Will Donald Trump leaving office, by term ending, impeachment, or demise, solve our national divisions, in any way? No implication of a desire to harm anybody is inferred.
His successor is likely to be a more ‘professional’ president in many ways, and as Trump fades, I think a lot of America will have long since gotten sick of talking about Trump, and so people will naturally want to move on as quickly as possible. Although Trump will continue to be brought up every election cycle, though.
Society is already burned out with Trump fatigue. Once he leaves, I don’t think many will be eager to keep bringing it up, and those who do, will annoy those who don’t.
If Trump is impeached, then he’s a martyr. And if you think he’s conservative, let me tell you about President Pence…
I doubt that it will solve our national divisions, but it will solve the immediate problem of having a president in office who doesn’t understand how politics and international relations work, cannot reliably foresee the consequences of his own actions, and seems to be positively allergic to taking advice from people who do understand these things. I’m OK with solving that problem and worrying about the national divisions later. (And yes, that means that I would strongly prefer President Pence, despite the fact that I disagree with him about virtually every issue of substance.)
What kind of cabinet would Pence inflict upon the world? Would he keep Trump’s cabinet members? Is he obliged to replace them or keep them or is it up to him?
It doesn’t matter how conservative Pence is, because he lacks a fan base–and thus the power to put his ideas into practice.
For that reason, Pence will be far better for the nation–and the world–than is Trump.
Well, it would solve having one of the worst, least qualified human beings in the highest office in the world. So, there’s that at least.
Nope, Pence would be under no obligation to keep any Trump cabinet members. He could replace some or all.
Yeah, except that in Indiana he did - until the courts overturned his new laws. He may not have a rabid, dedicated fan base but he is skilled enough as a politician to get laws passed.
He might be better for the world at large - he will not be better for the US>
One problem that Trump’s removal will solve is the parade of incompetence running through the highest levels of the executive branch of the federal government, cancelling long standing plans and projects, sowing corruption and malcontenment, and alienating our closest allies all in the guise of “draining the swamp” by selecting political outsiders. (Never mind how many of these ‘outsiders’ are former investment bankers, corporate leaders of businesses known for corrupt practices, and religious fundamentalists with a deliberate agenda to dismantle the norms of liberal democracy and in some cases actually desiring to bring about their literal interpretation of Biblical Apocalypse.) While it will not fix any of the socioeconomic problems that led to a demogogue like Trump being elected in the first place, right now those problems aren’t even really being acknowledged, much less addressed by the current administration, even obvious ones such as the opioid crisis or progressively higher costs and lack of transparency in health care pricing.
However, before anyone gets to excited about dumping Trump, I’ll point out that Mike Pence is waiting in the wings to sweep in with his particular brand of born again theocracy and while his obvious target is the LGBQT segment, it isn’t as if he’s going to make life better for anyone who doesn’t want to live in a LARP inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale. And despite what a terrible clusterfuck this last couple of years has been in so many ways, there are plenty of people who would gleefully vote for Pence strictly on the belief that Pence represents a way back to a nation where they are still in privilege and security.
The “national divisions”, as the o.p. terms them, stem from disruptions in a social order and hierarchy in which a minority of people effectively controlled the nation, from determining who could vote to where and how people can live, and stem back to the founding of the country where slavery was literally institutionalized into the Constitution. These are changes that most other developed nations have managed to accept with relatively modest social upheaval, but here it serves to further separate an already highly stratified socioeconomic situation and literally harken back to the revolt that split the nation in half over an argument about whether some people should be property of others. Until those core attitudes change, it isn’t going to matter who is president; those divisions will remain and be inflamed as the more progressive elements continue to press for a universal expectation of personal freedoms.
Trust me, there is a “fan base” for Pence, and if you think the people sporting red “MAGA” hats are obnoxious idiots, you haven’t seen the people who love on Pence and would welcome his agenda. They may not be a majority sufficient to get Pence re-elected but they make up for it in pure bile-filled hatred.
Stranger
Of course I realize that the US contains rabidly-hateful evangelicals (as well as some less rabid ones). But the number of Americans who revere Pence isn’t anywhere near in magnitude to the number who revere Trump. And that translates into ‘Pence won’t be able to do as much nutty, destructive shit as Trump has done.’
Trump is being enabled by a Congress terrified of being primaried by his fans. Pence won’t have that level of deference from Congress. Sure, there are religious conservatives who will be pleased that he’s President (if that happens)—but there just won’t be the ‘we don’t dare to say a word against him’ factor that obtains now.
If Trump is gone cable news networks would have find something else to talk about 90% of their air time
Exactly. It’s not Trump’s “conservative” policies that disgust me, although I’m no conservative. It’s the corruption, incompetence, and ignorance. Oh, and he’s an ass too. I would like a conservative president, but it’s far superior to whatever the hell we have now.
What the heck? Why would you even have to ask?
Trump is America’s experiment with something completely different. I’m not sure that itch is fully scratched the moment Trump leaves office. People have lost faith in the institutions that provide stable government, and that won’t change if Trump is somehow impeached or defeated. People still have low regard for the Congress and for most politicians they don’t personally vote for.
Having Trump leave office won’t solve our national divisions. But it would solve our terrible president problem.
I don’t like Pence and I wouldn’t vote for him. But he’s not a terrible president in the way Trump is.
Again - Pence is a highly skilled politician. He knows how to wheel and deal. He’d get more passed than you think he would.
Even if you get rid of Trump, you still have a pretty large systemic problem in the political system which is that it’s currently set up for bribery, via Citizens United and the whole lobbying system. Powerful wealthy people provide funds for the candidates they want to see in power. Those candidates then get elected and successfully persuade the electorate that policies which move wealth to the top 1% are great. The powerful and wealthy people then have more money. The self-reinforcing cycle continues.
If the traditional politician-buyers - wealthy Americans and US companies - had remained the only ones in the bribery game, then everything would be kept more-or-less in bounds by the fact that it’s not in the donor class’s interests to push things too far; if you make people really desperate you might get a revolution, and besides, it’s embarrassing for your country if you start slipping down the life-expectancy chart and up the infant mortality and citizens-in-poverty measures. Now that foreign wealthy people have discovered the joys of buying US politicians, it can be a whole different game. Clearly the entire Republican party is infested with Russian money from top to bottom, are making a great thing out of the current system, and don’t have any incentive to change.
I think the worst part of Trump’s legacy (assuming he doesn’t start a major war or something) will be how he’s lowered the bar. Trump may be the most personally corrupt President we’ve ever had. After he leaves office, we’ll probably go back to the usual level of political corruption. And the public perception will be that this amount of corruption is relatively acceptable.
It might help my ulcer.
Of course, I’d immediately develop a President Pence ulcer, so bad with the good and all that…
Or they could show reruns of Mr. Ed and The Beverly Hillbillies.
Or, here’s a thought! They could start doing journalism.