Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:31 pm
It was pretty much a certainty going in that Republicans who voted for Trump were not going to get what they were promised, beyond a vehicle to mainstream their hate and intolerance. It has already been demonstrated that they’re not getting lower taxes, and anything like affordable healthcare is as mythical as a unicorn.
What they – and the rest of us – will also get instead of a drained swamp in DC is a swamp filled with lobbyists eager to line Republican pockets with cash. The New York Times is reporting that while “Trump campaigned against lobbyists…now they’re on his transition team.”
Trump tweeted the day before the election that “America must decide between failed policies or fresh perspective, a corrupt system or an outsider,” failing to add “a corrupt outsider.” It’s a promise of fresh corruption, at any rate.
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Since the Obama administration was free of corruption, what “drain the swamp” really meant was to get rid of the Democrats so there would be no obstacles in the way of what is likely destined to be the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States.
According to the Times’ Eric Lipton, the American Enterprise Institute’s Jeffrey Eisenach “is the head of the team that is helping to pick staff members at the Federal Communications Commission. And to no one’s surprise. Eisenach is a foe of regulation who in August came under fire from the Times for publishing telecom-funded articles on net neutrality.
At that time, Lipton wrote that whether or not Eisenach could be called a think tank scholar or corporate consultant depended on the day. Obviously, regulation is going to get a short shrift in the Trump administration, where corporate profits trump – if you’ll pardon the expression – free and untrammeled access to the internet.
Other names that crop up are lobbyist Michael Catanzaro who has represented various energy companies, and Michael Torrey, “who runs a firm that has earned millions of dollars helping food industry players such as the American Beverage Association and the dairy giant Dean Foods, is helping set up the new team at the Department of Agriculture.”
Trump doesn’t want to talk about any of this of course, though his transition team is no secret, and Lipton points out that “to critics of Mr. Trump — both Democrats and Republicans — the inclusion of advisers with industry ties is a first sign that he may not follow through on all of his promises.”
That would seem too obvious to need repeating to any but the corporate media, which was so indispensable to Trump during his campaign. Reluctant as they are to admit their own role in Trump’s success, they seem no more eager to expose their Wunderkind as the con artist he is.
What American can expect is a full-scale reaming at the hands of Donald Trump and his minions. Because, as Lipton tells us, “Transition teams help new presidents pick the new cabinet, as well as up to 4,000 political appointees who will take over top posts in agencies across the government,” you can be sure that reaming will be thorough.
Our planet will suffer, along with our environment and our food and water. Corporations will enjoy it. The rest of us may not be able to sit without a cushioned donut for a few years.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
