A Bucket List By Trump
By
Leonard Zwelling
I just
received this bucket list in an email from a close friend. He’s a pretty
conservative guy, so I was not in the least bit surprised he thought this was
neat. Oh, that it were only this simple!
The Trump
phenomenon is all about keeping it simple and this is a perfect illustration of
what his followers believe. If we can only get back to the old America,
everything will be fine. Furthermore, WE ALL KNOW how to do this and here is
the simple list. Here’s why this, and Mr. Trump, are all wrong.
Hillary: held accountable for ALL her previous wrongs!
been. Look how unpopular she is with so many. What these folks want is Hillary in
jail. They may be right and a trial may be indicated (although stupidity and
arrogance are not crimes yet), but Mrs. Clinton has been examined more than
anyone in this country and has been found to be a non-criminal. I understand
that lots of people don’t like her. She is about to be held accountable for it
all in the most public way imaginable. It is likely that any of the other GOP
potential nominees (Bush, Rubio. Kasich) would have beaten her soundly. That
the GOP chose Trump instead, may give her yet another break.
“GOD” back in America !!!
This is silly because to the extent the US is
unique it is BECAUSE we have separated church and state. The “God in America”
thing was a post-WWII invention of American industrialists so they could sell
more. See Kevin M. Kruse, One Nation
Under God.
Closed or tightly guarded!
Yes, but. We could stop the flow of trade into
the country and the actual flow of humans is net towards Mexico right now.
Again, is this really a problem or could it just be done better with more money
for this instead of for war?
4. Congress: On the same retirement & healthcare
plans as everybody else.
Let’s remember everyone is not on a common
health plan. Therein lies the problem. Let Congress fix that and then they
would be in the plan like everyone else.
5. Congress: Stop exempting your members [past, current
and future] from laws you pass — Obey your own laws NOW!
I believe that the longest serving Republican
Speaker of the House is now in jail. Many of the candidates for Speaker before
Mr. Boehner had to forego the honor because of bad behavior. This is not a
major problem and surely Trump is no one to talk about bad behavior.
6. Language: English only!
Nice idea. Good luck with that when people
don’t speak it. This needs to be fixed at the elementary school level as it was
for my mother who spoke only Yiddish when she got to kindergarten.
7. Culture: Constitution and the Bill of Rights!
I have no ideas what this means. The
Constitution and the Bill of Rights are laws. If the culture is to shift, the
people need to shift, not the documents. Besides, culture is culture and far
beyond the control of government in the Internet age. Thank goodness.
8. Drug Free: Mandatory Drug Screening before &
during Welfare!
Again, the welfare system is a mess. This aspect
of it is a blip on the radar screen although not a bad idea. Who’s going to pay
for this testing and still have any money left for a welfare system?
9. Freebies: NONE to Non-Citizens!
We need to determine the cost of doing or not
doing this. For example, will you turn away a Mexican immigrant from an
emergency room? What about educating the children of immigrants? That’s a good
idea, isn’t it?
10. Budget: Balance the damn thing! STOP PORK
BARRELING!!
Again, this sounds easy. It’s very hard to do.
Politics is pork barreling. What does the writer think these guys and gals do all
day on The Hill?
11. Foreign Countries: Stop giving them our money!
Charge them for our help! We need it here.
Again, it is not that simple. If the money helps us,
give it. Does he want to cut off defense spending to Israel?
12. Fix the TAX CODE!
I cannot argue with this, but again be careful.
If the net revenue to the government drops, it will have to borrow more to keep
up the services like the military. Everyone’s idea of fixing the tax code is
the same: my taxes go down and yours go up.
And most of all.
13. “RESPECT OUR MILITARY AND OUR FLAG!!”
Yes, of course, but what does respect mean? Does this include
the police? It should.
It is fine to
reduce the problems of the Nation to platitudinous fixes. It’s also wrong.
There’s a lot to discuss, but Mr. Trump cuts off discussion. So does this list.
Complicated
problems have simple solutions—and they are wrong. (paraphrased from H L
Mencken)
What is so
unfortunate about this year’s Presidential race is that what should have been
an in- depth policy discussion will now be a personality battle about who you
hate least. So sad!
Christie vs.
Clinton would have been something!
