Drain the swamp? Or invite the alligators in to dine?
It’s been twenty-one days since the unthinkable occurred and Donald Trump won enough whatever votes to claim the presidency. There’s been a lot of triumphant chest-beating by the GOP and woeful hand-wringing by Democrats in the wake of this calamity, akin to the unsinkable Titanic hitting the iceberg and, well, sinking.
Trump rode a popular wave, if not quite the tsunami of support he claims, built on a platform of xenophobia, trumpeting that Mr Celebrity Apprentice knows how to run a business — which, we should point out, is not the same as running a country — and hence, he was going, in his own words, “to drain the swamp.” This imitable, cliched parlance refers to the corruption and special interest back-washing that in his mind, characterizes politics in D.C. His supporters bought the package he was selling, acclaiming him as if he were fuhrer claus. Disturbing as his rhetoric is to anyone with a modicum of intelligence, if you take into account his paucity of political experience or indeed any significant knowledge, he rallied a fervid fan-base that was allegedly fed up with everything they think politicians represent. Ergo, we now find ourselves in this godawful mess.
That said, President Elect Trump has thus far not shown himself to be as loyal to his campaign bombast as promised, at least as far as draining the proverbial swamp is concerned. His cabinet appointments offer a chilling but revealing insight into the machinations behind his green curtain, for much like the wizard of Oz, if you look past the bellowing bauble-head and swirling fumes, he’s about as in over his head as any zealot who wanted to win at any cost could be. There can be little doubt that behind the little dictator stands Big Daddy Pence, whispering venomous recommendations in his suggestible ear.
Transition sources claim Trump will name Elaine Chao as his transportation secretary. Chao previously served as labor secretary under W. Bush, the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. Chao is also, not coincidentally, married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In case you forgot, McConnell is a die-hard conservative GOP politician who relishes being as obstructionist as possible, costing us, the tax-payers, oodles of money as he runs on at the mouth to delay bill approvals. He’s a long-time denizen of the swamp, so his wife has certainly bathed in its fetid waters.
Georgia Representative Tom Price has been named secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. An orthopedic surgeon before entering politics in 2004, he’s an outspoken critic of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. He opposes abortion and supported the proposed Protect Life Act, which would have denied government funding to health care plans that offer abortion and allowed hospitals to refuse emergency abortion care. He opposes gun control, of course, and LGBQT rights. In 2007, Price voted against a bill prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation; and in 2006, voted in favor of constitutionally defining marriage as heterosexual (one man + one woman). The Human Rights Campaign has given him a 0% rating. It doesn’t get lower than that. He’s a swamp thing.
Seema Verma has been named administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, overseeing government health programs and insurance standards. Verma is president, CEO and founder of SVC Inc., a health care policy consulting company which she runs as her personal money-making enterprise. As of 2016, Verma’s firm had been awarded over $3.5 million in Indiana state contracts, and while she worked with Indiana, she was promised another $1 million to work for a division of Hewlett-Packard, one of the largest Medicaid providers in the state. The Indianapolis Star raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest with her dual roles, noting that the Hewlett-Packard division had secured $500 million in state contracts while she worked as a health care consultant.
Betsy DeVos is Trump’s nomination for secretary of the Department of Education. Billionaire DeVos, of Michigan, is chairman of the American Federation for Children, a nonprofit organization that “advocates for school choice reforms”, focusing on a parent’s right to choose which school their child attends through scholarship tax credits, education savings accounts, and vouchers. She views education as a personal religious issue and wants to change the law to reflect her personal views. She became involved in education “reform” in the early 1990s, when her husband ran for a seat on the Michigan state Board of Education. Hardly a swamp neophyte. In 1993, she and her husband adopted the Education Freedom Fund, which, as she defines it, “ is ultimately Christian in its nature, because in excess of 90% of the parents who receive these scholarships choose Christian schools to go to.” White Christians, that is. She supports the fund with significant donations from her bottom-feeder fortune.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is the nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. A governor since 2011, she has scarce international experience for the job. She supported Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in the Republican primaries, criticizing Trump for his harsh stance on immigration and not speaking out against his white supremacist allies. She’s since changed her tune, because when swamp dwellers get fed, they tend to do that.
Kansas Representative Mike Pompeo is Trump’s selection for CIA director. A member of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Pompeo was first elected during the 2010 tea party hysteria. He’s a vocal critic of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state and her handling of the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. Six years in the swamp has honed his fangs to razor-sharp points.
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has been selected as U.S. attorney general. Sessions served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and as Alabama attorney general before being elected to the Senate in 1996. He’s a piece of ugly work, enraging civil rights activists over his rabid opposition to illegal immigration and advocating for a reduction in legal immigration. He supported major legislation during the W. Bush administration, including the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts — allowing the rich to get richer — the Iraq War, and the proposed national amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He refutes all international scientific evidence of climate change and mocks greenhouse gas regulations, though he spews enough of his own toxic pollution to merit an EPA regulation on his ass. As the leading Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he also opposed all three of President Obama’s nominees for the Supreme Court. Again, swamp dweller, anyone? Granted, his stance on climate change may ensure there are no swamps, drained or otherwise.
Former head of the website Breitbart News, Steve Bannon is Trump’s chief strategist and counselor, and arguably the nastiest pick of the lot, which is saying something. He has no political experience beyond Trump’s presidential campaign, so I suppose you can say our president elect had to drain a nearby swamp to dredge up this gator. Critics have accused Bannon of being anti-Semitic, homophobic, and a white supremacist — accusations supported by his own vicious rhetoric on Breitbart and elsewhere, making him the ultimate swamp creature. His selection has emboldened fringe groups such as the so-called alt-right to yell fascist slogans and employ Nazi salutes at their rallies.
Last, but not least, Kathleen Troia “KT” Mcfarland is slated to be deputy national security adviser. A former Fox News commentator — no, that’s not a typo — who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in 2006 to challenge Hillary Clinton for her Senate seat, McFarland was a Pentagon official during the oh-so-charming Reagan administration. She’s also accused of outing her gay brother when he was dying of AIDS in 1995, condemning his lifestyle as the culprit for his illness, and fabricating a family history of abuse to fortify her claims, even as she refused to see her brother in his final days. Her family has denied her story of abuse and her other surviving sibling has deemed her “evil.”
Nice group, huh? Draining the swamp actually looks a lot like inviting the alligators in to dine. At the White House, no less.
