The Deep State or the Steady State?

Excerpts from an op-ed in the New York Times today. You can read the whole thing if you're so inclined at

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/o...esistance.html

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.

But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.

Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

....This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.

Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.

We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.

There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

I am not surprised by this revelation at all. Especially on the heels of Bob Woodward’s book. Thank God there are some people on the inside who have our backs against this maniacal despot.

Now Twitler is losing his shit.

Expect a swift purge.

He tweeted “Treason?” He should know. He is one of them.

There are multiple legal mechanisms for removing a president from power and this inside resistance ought to be pursuing them. Instead, they're making their own decisions and pursuing their own agenda without having been elected to do so.

If enough of the cabinet is part of this group, they need to invoke the 25th. If not, they need to inform Congress of everything they know, testify, and let Congress decide whether to impeach.

The problem is, I don't know that stupid, egotistical, and completely self-centered are impeachable offenses.

The problem is, I don't know that stupid, egotistical, and completely self-centered are impeachable offenses. Originally Posted by Old-T

They're not. Alan Dershowitz keeps telling everyone that. And as much as he scares and annoys the left, the simple truth of the matter is Trumpy's personality flaws were on full display during the 2016 campaign. Voters elected him anyway.

They're not. Alan Dershowitz keeps telling everyone that. And as much as he scares and annoys the left, the simple truth of the matter is Trumpy's personality flaws were on full display during the 2016 campaign. Voters elected him anyway. Originally Posted by lustylad

Voters had to weigh out the pro's and cons. It was either Trump's abrasive personality or Clinton's Elite Globalist connections.

Jim

They're not. Alan Dershowitz keeps telling everyone that. And as much as he scares and annoys the left, the simple truth of the matter is Trumpy's personality flaws were on full display during the 2016 campaign. Voters elected him anyway. Originally Posted by lustylad

And to add, those are the very traits are making him a very successful President, much to the chagrin of the entire "never Trump movement".

And to add, those are the very traits are making him a very successful President, much to the chagrin of the entire "never Trump movement". Originally Posted by Jackie S

You may be right, with respect to regulatory reform. I can't think of another issue where he's doing better than another Republican candidate would have done. He's possibly going to muck things up badly with his trade wars.

the writer of this letter is two faced. he cannot be for both.



he's says he supports trump, but is resisting trump in this so-called two track presidency.



we know Trump is anti-free trade. I think that's a clue. I think this is Hightower or Mnuchin as the writer.



this reminds of an article I read about the Nixon administration with a similar 2 track presidency. There were things Nixon wanted done and his staff refused to carry out those orders behind his back.

Tucker Carlson thinks he knows who wrote the op ed letter .
https://ntknetwork.com/carlson-we-ha...ous-nyt-op-ed/

The problem is, I don't know that stupid, egotistical, and completely self-centered are impeachable offenses. Originally Posted by Old-T

They aren't. Which is why even Pelosi, has stopped yapping about impeachment.


AFAIK, this article was wrote by some anti-trumper at the NY times.. Since there's NO way to verify it came from someone in the white house..

I am not surprised by this revelation at all. Especially on the heels of Bob Woodward’s book. Thank God there are some people on the inside who have our backs against this maniacal despot.

Now Twitler is losing his shit.

Expect a swift purge.

He tweeted “Treason?” He should know. He is one of them. Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

What do you charge for that rent...in your head?
Have the Kavanaugh hearing got you on the verge of a stroke?

They aren't. Which is why even Pelosi, has stopped yapping about impeachment.


AFAIK, this article was wrote by some anti-trumper at the NY times.. Since there's NO way to verify it came from someone in the white house.. Originally Posted by garhkal

It's called grasping at straws...that don't exist.
I've heard it referred to as "psychosis"
Pelosi...Yeah.

Not at all. They’re gonna ram him through because they can. But I do believe the blunder of 2016 will result in an energized electorate in November.

Expect the House to flip, but the Senate may also. Plus, there could be wholesale defections from the GOP as more of Trump’s pathological lunacy is revealed.

What are the odds that one of leaders of the inside resistance — the steady state — is Melania? Trump will eventually get the message and walk away.

He doesn’t have to say good bye,

Just Fucking WOW , ( same as other thread )
New LOW for the TIMES , ANONYMOUS, RESISTANCE really this is right out of The SPIKE.( Book)
This is just more of the Never Tumper cult, because that Russian thing not working, BUFFOONS
Gee Soros media matters ==== CHOAS , for them to make money , Just like the books out now ( may be I should write one it would by just as accurate, LOL)
I think we could have done better POTUS But were these people for the past 8 years