Well, I try to keep my personal opinions on national politics away from my political page. No, really, I Do! For those of you who are also Facebook friends with me personally, it’s no secret that I have opinions on all sorts of subjects, not the least of which is politics. But as I tend to run for non-partisan local office, there is usually little reason to bring up Red vs. Blue, Dem v. Rep, Donkey vs. Elephant. I have supporters and detractors who subscribe to all manner of political persuasion. It’s totally possible to be an advocate for the environment while believing in small government, just as it’s not uncommon to believe the government doesn’t have a right to tell you what types of firearms you get to own while believing that universal healthcare is long overdue.

Today I find myself compelled to put down some thoughts on our current leadership in the White House. Like the majority of Americans, I’m not pleased with it. This will be hard for some of my Conservative friends to believe but I do from time to time try to check my bias and judge whether my opinion is clouded by my default political leanings. Today, I feel I can honestly say that they are not.

Have you ever worked with someone you knew you couldn’t fire. So you just had to wait for them to eventually quit. Then, you swore, the next time, you’d be sure to hire someone better. Thanks to the Constitution, we get to have that situation vis-à-vis the presidency every four years.

In the run up to the 2016 election, I was in many of those fruitless online social media arguments with friends, family, and co-workers about who was best positioned to be the president. It started in the primaries: Donald Trump defied the odds and the GOP establishment and kept winning states to the point that the party relented and rallied behind him. Hillary Clinton was long considered next in line for the Democratic nomination and Bernie Sanders’ challenge from the Left was dismissed by the DNC establishment, alienating many progressive voters.

After the respective conventions, the arguments continued and got more heated: about the pros of “draining the swamp” vs. the cons of an “insider” who was very much a part of that swamp. One candidate was an obvious thumb in the nose at traditional political status quo and the other met most of the standard criteria we’d normally require in a candidate resume. Neither had the military experience, neither came without personal baggage, neither were overwhelmingly popular, and neither were going to bring the “Two Americas” together.

But while we argued the merits of shaking up the system vs. the benefits of predictable pragmatic leadership, I noticed a consistent signal coming out of the noise. There seem to be pattern where many Americans who were leaning towards Donald Trump felt the job of President was not hard; or at least not hard enough that they needed to worry about the skill set of the candidate. They seemed to believe that it was more a figurehead-position that did not require special ability. Many of the people I interacted with felt they were voting more for a set of values and a personality that they could relate to more than an actual person capable of performing a job.

While being president does require performing an abundance of ceremonials roles, while letting staff handle detail prep work while they focus on big-picture style thinking and communication, we see from recent events that this is not always the case. Faced with a crisis like a global pandemic, President Trump has shown himself ill-equipped to handle such a crisis for several reasons:

There has been unprecented turnover in the President’s team of advisers. For example, here is a list of high-level Exectuive branch positions which have seen at least two occupants. This does not include the Presidential Cabinet.

Deputy AP & Deputy White House Council
National Security Adviser
Deputy National Security Adviser
AP for Homeland Security & Counterterrorism
Chief of Staff & Executive Secretary, NSC
Senior Director of Intelligence, NSC
Senior Director for Europe & Russia, NSC
Senior Director for Africa, NSC
Deputy Director, National Economic
Council & Intl Economic Affairs

Chief of Staff
Deputy Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff to the VP
Communications Director
Director of Strategic Communications
Principal Deputy Press Secretary
Director of Public Liaison
Director of Oval Office Operations
Director of Presidential Personnel
Press Secretary
White House Director of Legislative Affairs

This turnover has left some chaos in the administration. Some of this chaos has pleased the President, leaving fewer “adults” in the room to push back on his impulses, fewer people to care about the hateful drivel he chooses to put out over Twitter. The people who are still around him now tend to be sycophantic and deferential and find ways to get to “yes” rather than arguing for positions that he doesn’t like. You’ll notice that the people who get to speak to the press now usually begin their statement with a very awkward statement of praise of the President that often seems forced and out of place in a country like ours. You’d expect to see it more in a setting like North Korea or other authoritarian-style regimes.

We all remember the awkward Cabinet meeting a few months into his presidency, where VP Pence kicked things off with “It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve as the vice president to a president who is keeping his word to the American people,” followed shortly thereafter with the soon to be hated by his ‘dear leader’ Jeff Sessions, “It’s an honor to be able to serve you,” he said, describing the support he said Trump has from law enforcement across the country. “They have been very frustrated [and] they are so thrilled.” and then Reince Priebus “We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda”.
Just recently when discussing the idea of cutting payroll taxes, Larry Kudlow described it as “This is a bold proposal, and this is a bold president.” This is how you get in front of the cameras to do your job and get information to the American people, you have to hide it in the spoonful of brown sugar that is praise for Trump.

No doubt this is now a comfortable work environment for Trump. The first year or so in office was probably stiff and cramped working in a government bureaucracy. This current setup is probably much more familiar. It probably feels more like Trump Towers. The types of people hanging about following his every word and trying to get to a yes for him are acting much more like a Harvard Business graduate trying to climb the ladder and get in his good graces much more than a former poli-sci grad student / staffer who will end up a professor at a state university, writing the definitive whitepaper on income inequality or payroll tax deductions on their way to becoming a lieutenant governor someday.

Since the president’s staff is depleted, weaker, and hobbled by their fear of his hateful whim, he is not getting the support he needs (and is convinced he doesn’t want.) His lack of good staffing is on display daily but it was never more apparent than his recent, March 11th, address to the Nation regarding the Corona Virus Pandemic. This address was full of inconsistencies, errors, and even xenophobia. The following fact check is paraphrased from the Boston Globe.

A favorite panacea of the President, a travel ban. Trump said: “We will be suspending all travel from Europe, except the United Kingdom, for the next 30 days.” We later found out that this does not apply to legal permanent resident of the US or their families returning from Europe. Many categories of foreign nationals will also be allowed back. Also the ban does not apply to Ireland, Romania, and several other EU states.
- Was this incompetence or a chance to fire up a base that loves his America first doctrine and is never fond of those dorks from Europe? Either way, he did not help ease panic.
For a President obsessed with the Stock Market, he didn’t do it any favors with this next blunder, ““These prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval.” The WH scrambled to point out that this was not correct and that the ban applied only to Humans.

When will antiviral meds be ready? “We are cutting massive amounts of red tape to make antiviral therapies available in record time. These treatments will significantly reduce the impact and reach of the virus.” Dr. Fauci of NIH says we don’t know of anything that works, we are testing, nothing should be promised yet.
It’s not gonna cost you anything, I worked it out with your insurance. HUH? “Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing.” Another misstatement. The testing will have the copays waved, not the treatments.
Xenophobia? The President’s speech referred to this as a “foreign virus.” Well that is courtesy of Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s speech writers, an Immigration hard-liner and someone who has been with Trump from the beginning of all this. Just like Mr. Trump, he has no business being in the White House. I’m not sure if it was him or Stephen Bannon who copped the Bane speech from The Dark Knight Rises for the Inauguration Speech (the one George W called “some weird s***”),

but it should have been clear to one of the adults in the room that they had no place in a professional administration. Well, it’s even clearer now. Today Miller should have handed in his resignation, not only did he embarrass his boss, his misinformation can actually hurt people.

Anyone who watches the West Wing has seen dramatizations of how much time staffers put into Presidential speeches, well it’s clear nothing like that is happening now. On Twitter an anonymous former WH staffer tweeted:

So, why am I saying all this? We find ourselves in another election year. We find ourselves with more imperfect candidates. I know they are imperfect because they are always going to be imperfect. I ask that this time we remember that this is an actual job, it is not a reality show. It is not a terrarium to drop an interesting character into and see what happens. I’m not saying it is all entertainment for his voters. Sure, some of it is about a crop of young middle-age conservative judges that will sit on the court for half a lifetime. For some it’s several years of tax breaks to build their wealth. But for some, it’s a show. It is the height of privilige to chuckle while watching someone absolutely bungle the most important job in the world, knowing that their political opposites cringe and shout, knowing that no matter what happens, you’ll still be fine. It’s like watching rich fraternity brothers get drunk and crash golf carts, with abandon, safe in the knowledge that they will not feel the sting of consequence.

With all of these reasons in mind, to those of you still willing to listen, let’s end this. Let’s hire a person who will do right by the job, by us. This current crisis is certainly not the President’s fault, and no person on Earth could have handled it perfectly, but almost any of the people on either side of the aisle who were asking for the job in 2015 could have handled it better. And so some of this is on the enablers in Congress for not reigning in the President, and a bit of this is on the Press for taking too much advantage covering his every foible and turning it into ratings and clicks, a bit of this is on those of us who never thought it would get this far, and much of this is on about 60 million Americans who didn’t treat the last election for what it was: filling the open position in the world’s most important job.

For the first few years of his presidency, the job was mostly watching tv during executive time, and ruling by tweet. As long as the stock market stayed up and just enough people stayed loyal he’d be fine. There was never a problem he couldn’t beat back if he committed to the bluster hard enough.

This tiny virus doesn’t respond to bluster, it is impervious to taunts and nicknames. It can’t be paid off, it can’t be intimidated. It can’t be ignored like so many unpaid vendors in his past. It can only be defeated with cooperation, competence, and sacrifice. What might have defeated this virus quickly in this country could have cost Trump reelection: swift containment, short-term economic setbacks, constituent inconvenience, trust in science, etc. Ironically, if he had done these things that go against his personal interests, he might have found his presidential voice, shown himself to actually be a leader equal to this moment, and secured his second term all while saving lives, aka doing the job. It’s tragic we won’t get to know.

“COVID-19 Cases in US
3/5 - 227 cases
3/6 - 331 cases
3/7 - 444 cases
3/8 - 564 cases
3/9 - 728 cases
3/10 - 1,000 cases
3/11 - 1,267 cases
3/12 - 1,645 cases”

— CNN

Joe ran for city council in Quincy a couple times now. He lives in Houghs Neck with his family and is a member of Quincy Climate Action Network, his Kids’ PTO, and works at MIT as an administrator.