Fred Barnes is storming and rightly so.(See 1 below.)
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Newt's: "Understanding Trump" is in two basic parts. In the first, Newt looks inside Trump's mind and gives the reader his impression. Then in the second part, Newt proceeds to articulate what Trump must do, must embrace, must execute to become the different but potentially great president he could be while "Making America Great Again."
Will Trump have the opportunity ? That remains to be seen because Democrats are hell bent on destroying him, with an able assist from Trump himself. Delusional and deranged Democrats have no other recourse, but to impeach Trump. Having lost the election, because of their faulty candidate and being out of touch, they dare not look inward for fear of what they might find. Furthermore, they have the mass press and media as their partners in crime.
Will they succeed? Probably not unless they take over The House in 2018 and Barnes' op ed, in 1 below, is why this could happen. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1) Republicans Aren’t Team Players
GOP Senators who defect from ObamaCare repeal will hurt themselves, their party and the country.
By Fred Barnes
Politics is a team sport, and Republicans are playing it poorly. They have one more chance in the Senate to repeal and replace ObamaCare—possibly their last hope for a victory.
Democrats are performing like a well-coached team. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has all 48 members of his caucus on board with saving ObamaCare at all cost. It’s been a successful strategy.
It works for one reason: Republicans are divided. Their 52-48 majority in the Senate means they can lose two votes and still prevail, since Vice President Mike Pence is the tiebreaker. After promising to get rid of ObamaCare for the past seven years, it shouldn’t be difficult.
But as many as eight Republican senators opposed the first GOP bill, forcing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to come up with a revised version. While an improvement, it has encountered opposition too. Mr. McConnell is skillful in bringing senators together. But here his task is more difficult than usual because the dissidents don’t all agree on what’s wrong with the bill. Appeasing one senator may alienate another.
This is an example of why legislative success depends on operating as a team. You don’t abandon your team just because you don’t get everything you want (or want left out). You hold your nose and vote for an imperfect measure, sometimes merely because it’s politically beneficial and better than the alternative.
This is especially true in dumping ObamaCare. The Republican alternative is a more free-market health-care system in which people can buy the insurance they want, not what government requires.
Sticking with the team makes that possible. But too many Republicans aren’t comfortable as team players. To them, it’s shady and unprincipled to vote for something about which you have serious doubts. Democrats are more realistic and less persnickety, so they’re better at uniting.
The political consequences of failing to eliminate ObamaCare would be disastrous for Republicans next year. Midterm elections are always tough for the party that holds the White House. But reneging on the promise to “repeal and replace” would put Republican control of the House and even the Senate at risk.
Worse, ObamaCare would be further entrenched with Republican help. If repeal fails, Mr. McConnell’s Plan B is to compromise with Democrats to stabilize the health insurance marketplace and keep ObamaCare alive and kicking. He would have no other choice.
When the voting begins, Republican senators need to ask themselves three questions: How would the result affect you? How would it affect your party? How would it affect the country?
On the first question, if any Republican senator sees voting to uphold ObamaCare as politically safer, think again. Trying to reach across the aisle to protect Medicaid’s rate of growth won’t win you any new Democratic votes. But if you desert the GOP, the base won’t forget or forgive. Republicans care passionately about ending ObamaCare. If you cross them on this vote, large numbers will cut you loose. There’s private polling on this, by the way.
The House Freedom Caucus learned this the hard way. In May, when its members blocked the first House health-care bill from going forward, they expected to be hailed as heroes. They weren’t. When a second bill was offered, they did nothing to stop it. They got behind the team and it passed.
If the Republican Party fumbles the Senate vote, it will suffer—and will deserve to. Having made the death of ObamaCare its overriding concern, a GOP that fails to deliver would shatter its credibility. An important element of the Republican brand is its identity as the conservative party. Fewer would see it that way if ObamaCare survives. GOP voter turnout would fall, and the party’s candidates would feel the difference.
What about the country? It wouldn’t benefit from making ObamaCare permanent. Health care would cost more and heal less. A political comeback by Democrats could lead to a single-payer system. Anyone who has experienced medical treatment at a Veterans Administration hospital would find the new system quite familiar.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky opposes the Senate bill because it leaves too much of ObamaCare in place. But the alternative is to leave all of it in place.
Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada feels the bill’s Medicaid reforms would hurt thousands of his state’s residents and jeopardize his re-election in 2018. But preserving ObamaCare would hurt millions nationwide and his prospects for winning a second term.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says the bill won’t “fix the flaws” in ObamaCare. But the alternative would lock those flaws in place, probably forever.
Messrs. Paul and Heller and Ms. Collins are playing politics as if it’s an individual sport, like golf, boxing or gymnastics. In the Senate, only a team can win.
Mr. Barnes is an executive editor of the Weekly Standard.
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2)Part One of: "Understanding Trump" begins by stating one cannot understand the man unless they understand where he comes from. Newt draws a distinction suggesting Queens is not Manhattan. Trump is not an academic. He is an entrepreneur. Nor is he a financier he is a builder. Finally he is not an ideologue but rather a pragmatist.
When it comes to understanding the mass media, Trump masters it. He also has a true love of family, has an unstoppable will to win and believes anything can be achieved if you dream big not small.
Trump is not your typical conservative, nor does his philosophy fit most conservative norms. He is, however, emphatically anti-left and , though he has made many mistakes as he learns the ropes of being President, he is avowedly anti-stupid, anti-choking regulations and anti-Political Correctness.
One thing Trump is, he is very Pro-American. He believes patriotism defines what being an American means (is all about) and if one is truly patriotic Trump does not understand how one could be prejudice. He wants to make America Great for "all" people and he sincerely wants to heal our racial divide, which Obama widened. The anti-Trumpers cannot accept this because it destroys their viral hate case of the man and the mass media and press cannot embrace Trump because their mission is to destroy him since he stands in opposition to all they are about.
Newt believes Trump employs well honed tactics such as reliance on speed rather than mistake avoidance which he believes are a waste of time. He sets big goals and remains flexible .He capitalizes on his opponent's weaknesses. Trump is unlike any president we have endured to date.
Trump brands and others mistakenly interpret this to mean he is attacking. Newt submits branding is establishing an identity and is an effective tool in a political sense. Trump is always on the offense and engages in building relationships.
Those who do not comprehend Trump's depths characterize him as a political "Whirling Dervish" and nothing could be further from the truth. This is why they cannot understand him and when you do not understand something/someone the usual human reaction is to feel threatened. Because Trump's views conflict with those of Progressives and his commitment is to undo their world they are frightened at the prospect of losing power.
When it comes to understanding how it was possible for Trump to overcome Hillary and the politically established one must fathom that Trump conveyed a logic most Americans can relate to. Nicholas Taub wrote: "The Black Swan: The Impact of The Highly Improbable" which established the disconnect among elitist establishment types and every day Americans. - The Intellectual Yet Idiot (IYI!) How can someone so bright, who went to Harvard, but cannot make anything, be so stupid? Washington is full of IYI's. They live in their out of touch cocoon and infuse government with their stupid and impractical ideas. Trump understands this phenomenon and it offends the IYI's no end.
Ending rule by the IYI's means ending fake education, rejecting toxic identity politics, rebuilding our military etc.
Trump also aligned himself with ordinary Americans when he attacked the mass media and exposed their bias. His ability to work around the mass media through the use of social media techniques was refreshing but it also created problems which they have exploited. The jury is still out on this matter.
Finally, Hillary was a superb ally in helping Trump capture the spirit of the "deplorable's" distaste for establishment types. The de-legitimization of American concerns, best evidenced by Obamacare, played into Trump's hands and heightened the anti-intersectional theory so endeared and honed by liberals and progressives. To this day they still do not know what hit them beyond the name Trump. Elites just cannot accept their rejection by practical, patriotic, hard working, independent Americans whose policies have failed and helped wreck most everything their precious big oppressive government approach has touched.
How can anyone, in their right mind, question/reject those who hold IVY League Degrees?
In "Making America Great Again" one must recognize and embrace the fact that we are engaged in a great transition. This involves making trade fairer, placing America first, ( can one imagine a president who believes their goal is to make America second or third? Well we did because we elected Obama not once but twice.)adhering to the rule of law again etc.
One would have thought, with Republicans in control of the Executive Branch and both Legislative Branches, enacting legislation reversing destructive policies of the Loony, Cultural Left would be a no brainer but that has proven far from the truth because Democrats and their mass media mavens have organized effectively while Republicans remain at war with themselves. Because Trump is a change agent draining the swamp is proving formidable. The Old Guard place retention of power above patriotism and doing what is best for America.
Today two Americas exist and separating them may be something Dr. Carson proved possible when it came to humans but surgery and politics are two different animals.
To succeed, Trump must remain focused and organize his efforts. This means safety at home and abroad, securing our borders and thus, sanctuary cities must bend, restore America's reputation, revive the military, eliminate Islamic terrorism and general radicalism, reform health care and taxation policies, eliminate innocuous red tape,institute more job training and the list is endless.
The mess Trump inherited is enormous and probably beyond even an optimistic builder of buildings but you cannot tell him that because he is a optimist by nature..
Newt is a cloud burst of ideas and in the final chapters, he recites how he was effective as Speaker in working with President Bill Clinton to accomplish many things people said could not be done. (I actually remember, when I was in the investment world, federal debt was being reduced at such a fast pace professional investors were concerned there would not be enough government bonds left for pensions funds etc.)
When I lived in Atlanta, I came to meet Newt by happenstance (he actually called and said he wanted to meet me for breakfast after reading some of my early memos when he was teaching history at West Ga. State. ) We subsequently joined " Friends of Newt" and remained members for many years. Newt even spoke at our home one evening. We never lived in his Congressional District, however.
Newt discusses health care reform and believes, though possible, it requires a different approach. He asserts comprehensive does not work in D.C. He discusses the need to communicate more effectively and is a great believer in innovative thinking, ie. we need to rethink disabilities, accelerate FDA drug approval and make foreign countries pay more for American developed drugs. (I suspect he had an impact on the Justice department's recent announcement of their effort to reduce instances of health care fraud.)
Newt discusses the problem of unaccountable bureaucrats and how Trump can say you're fired." He also believes Trump has a feel for the depth of state and local leadership and therefore could be the engine that gets decision making out of Washington.
In the final chapter: "The Road Ahead" Newt winds up and goes full force into the possible accomplishments that lie ahead if we employ technology, man's ability to think, explore and invent. Newt has always been a "futurist."
Finally, what I found of real interest was Newt's publication of some of Trump's speeches beginning with his Inaugural Address. Reading it was really fascinating for me. I said the same about his recent European Speech. When you quietly sit and digest what Trump says, even though written for him by others, it is brilliant and sounds as if Adlai Stevenson, Jack Kennedy and/or Ronald Reagan had given it. The naysayers are too busy dumping on him for their own nefarious reasons and, in the process, are doing a great disservice to our nation at a critical time in our history. We need a reliable and trustworthy press and media because so many of our opinions are formed by what we hear and read.
For this, I will never forgive them just as I cannot forgive Jane Fonda, It is one thing to express one's views, to press forward your case but it is entirely another matter to distort and besmirch simply for the sake of becoming a hatchet.
I doubt many liberals or progressives would ever consider reading: "Understanding Trump" because it would force them to rethink their own conclusions and empirical narrowness but hope springs eternal.
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