WTF is Really Wrong with Trump? Or, Salient Observations on Leadership

A prince will never lack for legitimate excuses to explain away his breaches of faith. Modern history will furnish innumerable examples of this behavior, showing how the man succeeded best who knew best how to play the fox. But it is a necessary part of this nature that you must conceal it carefully; you must be a great liar and hypocrite. Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived. Machiavelli

The Presidency is … preeminently a place of moral leadership. All our great Presidents were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified…. That is what the office is—a superb opportunity for reapplying, applying in new conditions, the simple rules of human conduct to which we always go back. Without leadership alert and sensitive to change, we are all bogged up or lose our way. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

To link oneself with the masses, one must act in accordance with the needs and wishes of the masses.… There are two principles here: one is the actual needs of the masses rather than what we fancy they need, and the other is the wishes of the masses, who must make up their own minds instead of our making up their minds for them.… We should pay close attention to the well-being of the masses, from the problems of land and labour to those of fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt.… We should help them to proceed from these things to an understanding of the higher tasks which we have put forward.… Such is the basic method of leadership. Mao Tse-tung

Burns, James MacGregor. Leadership (Harper Perennial Political Classics) . Open Road Media. Kindle Edition. 

Put another way, here is the basic contrast between the bumbling incumbent and the best candidate to succeed him after the 2020 election.

There will be intensifying bluster from the incumbent as he becomes increasingly beleaguered. He's already overwhelmingly insecure.

But in my opinion, there are only two Democratic candidates who are capable of changing the game. And as we have seen over the last three years (including some of the 2016 campaign), the incumbent is cleverly qualified to dominate the game/campaign as it has traditionally been played.

Elizabeth Warren has already changed the game by contrasting the bluster and demagoguery with clear rhetoric, realistic visionary plans for the kind of change that needs to happen in America today, and deep conviction with understanding of how it needs to be.

From an interview American Prospect executive editor David Dayen conducted with Warren recently,

EW: Remember, Congress has got a lot of muscle if it decides to use it. But I want to make two other points. The first is current law gives the Justice Department and the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] and the banking regulators a lot of power to move now. Even without Congress, a president who put a strong team in place could change antitrust enforcement in this country, without a single change in the laws from Congress.

DD: And it’s interesting you say the banking regulators, because people don’t realize how much power is in, you know, other agencies, not just the FTC and the Justice Department.

EW: Exactly right. I picked banking, but you’re exactly right. But it’s the reminder—There’s a lot we could do right now. But also, and this is what I argue should come out of all this, there are places where Congress should draw a bright line in this. So I have a plan to break up the big platforms. If a platform is doing more than a billion dollars in business, the platform has to be broken off from all of the ancillary businesses. And there’s just—We shouldn’t have to litigate it. Just make it happen. It’s too much concentration of power. And so I’m both ways on this: there’s a lot we can do without—I’m delighted Congress is doing this. There’s a lot we can do, even if Congress doesn’t change any law. 

Kamala Harris has a rhetorical style that will cut through the incumbent's bluster like a hot knife sizzling through butter. Her prosecutorial chops will cut him down to size in two seconds flat should they appear on a debate stage together.

There are numerous reasons I prefer Warren, but I also very much like Harris. Of course, a Warren/Harris 2020 ticket would be revolutionary for several reasons.

Nevertheless, please ponder the quotes above and let's get this thing done.