This surprises me

President Donald Trump has told advisers he intends to nominate former attorney general William Barr as his next attorney general.

Barr is staunchly conservative, perhaps to a radical level, but I don’t see him acting as anyone’s sycophant, which doesn’t make him a typical Trump guy.

7 thoughts on “This surprises me

  1. Mussolini never had a total degree of institutional power. He had to placate other centers of power, such as the monarchy, the Church, the Army, and factions within the Italian Fascist power. That is how he could be deposed in 1943, rather than remaining master of Italy until 1945.

    These facts, however, may only increase Trump’s resemblance to him.

  2. The formerly GrandOP will go Whiggy after 2024 at latest maybe in2020 (depending on what happens on the Mueller front). 2 things I’m afraid of here. One – Dems fall all over each other with investigations and impeachment talk. Kinda like the Russkies in late 41 (WaPo had an article couple of days ago on the 77th ann. of the counteroffensive) And don’t get the job done. Two – the Dems follow their progressive bliss and put up a loser in 20 (likely).
    But in 24 – if the Orange Buffoon is still there – he’ll double-cross his would be double-crossing Veep and try to have Donnie Jr. nominated. The “religious” Right erupts and the Party will split forever.
    Truth in in advertising – moderately conservative fiscal-focused “Globalist” ex-Republican here.
    Toby – focus. Trump is stupid, ignorant, dishonest, unethical, and a total scumball personally. Probably somewhere between Berlusconi and Erdogan – which is bad enough. I think he would be capable of attempting a coup to stay in power. But I think you need to bone up a bit on that German guy.

    1. Trump reminds me a great deal of Mussolini. His facial mannerisms and his body posture even often looks like Mussolini (though the doesn’t fold his arms or nod his head like Mussolini did), and I find it a bit too similar to be merely a coincidence.

      Trump doesn’t have the total degree of institutional power that Mussolini amassed, and the Democrats retaking the House makes that even more the case, however, I think clearly his main problem in terms of being as authoritarian as he probably would have liked to have been is his appalling ignorance of the machinery of government.

      In regards to the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020, I think there will almost certainly be a major fight between the neo-classical economics establishment liberal Democrats (Hillary Clinton in 2016) and the post-Keynesian progressive wing (Bernie Sanders.) Impossible to know what will happen, but I take some comfort that in the 2018 midterms, the more centrist Democrats defeated the more progressive Democrats in nearly every primary where they ran against each other. (The one high-profile case of Alexandra Occasio Cortez obscures what occurred in nearly every other primary.)

  3. Not all Republicans swear allegiance to Trump, but far too many have adopted the attitude that the GOP is engaged in a war with the Democrats and if the Dems attack Trump, all good Republicans (i.e. non RINOs) must defend him. I reject that. I’ll agree with Trump when I agree with him, but I won’t defend him when I believe he’s wrong. I worry though that the Dems will overplay their hand and go too far and actually make it possible for Trump to win reelection. Then I feel really conflicted, because much as I despise Trump, I agree with parts of his agenda. But then I worry it will be 20 years before the GOP wins another election after Trump.

  4. Indeed…and the Republican Party is now Trump’s party. They all now swear allegiance to the Fuehrer.

  5. “Barr is staunchly conservative, perhaps to a radical level, but I don’t see him acting as anyone’s sycophant, which doesn’t make him a typical Trump guy.”

    Maybe Putin’s got something on him.

Comments are closed.