Why do Trump's moments of unadulterated stupidity get written off as "personality", but when Biden does it, its because his brain is fried?
Why does Trump get a pass for being stupid?
I ask again, in a comparison where someone did not know who either man is, would anyone seriously consider Biden worse off than Trump?
None of this holds any weight, Trump is so far down the scale in temperament, demeanor, intelligence, etc. that complaining about anyone else is really just not a serious position to take. I would expect, in any sane environment, that anyone who has concerns about Biden would have considered Trump a non-starter.
FFS, Herschel Walker is neck and neck with Warnock in Georgia. Cognitive abilities and intelligence don't seem to even be considerations for republicans in that state.
Great post. I would add to the part about Biden v Trump that the other reassuring thing to me about the Biden administration is that he has surrounded himself with competent advisors. In terms of lean within the Dems' spectrum, I could want fresher outlooks in some cases but am most appreciative that he picked people with expertise AND political savvy.
In short, Biden knows that the executive branch is not remotely manageable by just one person.
Trump on the other hand never even wanted a transition team in 2016 --even after he had won that election-- and he had only had Chris Christie set one up in the interim because it's required by law. As soon as he was sworn in though, most of Christie's designees were swept aside and it became clear that the transition would be managed by Kushner trying to implement what he understood day to day were Trump's intentions.
So Trump's incoming crew largely skipped transition meetings prepared by Obama's team. Some agencies didn't have acting heads at first, and anyway Trump dismissed the value of briefings about what the various departments and agencies are responsible for and how they interact.
Anyone paying attention at that time could understand three about the Trump admin:
1) it would be chaotic, a real fly-by-seat-of-pants that would make "outsider" JImmy Carter's team look like seasoned Beltway insiders, and
2) all manner of mischief and private agendas could ensue... and
3) the government functioned smoothly at all only because of the rafts of experienced civil service workers, non-political appointees, capable of interpreting how to implement the policy changes that were transmitted to them. And those are the employees that Trump swears he will make it easier to get rid of, "if and when" he returns to office in 2024. Why? Because of "process," following agency rules the roadmaps to implemention of related legislation.
The bureaucrats are the bedrock of a government that works for the people. The ones in DoE who know where Form 35A.20c(7) has to be filed before some counterpart in the EPA can sign off on a drilling permit for company XYZ near some aquifer in Kansas.
Trump's declared archenemy was always "process." Any American heroes on his staff may indeed have been the ones who walked some paperwork off his desk before he could sign it in a photo-op, or the ones who dragged heels on an unconstitutional order until Trump forgot about it and moved on to something else. Sometimes those staffers had the guardrails back up in hours, and sometimes only after weeks, meanwhile taking flak when asked about some harebrained or illegal Trump order over and over again.
Sure there's always an excess of "process" in a huge undertaking like the USA's federal government. So what? It's what saves us from extreme policy swings and extreme reactions by dismayed voters. It's why we don't experience the equivalent of Italy having installed over 60 governments in 75 years.
I'm not saying Biden might not have impractical or politically infeasible ideas, or even some that on reflection would not be legal. It's that the Biden administration is led by a president who understands his oath to operate a branch of government within constitutional restraints, and Trump didn't care about anything except himself and whatever he wanted to do from moment to moment.
