Our ex-so-called president

Not arguing, but do you see people like these taking up government posts if they can’t go back to their respective industries to reap the fruits of their “public service”?

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Absolutely. Some of them are Free Market Objectivists and believe that things actually work better when deregulated, all of them have friends in the industry, many of them have stocks within the industry they worked in, not to mention any family connections…

Plus, the (already existent) bribery and corruption laws that you referenced are, for the most part, only winked at, unless someone is extremely blatant about their abuse of power.

The best way to prevent a revolving door of corruption between government and private sector is to shut it in both directions.

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On a different note:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/12/17/i-voted-trump-now-his-wall-may-destroy-my-butterfly-paradise/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fea37c036f87

People have asked me, “Didn’t you listen to Trump when he said that he would build a wall?” I didn’t take the idea seriously during the campaign. I knew he couldn’t get Mexico to pay it — that’d be like asking Hurricane Harvey to foot the bill for rebuilding Houston — and thought it was just talk: another candidate making big promises he couldn’t keep. I never thought it would actually happen.

By backing the wall, my party has abandoned the conservative principles I treasure: less government, less spending, and respect for the law and private property. The wall is expected to cost between $8 billion and $67 billion to build, and its rushed construction requires the waiver of 28 federal laws meant to protect clean air and water, wildlife habitat and historical artifacts.

He still hasn’t clued in. The “less government” that he wanted? He’s getting it: less government protecting his water, wildlife, and history.

If he thought he was getting anything else by voting Republican, he’s the one who has been living in an alternate reality.

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But it’s the more government that he voted for that’s building the wall and destroying wildlife sanctuaries. More powerful, more aggressive, more intrusive.

It’s positively Orwellian that people keep calling stronger police states, to enforce racism, “less government”.

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He even says that he wanted stronger immigration enforcement, just not a wall. He doesn’t seem to be raising a hue and cry against the human rights abuses against people; the only living things being hurt by Trump and his administration that he cares about are his butterflies.

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He thought the ‘so much winning’ actually included him, and people like him;
when 45 was really only talking about enriching himself.

I don’t pity the sucker, but I do feel bad for the butterflies.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-child-occupies-the-white-house--and-the-world-knows-it/2018/12/17/57adc7ea-021f-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html

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It’s like the Leopards Eating People’ Faces Party saying it wants less leopards eating people’s faces, and it will begin by eating immigrants’ faces…

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I saw a woman - A WOMAN - with a Trump 2020 bumper sticker on her minivan. A white, middle-class woman, who could’ve been my age, getting fuel and shopping where I shop. I was APPALLED. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.

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There’s a sucker born every minute; Barnum or whoever was not wrong about that.

That said, ‘mean girl’ in me is really enjoying reading all the comments eviscerating the author for his thoughtless/selfish choices.

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She had the prissiest, pointed look to her face. And I noticed a bleach stain on the left leg of her otherwise perfect capri pants. I was…I mean, she could’ve been an alien pancreas with eyes, drooling stinking pus, and I would’ve been almost as disgusted. (I have a high threshold for gross).

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I am unshocked by that. Appalled but not shocked. Here in the bible belt, there are a lot of women who take great pride in their own subordination. It’s nauseating.

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Best idea ever for a movie.

I read this opinion piece earlier and was just appalled but not surprised. I’ve stopped wondering about the ability of people to disassociate like that, and the fact 34% of the population can do it.

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Trump supporters are the majority amongst White women overall. Amongst middle-class White women, they are a strong majority.

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I can’t wait for ICE and Border Patrol to be in the history books.

Even though under a “real” government, they would be relegated to “barefoot and pregnant”. But hey, brown people are coming…

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And I don’t get it. And I was raised by middle-class white women.

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Regrettably:

&

There is a long and sad history of gender being weaponised in the oppression of race and class. Emmett Till etc.

Trumpist misogyny does have an impact; White women support him at much lower rates than White men. But, for the majority, race and class trumps gender.

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I realize I was raised to be racist, but it took me awhile to figure it out.

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That’s, shall we say, orthogonal to any of these positions. You can easily bring in outsiders with the same set of beliefs if you happen to lead a government with a similar agenda. For instance, instead of Education, we might find DeVos in Health doing the same “bang-up” job. We are less likely to get governments with similar leanings if we institute the second leg of our own agenda: electoral reform. Free Market Objectivists get nominated because there is money in it for the pols.

…as do many successful outsiders. Networking is one of the primary tools of competent people, not just the corrupt, and networking is rarely limited to one industry.

Divestiture with teeth. I don’t mind that even the vast majority of these people are wealthy, but the idea is that they get out of the business before they work for the public.

True enough, but looking the other way is rewarded indirectly as well as directly, and that’s the part I’m looking at. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect perfection, but making a dent would certainly help, and finding practical means to use is essential. It is much easier to enforce retirement than to bar almost everyone from entering public service (elected or not) in the first place. (Government is concerned with most aspects of modern life, eh?)

Even if you could create a dedicated civil service/political class (which is essentially what such a ban would entail), you will find yourself with a ruling class that is completely divorced from most of the community. That opens an even worse can of worms than the creeping feudalism we’re faced with now.

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