Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Establishmentarians for Hillary

The list of Republican establishment types supporting Hillary grows. On Monday we had a letter from 50 foreign policy officials:
Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”

Mr. Trump, the officials warn, “would be the most reckless president in American history.”
And now this from two former Republican directors of the EPA:
Donald Trump has shown a profound ignorance of science and of the public health issues embodied in our environmental laws,” William Ruckelshaus, who served as the EPA administrator under Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and William Reilly, who served under President George H.W. Bush, said in a joint statement. “He hasn’t a clue about Republicans’ historic contributions to science-driven environmental policy.”
I'm not sure what the upshot of this drumbeat of endorsements will be. It plays directly to Hillary's own strategy, which is to position herself as the sane, responsible, inclusive candidate, in contrast to that raging racist madman Trump.

On the other hand it also plays directly to Trump's strategy, which is to position himself as a change agent who terrifies the elite because he will shake up their world.

My general feeling about Americans is that they are fundamentally a conservative bunch, in the sense of not really wanting radical change no matter what they sometimes say. They need constant reassurance that things will turn out ok. So I think Hillary probably has the winning hand. But it does make me a little nervous to see all these old men in expensive suits lining up to endorse her, especially since some of them have bad mistakes in their pasts like lobbying for the invasion of Iraq.

1 comment:

G. Verloren said...

"But it does make me a little nervous to see all these old men in expensive suits lining up to endorse her, especially since some of them have bad mistakes in their pasts like lobbying for the invasion of Iraq."

Would we rather have all these old men in expensive suits lining up to attack her instead? Because we're stuck with all these old men for the time being, and one way or another the things they say and do are going to affect the coming election.