I read an op-ed by ex-secretary of state Robert Gates, written for the WaPo……
We have a challenging world and the next president will need to solve problems as they arise…..the problem is I cannot think of one person in either party that will be capable of doing such a thing.
The country is more divided now than in any time in history (that may be a stretch but you get the point)…..domestically, internationally and then there is Congress…..that alone will make the next president weak…….
Beginning in 2017 the next president will up to his/her butt in problems….how will they be met?
America’s next leader must be truthful and realistic about the challenges ahead.
As the NDAA has effectively made us into a police state and since The Secretary of State is thinking of prosecuting people for exercising their First Amendment rights and since gun grabbing has become the suggested cure for terrorism who actually needs a president? If we no longer have a country why do we need a president?
How can you be against NDAA and still want the prez to do more to kill off domestic terrorists….I wish that people would focus on what the problem and stop using the Constitution as a prop….we will not lose our guns…the NRA owns this country they are safe.
I love the NDAA … I think it needs to be vastly expanded. Oh by the way … The Constitution is a historical document to which only token obedience is being paid so maybe we could do without that also.
How does you friend over at C& H feel about that? The Constitution is here to stay…it allows so much within its words that we will forever have it to use as the tool we use it now…..a marvelous piece of political work but today it is more a political prop than a guiding document….
I am lying of course …
Sorry…
🙂
It’s a nicely written piece by Gates and thoughtful in many respects. I especially liked this comment:
”We need a president who understands the system of government bequeathed to us by the Founders — and grasps the reality that with power divided among three branches of government, building coalitions and making compromises are the only ways anything lasting can get done.”
But he has a problem that many in the media do today by failing to see the difference between a Democratic-controlled Congress who tried to work with a Bush administration that pretty much did what it wanted to do and a Republican-controlled Congress who made it their number one goal to obstruct anything that Obama put forth. The GOP’s claim now that the President is working around reflects that inability on their part to compromise.
Perhaps Gates should read how this was laid out by political scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann in their book, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism.”
And I thought I was going to upchuck when he made comparisons between FDR and Reagan
I liked Gates piece but I refuse to buy into much of what he wrote….sounds more like a legacy piece than a real analysis to me…..chuq
New word!
Upchuck….
Any one who associated with Maggie is definitely upchuck….
Good luck next year….;)
..
I read Gates autobiography. I wasn’t impressed enough with it to want to read anything else he has written. He’s a man who thinks far more of himself and his “legacy” than he should.
By the way, in case you’re interested, here’s my review of his autobiography … https://kingmidgetramblings.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/a-book-review-duty-by-robert-gates/
Thanx I will check it out…..chuq
I agree….he is the typical bureaucrat….
No human being exists who could adequately perform the duties as described in the Constitution; not in today’s world, nor in any world we’ve ever seen. It’s a job with more responsibility than one person is capable of even comprehending, much less effectively performing. Period. This is why there has never been one all could agree had done the job right. In order to even WANT the job requires a personality that is completely WRONG for it. To want that much responsibility implies a sense of self-worth completely at odds with reality; ambition marks them deeply, and ambition is the LAST thing one wishes to see in a President of our country.
Power doesn’t corrupt; it merely attracts the corruptible.
The Founders created the Constitution for an agrarian society, which no longer exists. But, it is, as chuq points out, vague enough to allow it to be a useful guide in directing any reforms needed to adjust to the changes in our world…as long as the basic ideas are held to be true, and are protected, it can, and will be the most democratic choice available…
Personally, I think it’s time we tried anarchy for a while. Get rid of the whole bloody concept of money, and deal with each other face to face… But, that’s probably how things will end up, anyway, once the climate changes have killed of 99% of everyone alive, as they are most likely to do in the next hundred years or so….
Ffolkes…. I’m afraid it’s probably too late, and all this political farce that is occurring today will be reduced to its proper status, as complete poopadoodle (thank you, Odds Bodkins). None of these assholes are going to make a difference in the outcome of Reality, for it is now out of our bloody hands, and back in the hands of Gaia, Mother Nature, who is about to relentlessly exact her revenge upon all of us….She’s already begun the process, and we haven’t even a clue how to slow it down, or stop it…
Hell, most people won’t even accept it as true! Because, frankly, 99% of the human race are idiots…..
Hold your breath, and hang on, ffolkes, the next century will be a doozy!
gigoid, the dubiously prophetic….
😎
I agree with everything….especially the Constitution thingy…..what many people do not realize that the Bill of Rights is an add on…..most think it was some sort of thinking all along…it was not….
I am noticing your absence…..
Hope all is well…
all is well…I am negotiating a chance to teach a course on the Middle East….thanx for the concern…..chuq