I got an early morning phone call this week from, of all people, the former Speaker of the House, Newton Leroy “Newt” Gingrich.
“Leroy, my man, what’s the good word?” I asked.
“Rick, it’s bad!” Gingrich replied.
“How bad, Newt? Billy Bush bad or out of hair spray bad?” I inquired realizing the seriousness of this call.
“It’s about as bad as it can get, Rick. Trump just tore me a new one on a Tweet about the Alligator’s and the swamp.” he answered.
“So, was it the ‘alligator’s’ that got him upset?”
“No, the ‘swamp!’ The ‘swamp’ is out. We don’t have the ‘swamp.’ We needed the ‘swamp.’ The ‘swamp’ was what we were going to drain and now, all of sudden, Trump doesn’t like the ‘swamp.'” Gingrich said almost in a panic. “Rick, I came up with the ‘swamp!’ It was my baby and now, Trump hates the ‘swamp.’ I’m screwed! I’m just screwed aren’t I? Aren’t I just screwed, Rick! I’m just screwed!”
It is sad to see a respected politician break apart and destroy themselves. Luckily, this was Leroy “Newt” Gingrich and the word ‘respected’ has not been used in the same sentence with his name for over a decade.
But what Gingrich was panicked about isn’t unusual. Campaigner Trump made a whole lot of promises and assurances to his many supporters. It seemed that as he was speaking off-the-cuff in each different section of the country he would feed off of the enthusiasm of the crowd and could almost read what was uppermost on their minds.
Here is an abbreviated list of the many promises made by President-Elect Trump:
- Build a wall along the southern border
- Make Mexico pay for the wall
- Get rid of Obamacare
- Rebuild the country’s aging infrastructure
- Defund Planned Parenthood
- I will take care of women
- Use the term “radical Islamic terrorism”
- Ban most foreign Muslims from entering the United States
- Bar Syrian refugees from entering the country and kick out any who are already living here
- Heavily surveil mosques in the United States
- Create a database of Syrian refugees
- Never take a vacation while serving as president
- Prosecute Hillary Clinton
- Strengthen the military
- Be unpredictable
- Allow Russia to deal with the Islamic State in Syria
- Bomb the s— out of ISIS
- Target and kill the relatives of terrorists
- Shut down parts of the Internet
- Bring back waterboarding
- Get rid of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
- On the first day in office, terminate President Obama’s executive orders related to immigration
- Deport the almost 11 million immigrants illegally living in the United States
- Continue to allow lowly paid foreign workers to come to the United States on temporary works visas
- End birthright citizenship
- Then on Thursday, December 22, Trump tweets U.S. needs to ‘greatly strengthen and expand’ nukes
- DRAIN THE SWAMP!
That is 27 of the promises from Donald J. Trump during his pre-inaugural days. By the way, this is merely one third of all of the promises. Yes, this list is merely 1/3rd of all of the promises that Donald J. Trump made from the day he announced to three days before Christmas, 2016.
Now, I’m NOT going to tell you how or what YOU should be thinking. I am simply going to ask you to look over the list one more time. Now, in all honesty, you cross off the promises that are either impossible or just rhetoric. (rhetoric
noun rhet·o·ric \ˈre-tə-rik\: language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.)
And now, Trump has crossed off “draining the Swamp” himself. Why? Well, take a look at the alligators who he has started to populate his own personal swamp. This is no swamp. This is a steam bath for Billionaires. The total amount of all of the wealth of the previously wealthiest cabinet in the entire history of the United States was that of President George W. Bush. His entire cabinet was worth a whopping $250 million! That is exactly 1/10th of the wealth of just one of the Trump Cabinet members, Wilbur Ross, nominated for Secretary of Commerce with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion. (Does anyone not remember the state of the American economy on the last day of George W. Bush’s Presidency? Do you remember the collapse of General Motors? I don’t want to scare you but this group isn’t even rich as compared to the billionaires in the Trump Cabinet.)
So, the common man, has voted into power over them the wealthiest individuals in the entire world.
It reminds me of a story when I was in my first year of being a teacher. Our best friends were two very wealthy individuals. One had been born into wealth and the other had married her. She called to invite us out to go eat and then to a movie. It was a week before our next paycheck and we were broke. Broke BROKE! We told her that we would love to go but we didn’t have any money. She said well, we’ll go by the bank and you can just write a check. My wife said we don’t have ANY MONEY. There was a long pause and then a horrified, “YOU DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY!!!! HOW WILL YOU LIVE? WHAT WILL YOU EAT?”
Lesson to my common men and women friends:
Rich people don’t understand being poor. Their solution: just go get some more money.
So, please, remember this little lesson, when you are wondering, in a year or two or four, how you got so screwed.
And that is my View of the SPA / SWAMP from the Hill
View From The Hill 