Jared and Ivanka Are Not Good People. They Are Enablers.

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/stop_relying_on_jared_and_ivanka_they_are_enablers.html

Jared and Ivanka Are Not Good People. They Are Enablers.
Also, there is no evidence that suggests they have ever actually done anything positive for the country.
By Dahlia Lithwick


snip//

When it comes to President Trump, one must either begin from the proposition that he is a mentally ill huckster, unfit to serve, or one must start with the intention of continuously parsing each momentary action (the ‘give him a chance, he’s not that bad, the people have spoken’ approach). And if you are of the camp that chooses to parse each jog and twist in the current madness, you can certainly make the case that though Ivanka does not, in fact, “know what it means to be complicit,” she certainly does seem to hope that “time will prove that I have done a good job and much more importantly, that my father’s administration is the success that I know it will be.”

Indeed, if you are of the camp that maintains that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, despite flagrantly self-enriching and profiteering from the Trump presidency, are vitally important “moderating influences” on the narcissist to which they answer, you can surely assert, as Jared Kushner has been known to do when challenged, that he is doing what he believes is right with “complicated facets,” and that he is, in his own view, “navigating it appropriately.” The argument amounts to the proposition that having elected a nutball, anyone who performs a braking function on the nutball is by definition a national hero.

Semantically, you might be able to make this point. But ethically and morally, you would probably be wrong to do so. Put aside for a moment the very real allegations about very real wrongdoing by this family. Ivanka and Jared’s justifications of their actions rest on the claim that destiny has forced them to play outsize parts in this administration, and that as profoundly and intrinsically good people they are simply trying to play that role with performative goodness. This defense—that anyone who accuses Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner of complicity is opposed to their sane and benevolent intercessions on behalf of America’s good people—is without doubt the most morally and ethically shallow claptrap offered up to public discourse since Trump took office. I think it’s time to label it as such.

For one thing, the whole argument rests on the idea that Trump is more or less mentally and cognitively unfit to serve in office, but oh well, let’s let him do it anyway. It goes on to assert that only the Kushners can help make the best of this bad situation. This goes beyond ordinary lipstick on a pig. This analysis quite literally turns on the proposition that but for their intercession a madman would make even more insane decisions.

It also takes them at their word that Jared and Ivanka have generally been a force for good. This is not true. Jared and Ivanka get credit for helping to quash a proposed executive order in February that would have rolled back Obama-era LGBT protections under the guise of protecting religious liberty. The Trump administration has since withdrawn just such federal protections afforded transgender students in schools, sought to have questions about sexual identification and gender identity removed from the census, removed all mention of LGBT rights from the White House website, and signed an executive order undermining an Obama-era ban on federal contractors from discriminating against LGBTQ employees. But by all means, let’s be grateful to Jared and Ivanka for moderating Trump’s LGBTQ policies.

more...

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/stop_relying_on_jared_and_ivanka_they_are_enablers.html

[jaxind]

1. How...

How could Jared and Ivanka ever have done anything positive for this country, when they and their whole family only care about themselves and how much more money they can make??!

[Sculpin Beauregard]

2. They don't now and have never

lived in the world we do. They never had to bootstrap anything in their lives. Neither has Cheeto. So we have multi generations of people who are dangerously out of touch with the lives of most Americans.

I have no love for Putin, but the man had to work for a living at one time. He was a common man. As terrible as he is. His position, as odious as it is, was not handed to him.

[uponit7771]

9. +1

[Hekate]

3. Yep

[malaise]

4. Good read

I don't get the madness or the enablers

[world wide wally]

5. Just thinkin... We've never hung a President

Yet

[Doreen]

6. Ivanka is evil.

Jared kisses Trumps ass. Now how do I say this without getting into trouble? Oh yes, when it comes to Jared and Ivanka Jared is extremely female compliant to a fault.

[notdarkyet]

7. What's been sticking in my craw is that they feel entitled to assume the office of a deranged

President without being elected to the office--just for starters--which is not what the election intended. If the president is unable to mentally fill the demands of the position, then, the family do not have the right to step into that office. We did not elect you. You don't deserve to be there. You have no right to be there. I want to say we but, people don't like you. We see no values, depth, intelligence or moral fabric to stand in the place of our highest office and presume to represent us. Who the hell are you?

[zentrum]

8. They are

...terrible people who fancy themselves as being royals.

Ivanka has power over 45 because she is the only person on earth who "loves" him for him and not for his money. Or at least that's what he believes. In any contest between Ivanka and Bannon---she will be the winner.