Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith says that 100 percent of the people whom Eisenhower appointed to his first-term Cabinet were without any previous experience in government (they had been business managers). The country seems to have survived. So don’t lost sleep over whom Trump appoints to Cabinet Secretary positions.
16 thoughts on “Message from the Eisenhower Administration: Don’t Lose Sleep Over Cabinet Appointments”
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Sure, what’s a few neofascists in the Administration?
New White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon just sent a rose to Marine La Pen, far-right National Front politician and daughter of Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Marion Le Pen
Verified account
@Marion_M_Le_Pen
I answer yes to the invitation of Stephen Bannon, CEO of @realDonaldTrump presidential campaign, to work together.
https://twitter.com/Marion_M_Le_Pen/status/797489987583438852
The 2014 article “National Security and Double Government” claims that public officials have very little influence on actual policy, at least in the realm of national security.
http://fletcher.tufts.edu/~/media/Fletcher/Directory/media/National%20Security%20and%20Double%20Government%20by%20Glennon.pdf
However, the same author – Michael J. Glennon, a professor at Tufts – in a recent interview, said that in Trump’s case, things might well change drastically:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/can_the_secret_government_save_us_from_donald_trump.html.
I suspect that in security matters, things will change dramatically with Trump, even though they didn’t under Obama, because security institutions will naturally get significantly more resources due to Trump’s tendencies.
Any other opinions?
From the abstract of the 2014 article:
National security policy in the United States has remained largely constant
from the Bush Administration to the Obama Administration. This continuity
can be explained by the “double government” theory of 19th-century
scholar of the English Constitution Walter Bagehot. As applied to the
United States, Bagehot’s theory suggests that U.S. national security policy
is defined by the network of executive officials who manage the
departments and agencies responsible for protecting U.S. national security
and who, responding to structural incentives embedded in the U.S. political
system, operate largely removed from public view and from constitutional
constraints. The public believes that the constitutionally-established
institutions control national security policy, but that view is mistaken.
Judicial review is negligible; congressional oversight is dysfunctional; and
presidential control is nominal.
You’re missing out on all the zeitgeist! We must all freak out and create backup plans for fleeing the country
superMike where were you planning to flee to? I’m in Italy at the moment, most people here also seem to be freaked out by Trump and are wondering what’s going to happen to the world. Even though it’s cool to be trash America in many circles in Europe, there’s also a feeling of security associated with the U.S. – but Trump shakes that.
How about a predictions for 2020 thread?
I don’t speak Italian, but maybe I could learn. Actually I don’t speak anything but English, so probably Mexico or Australia.
Your president-elect Tsarump has perhaps had a slightly different track record compared to Eisenhower.
Why not go to Mexico, where all the goodpeople will be gathered?
One of my neighbors speaks Russian. Maybe I should learn some, too? I also heard that Trump is a friend of Putin’s. Maybe we should all go live in Russia? Perhaps, even take those Europeans who hate Trump with us.
Sarcasm off.
By the way, Europeans are scared by Trump but are apparently comfortable with Putin. Am I getting this right? It’s easy then: you don’t have to be friends with us if you don’t like us. It’s a sad moment, but shouldn’t we just respectfully part our ways instead of shouting obscenities at each other? What do you think, @Jonas?
For those who live here in the US, it’s not going to be that easy. Shouting NOT MY PRESIDENT! is not going to help much as you cannot simply have two presidents at the same time. Yes, the nation is polarized, the election has been a 21st century equivalent of a popular uprising. I understand that “progressives” got nothing to learn, as they are just smarter and more educated. But… would you rather prefer Paris of 1789 or Moscow of 1917?
> How about a predictions for 2020 thread?
Mount Rushmore torn down to make room for construction of The Trump Monument, honoring the greatest president ever.
By the way, it might not be a great idea to escape ‘neofascism’ by emigrating to the original home of fascism.
Strike UK from the list. Their alt-right already got Brexit, and they seem not to know what to do with the bus they caught.
Phil, I enjoy your analysis, but it seems to me a bunch of your readers are truly sore losers. They can move out of these great country as they wish. They really don’t know what being supressed really mean. I have, in another country.
I thank you for your contributions to pnet which has allowed me to learn photography online.
I am a DT supporter who like you said stayed silent during the election due to the impossible discussion with what I called the leftist. If any, there is only one possible answer according to the leftist.
I am a minority of Asian descent.
Thanks.
Patrick – maybe a preemptive Nobel Peace Prize would do some good, no?
Really, though, with the reputation the Republicans have for selling fear, the Democrats seem to be giving them a run for their money, even successfully selling across the pond, it seems.
Real actual Nazis came to my father’s little town in Poland in Sept. 1939. He knew they were Nazis because the first thing that they did was burn down the synagogue. As soon as Donald Trump orders my local synagogue to be burned down, that’s it, I’m on the next plane to Canada but until then I am staying. That a staff member of his tweeted to the daughter of an anti-Semite doesn’t count.
If your father was Jewish, he was lucky that he didn’t happen to be inside the synagogue at the time. Sometimes advance warning of such things. Even if there is just rhetoric coming out of the White House that is nasty to Jews and other minority groups, many members of the groups would be annoyed.