Economic Conservative William Weld’s Critical Message Worthy of
Attention
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rump Demons contributing not to greatness but to Decline[Notes from contender Weld]
Trumpism, delusion, desire to be
a king
Trumpism is …
“a devotion to Mr. Trump’s megalomania [“a delusional mental disorder marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur”; “a mania for great or grandiose performance”].
“…He’s got a lot going on in his head. The man is so angry so much of the time it’s hard for me to see how one single head could contain so much anger; so much wrath.
“He is not a counter-puncher. He takes off with tweets or action after any slight, real or imagined.
“My read is the guy is terrified maybe he’s a loser, which is why he lashes out at anybody. I don’t know everything that’s going on there. But I do know that I would not want to have the president’s demons. I feel for the guy in a way. They’re not normal.
“When that sinks in, I think it’s possible that the president’s appeal could explode.”
“[In Senior High School], I played Brutus in the Shakespeare play ‘Julius Caesar.’… So Cassius would come to me and say, ‘There was a Brutus once in Rome who would have brooked the eternal devil to keep his seat as easily as a king.’ That’s how Cassius got Brutus around to hold one of the 17 knives.
“I think about that all the time. We’re talking about a king here.
“Donald Trump wants to be a king.” (emphasis added).
Foreign Policy and International
Relations
“I take a holistic view towards international relations.“I do not think the president does. He seems to want to insult our allies and cozy up to dictators … because he prefers an autocratic not to say tyrannical form of organization for government; and he sees himself at the top of that chain.
“Mr. Trump's foreign policy could not be more (of an) … anti-American-values and pro-tyrannical-dictator type regime.
“The country needs a foreign policy that doesn’t change with the president’s mood swings.”
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onstitutional reality
“Having steeped myself … in the Federalist Papers and having studied the Constitution and the history of it, including the position of the anti-Federalists, I am pretty well aware of the extent to which the people who wrote our Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787 had one thought uppermost, with the one exception of Alexander Hamilton, and that would be: We don’t want a king (Emphasis added).
“I dare say that Mr. Trump has not read those debates.”
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onservatism and Consequences of Trumpism
“I’m an economic conservative. And no one is doing anything about the jobs we’re going to lose with artificial intelligence and drones and robotics and self-driving vehicles.
“We’re just kind of whistling past the graveyard there.
“Those are Trump voters who are going to be displaced, the long-haul truckers who are not going to have a job when self-driving trucks come in.
“You could make it possible for displaced workers to get free instruction for technical skills for roughly 2 years, particularly if you beef up online curricula.”
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arelessness of Trumpism
“…Doing nothing for the soon-to-be displaced workers who you would think are prototypical Trump voters. I’m sorry to sound so negative, but I don’t think he’s been really serious about policy.
“He’s been too busy flinging around phrases like ‘hoax’ and ‘wall.’ And not a lot of thought is going into what he says..”
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are for Country and Constitution
The president takes an oath to uphold the Constitution. Among his
duties specified in the Constitution is that he shall take care that the laws
be faithfully executed.
“Mr. Nixon (37th U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, 1969–1974) violated that when he said to Haldeman and Ehrlichman, ‘We’ve got to stop this Watergate investigation. Tell them it’s national security, so they should just stand down.’”
“That’s failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
“… With Mr. Trump you have dozens of things that amount to failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
- For example, in volume two of the Mueller report, the president is very clearly depicted as instructing senior national security officials, senior national intelligence officials and senior legal officials to lie. And they all say, ‘Well I can’t say that.’ And he says, ‘Why not?’
- And they say, ‘Because that’s not true.’
- And the president basically says, ‘Your point?’
- And that’s just one in a litany of such examples.
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eld in Brief
- United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts (1981–1986)
- United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division (1986–1988)
- 68th Governor of Massachusetts (January 3, 1991 – July 29, 1997)
- Education: Harvard University (BA, JD); University College, Oxford
- Campaigns: Pre-governorship U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division; Governor of Massachusetts Governorship; Vice presidential campaign 2016 (Convention Election); Presidential campaign 2020 (Primaries)
- Political party affiliations: before 2016 Republican; 2016–2018 Libertarian; 2019 -present Republican
William Floyd Weld (born July 31,
1945) is an American attorney, businessman, and Republican politician running
for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2020.
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hough the down side may be his brief change of political party, a
former chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party and Trump critic, Jennifer
Nassour, tells the press,
“It would be wonderful to have a moderate Republican running against Trump to give other voters in a Republican primary someone to vote for.”
Another possible down side that seems, on first glance, to side with Trump was reported in
New Hampshire Public Radio. Weld reportedly
“…Flaunted the personal connections” with Israel’s prime minister when asked “his position on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex the West Bank.”Said Weld“‘I’ve known Bibi for a long time (since he was married to Fern). I used to go bar hopping with him and Danny Meridor when they were in their 20s.’”
Further
In April of this year, “Dan Meridor — who held several ministerial posts under Benjamin Netanyahu during his 21 years as a lawmaker between 1984 and 2013 — joined former Likud ministers Benny Begin and Limor Livnat in coming out publicly against the premier’s push to curb the authority of the High Court of Justice, and in the process, safeguard himself (with) immunity from prosecution in the three graft cases against him. [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing charges of fraud and breach of trust in three cases, and bribery in one of them.]
Meridor’s further reaction reported in the Times of Israel:
“The idea that someone is above the law, that there is no equality before the law, that suspicions against the prime minister and ministers won’t be investigated and reach the court, is turning our country into something else. …
“We have had prime ministers and ministers, even a president, who went to jail. …
“The idea of an override clause — that we won’t be a democracy, that there will be a dictatorship and the majority can do whatever it wants, that the court can’t say anything and there are no checks and balances — is a dangerous anti-democratic idea. There is not a single parliament in the world without checks and balances.”
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hatever Americans think or feel about one contender or another, for the
sake of the people and the country (and other countries and peoples),
they (we) must begin taking into consideration more than their “feelings” and/or the superficialities and the basic birth-residence-age criteria concerning public officials and contenders for public office.
The notion that any and all Americans can “grow up and become president” (merely by growing up!) is not only
outdated; it is ridiculous, foolish, absurd. It is also dangerous.
The world we live in is far more complex and the preparation, the performance
examples and images, the educational and economic systems cultivating leaders,
the seriousness of would-be democratic processes are sadly lacking — far inferior to earlier times of the
founding public servants and leaders.
This means Americans must
- look closely, studiously, critically, analytically;
- recover from the beauty pageant-horse race-casino-win-lose-can't-can mentality; and
- actually do some homework
- use independent thought and
- apply substantive criteria in judging, deciding who will hold public office and who will care for and lead the country in moral character and able stewardship, in well-thought-out and respectfully negotiated policies and practices domestic and global.
Sources
Commonwealth Magazine “Weld
rejoins Republican ranks” by Michael Jonas February 4, 2019 https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/weld-rejoins-the-republican-ranks/
New Hampshire Public Radio “2020
Candidate Conversation: Former Mass. Gov. Bill Weld” by The Exchange April 26,
2019 https://www.nhpr.org/post/2020-candidate-conversation-former-mass-gov-bill-weld#stream/0
NHPR “In N.H., This Time As A
Candidate, Weld Rails Against Trump On Foreign Policy” by Lauren Chooljian
April 17, 2019 https://www.nhpr.org/post/nh-time-candidate-weld-rails-against-trump-foreign-policy
William Weld https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Weld
Merriam-Webster Megalomania
The Times of Israel “Former
justice minister for Likud warns of Netanyahu ‘dictatorship’”: “Dan Meridor
blasts plan that seeks to curb the court’s power and ensure PM’s immunity from
prosecution, saying it would ‘bulldoze’ the legal system and erode democracy” by
Michael Bachner and TOI staff May 23, 2019 https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-justice-minister-for-likud-warns-of-netanyahu-dictatorship/
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