Trump's Failed Presidency

[marmar]

From Brookings:


Trump’s failed presidency
Elaine KamarckMonday, March 16, 2020


Trump’s presidency is failing rapidly. Like others before him, modern American presidents fail when they cannot master or comprehend the government that they inherit. This is a hard concept to grasp in an age when non-stop media coverage leads us to focus on the president’s communication skills and when presidents themselves value spin more than expertise. But in the end presidential failure is about reality, not words—no matter how lofty and inspiring or how crude and insulting.

Contemporary presidents are especially prone to mistaking spin for reality for several reasons. First of all, they are nominated not by other elected officials who have some sense of what it takes to govern, but by activists and party electorates who value inspiration and entertainment. Second, the importance of mass communication leads presidents to believe that the words and activities that got them into office can work once they are in office: more rallies, more speeches, more tweets, and more television advertising.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

Presidential scholars have been aware of the disjuncture between campaigning and governing for some time now. More than a decade ago, Sam Kernell wrote a book called Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership (CQ Press, 2007), in which he showed that beginning with President Kennedy, modern presidents spent a great deal more time on minor presidential addresses and on domestic and international travel than their predecessors. All this communication, he argued, came at the expense of actual governing. Later on another presidential scholar, George C. Edwards III, writing in Overreach, Leadership in the Obama Presidency (Princeton University Press, 2012) argued that Obama thought he could go directly to the public to get support for his programs, an approach that placed communication over negotiation and that resulted in a stunning midterm loss for his party.

Reality still matters, and spin has its limits—even in an era of social media.

As long as things are going okay for most people, Americans tolerate a president’s verbal gymnastics. But when people are in trouble, even the most ardent government haters ask that famous question: “Where’s the government?” And for most Americans, the president is the government. Following the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the collateral damage to the presidency of George W. Bush was extensive. His popularity never recovered and his second-term agenda, including bold changes to Social Security, was destroyed. Nearly a decade later when President Obama rolled out his signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act, the hugely embarrassing crashing of the computer systems meant to implement the act increased Republican opposition to it and undermined public confidence in the government’s ability to implement important executive actions. .......(more)

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/03/16/trumps-failed-presidency/

[The Genealogist]

1. Failedpresident should be trending in social media nt

[Stuart G]

2. Trump should read this, but he doesn't have a clue..nt

[marmar]

3. Too many multi-syllable words for him.

[lagomorph777]

4. Not a failed presidency. Not all of us understand Turd's mission yet.

His mission is to destroy the country, and he is doing a heckuva job. Earning a big bonus from Uncle Vlad.