The eleventh-hour resignations of various Trump aides and cabinet secretaries are so utterly, cynically typical of how the American establishment works — especially its Washington branch, a.k.a. The Swamp.
And it disgusts. Why the sudden urge to leave the Trump administration? Rush Limbaugh, of course, nailed it with this recent observation:
“You want a job in Washington? You want a career in Washington? You want a future in Washington? As a Republican or Democrat, you have to become a participating member of that establishment or you have to appear that you are. That’s the big lesson going forward.”
Exactly. As the Daily Caller News Foundation has reported, “several media figures and Democrats have called for lists to be made of President Donald Trump’s “sycophants” or supporters following the presidential election, suggesting that these lists will be used in the future to hold the president’s supporters accountable.”
Or consider the fact that national security officials in the Trump administration are being compared to the Hitler Youth (emphasis added):
“National security officials who work for President Donald Trump are being snubbed by potential future employers and compared to ‘Hitler Youth’ days before president-elect Joe Biden will take office, Politico reported. … Former civil servant and Homeland Security official Elizabeth Neumann, who worked in counter-terrorism, told Politico that she easily found a new job after resigning from the Trump administration in April but credited this to her outspoken criticism of Trump policy.”
We’ve also seen a real gem of spiteful revenge emerge from Forbes’ chief content officer, Randall Lane, a cheerleader for the targeting of Trump staffers and their possible future employers. As Newsmax quite accurately pointed out, “acting more like a Mafia don than a media executive, Lane then threatened future employers: ‘Hire any of Trump’s fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie.’”
Unfortunately, there is nothing new about the idea of presidential appointees being persona non grata with their establishment successors.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan’s vice president, George H.W. Bush, won the election to succeed Reagan. The two men were from distinctly opposite wings of the GOP. Reagan, like Trump today, was an outsider, the conservative movement’s hero. Bush was the epitome of the Establishment Republican — and this seriously big difference quickly kicked in as it became time for the incoming Bush administration to staff up. In his Reagan-era biography “The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution 1980-1989,” Steven F. Hayward describes the transition from Reagan to Bush this way:
“But the first order of business for the Bush transition was turning out all of the Reaganites as quickly as possible. It was said of Bush appointees that, unlike Reaganites, they had mortgages rather than ideologies. Paul Weyrich said that he always feared that the election of Bush meant the arrival of ‘country club Republicans who couldn’t wait for the end of the Reagan administration .’ George Shultz’s top aide at the State Department, Charles Hill, recalled, ‘It was suddenly clear that this would be an adversarial transition. The new people were not friendly. The signals were: get out of here as fast as you can.’ Newt Gingrich cautioned, ‘We are not Bush’s movement.’”
The Trump-to-Biden transition is not simply a transition of Republican to Democrat, it is the Reagan-Bush transfer on steroids. Trump was, like Reagan, an outsider president. The Obama-Trump transition was the unseating of a vastly expanded Washington establishment that included elites of both parties, entire bureaucracies, the media and more.
In fact, that establishment had metastasized all over America, its tentacles reaching into the business world, academia, sports, entertainment and more. These were people with mortgages, not ideologies.
As Trump’s term winds down, these ostentatiously resigning Trump aides are doing everything they can to send the signal that they had the courage to resign from the Trump era. They want nothing more than to get back into the good graces of elites in Washington and everywhere else in America. They are nothing more than a cynical move that sends the SOS: “Hire me! Hire me! I’m soooooo sorry! I was wrong!”
There is one other message that cannot be ignored.
The American establishment is not about America. It is about elitism. It is about, as I have written previously:
“….iron-fisted, decidedly authoritarian Old Order’s obsession with demanding complete obedience of and submission to Old Order orthodoxy. An obedience and a submission that not coincidentally preserves Old Order power and privilege as this group exerts its cultural and political control over the entire country. Anyone — anyone — who is seen as standing in the way of Old Order power and privilege, not to mention violating any Old Order sacrament or doctrine, must, in one fashion or another, have his or her reputation damaged, if not having an entire career or a business — or a presidency — destroyed.”
Look no further than Forbes magazine’s Randall Lane to see just how authoritarian and bullying these people are capable of being.
These ostentatiously resigned Trump staffers are well aware of their problem. Yet they are completely unaware, or they simply don’t care, that in doing what they have done they are also sending a message that says exactly what kind of character they have, and what kind of person they are.
Not good.
Jeffrey Lord, a former CNN contributor, is a columnist and author. He is a former associate political director in the Reagan White House. In his Washington career, he has served successively as a senior aide for a U.S. congressman and a U.S. senator, chief of staff for former Reagan cabinet member Drew Lewis in the 1984 Reagan-Bush campaign, and as an aide to HUD Secretary Jack Kemp. He writes at his website, TheJeffreyLord.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Well the bats and the rats show they have no integrity .If course that goes with being a swamp creature.People who trust In God have nothing to fear .God said He would look after you and your family
I wander if the younger kids will somehow want to change the old establishment politics in this country? Will they go along with this? Will they demand transparency?
Unfortunately, that probably will not happen. If you visit your public schools, you will see that our country’s history, loving our flag, honoring our country, honoring our military, and reciting the pledge, etc., ARE not taught these days. The students are indoctrinated, not educated. I am speaking as a teacher in the public school system.
I still remember pledging the Allegiance. I remember when they changed it to a Moment of Silence. And I remember when they dropped even that. Teachers openly said the Pledge and the Moment of Silence actually SAVED them time in first hour. Because it let the students gather their thoughts. So, from a practical standpoint, the removal of such things from our schools has had a direct impact. Of course, no longer doing the Pledge had other impacts as well, like a reminder of what our nation was founded upon.
“One Nation, Under God.”
Now, I’m not THAT old. I wasn’t even a thought in my parent’s head when that was added to the Pledge. But I do remember hearing teachers, my parents, and others who talked about how when they first added that, there was a huge pause, almost like a reminder to all of us.
I’m not as religious as I used to be, but, I can understand how us abandoning the principles of the Bible has indeed resulted in our country going the wrong direction.
In addition to “not educated” I was also thinking of re-education like in Vietnam, N Korea, the People’s Republic of China, Romania, etc.
Good Morning, and just to say you are right on about the teachers not teaching to honor our military, country, Pledge , etc. but I am still confused in grade schools K-6 for example, is this the rule of the school board, or the supertindent, etc. what a shame that our once great nation is falling fast due to our youth being so mislead down a path of destruction. IF not taught flag respect they won’t ever have it. its too late once they get into high school. thank you for your post and letting me speak out. AlwaysRightKen
The kids nowadays think that the Holocaust never existed because they’re not taught about it in school there are actual college professors that request history being taken out of academics….
The Swamp Critters had better remember that Elephants have LOOONG memories and ” What goes around will come around.
Certainly if I was reviewing CV’s or Resumes today, I’d be taking a hard look at whether or not the candidates in question spent time in the White House or in government service as aides or bureaucrats. Their letters of introduction and their CV would go directly into File 13. I’d suggest to them that they first get a real job before bothering to apply to my company.
The resigners are cowards, pure and simple. They should also resign from the Republican Party–if they don’t, it is likely that We the People will resign from the Republican Party.
John, you are right on the money, I was raised up to respect the police, and adults, and flag. I still after 75 years carry this belief of respect the police, the military, and all citizens deserve respect, but once they take away that respect by doing something wrong, criminal like, they no longer get my respect. However a person has to commit a huge wrong for me to disown them. Example of President Trump, He has done more for our country in four years (with all the impeachment BS) by the communist evil left wing DEMONRATS. but he did not do wrong, He is innocent and the communist left has been out to get him for four years…….. go figure