosmocat]

19. As a hard rule yes - the article is correct in that

The bar for Rs has increasingly be lowered, and this time exponentially.

[FakeNoose]

24. Don't forget that Cheeto got the benefit of the Citizens United ruling

If Nixon, Reagan or the Bushes had that in their corner, we'd already be a full-on Nazi regime.
I think the Citizens United ruling was the last puzzle piece the rightwingers needed.

[hatrack]

5. Obligatory Reagan tongue bath, somehow missing scandal-free 2009-2017

Hmm. Gee, I wonder why.

[catbyte]

11. No kidding. This meme demonstrates very clearly which party is corrupt

[IMG][/IMG]

[bigbrother05]

13. Missing Poppy's 4 year record as compared to Jimmy's 4 years

[unblock]

26. poppy was 1/1/1; carter was 1/0/0.

of course, poppy pardoned a bunch of iran-contra criminals, so his numbers are a bit artificially lowered.

compared to other republican presidents, poppy also only had 4 years, and indictments often don't surface until the second term.

[dalton99a]

25. +1

[smirkymonkey]

6. K&R

[NewJeffCT]

8. another kick

interesting story

[cstanleytech]

9. Remember the South Park episode "Raising the Bar"? In essence Trump and the Republican party tied

a 100,000lbs anchor to the bar and then cut line that was being used to raise the bar.

[malthaussen]

10. Honestly, Mr Lewis, it won't mean a thing to me...

... my expectations were already lower than you seem to think.

-- Mal

[ismnotwasm]

12. Oh I'm very aware.

As are any number of people, about how bad this actually is.

[procon]

17. Its a feature, not a bug.

Think about who might benefit the most when any government is no longer a functioning authority. Every sector of our society is being impacted now, and it will only get worse. Even if some future leadership tries to fix things, the monumental damages to the foundational duties of government are so deeply eroded that we may never fully recover and regain what Trump has destroyed.

The gate is open for the return of the old plutocracy from the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons from the late 19th century. Political corruption has lead to unregulated laissez faire capitalism and those wealthy oligarchs are openly bribing our unethical elected representatives to get the compliant government they want.

Just as the old money aristocrats like Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Rockefeller, today's 1 percenters are dictating their demands to government to eliminate any regulation on business. They have removed the laws that served as impediments to monopolies, and their shady stock trading practices are the new norm. Exploiting workers is good business for the rich and powerful in their goal of amassing enormous fortunes.

[Garrett78]

23. Yep. Undermining government or trust in said government has been GOP SOP for the last 50 years.

Anti-Trump Republicans may be upset about some of Trump's more egregious statements and actions, or upset that he's as overtly bigoted as he is. But they all have blood on their hands.

[keithbvadu2]

18. As well as lower the bar for Christianity.

As well as lower the bar for Christianity.

Trump who says he is so perfect that he does not need Christ or his forgiveness.

Trump who ridicules Holy Communion.

Trump: Drink my little wine, have my little cracker

Lots of mulligans for Donald.

[Scurrilous]

22. Idiocracy come true.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

27. Best case scenario

is that we get a more "conventional" President next time and things pretty much go back to "business as usual" (though hopefully we're all paying more attention to what is going on in the WH more) and most people come to historically view Trump as a complete aberration never to be repeated again. Or, worst case scenario, we get a ever-devolving succession of Trump-like Presidents until the WH is literally nothing but a corrupt and dysfunctional joke that is taken serious by nobody here or internationally. The good news is that we have serious and high-minded people on the Democratic/progressive side whom are infinitely more unlikely to be anywhere near as massively incompetent and/or corrupt as Trump and will support and will appoint competent and hard-working people to their Cabinet and do what they can to help advance progressive issues. The bad news is that the Republicans are the only place where Trump and Trump-like candidates can ever hope to find a home and Republicans know how to suppress and otherwise tamper with elections in their favor (and refuse to hold their candidates and elected officials accountable for virtually anything).

Frankly, what I'm worried most is how the Senate is going to look by the time Mitch McConnell is no longer in office or is no longer Majority Leader.

[Zoonart]

28. More pearl clutching from the

grave-robbers that happily delivered the body parts to the lab over forty years. Finally they have their MONSTER and they pretend to be Horrified.
No Sale.

[liberalmuse]

31. Collectively, we are getting our comeuppance.

This nation has allowed people with the worst impulses free reign for too long a time. Watching, largely silent, while some of us work to demonize and disparage those with honor, and allowing those who endlessly champion aggression, turn away from wisdom, willfully disregard facts, and ridicule kindness and compassion a larger voice than those who value truth and the revere the principle of “do no harm” has its consequences. “We” deserve Trump.

Trump emerged into the public consciousness at the very time America decided to ditch our better selves and embrace the lowest common denominator. He has been over 30 years in the making and like it or not, is as much a reflection of who we really are as Obama was a reflection of who the better part of us desperately want to become.

People who want to do the right thing are being drowned out by those who have allowed their Ids take the reigns, imprisoning their spirits and denying their higher selves to the detriment of all. Those of us who haven’t will need to continue to let those in our sphere know exactly where we stand. We are going to have to be more and more relentless without sacrificing our values. Not an easy task. The question is, how much damage will be done before enough of us realize with the unwavering, powerful conviction that forces action we need to ditch this path and work together to forge a new one that moves towards balancing the needs and desires of all sentient beings?