That's very un-MAGA of you, Caroleene.
— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) October 25, 2024
All true MAGA know that Trump is their savior and all solutions will come from him.https://t.co/1MFCq7COlk#alpolitics https://t.co/bMwYpizD2z
A. General
In a society's system of governance, selected members of the society are invested with powers to carry out the activities of governing of the society.
Such selected members are supposed to use their powers to benefit the society and its members as a whole and not use their powers to benefit themselves personally. The personal benefit may be financial benefit to the powerholder, the powerholder's family, or powerholder's friends (such personal financial benefits for self, family and/or friends will be referred to as "financial benefits"), or the personal benefit may be psychological gratifications and pleasures that the powerholder receives from having and wielding the power, such as attention to one's self, adulation, deference to one's self, domination over others, and being able to cause others to fear one (these psychological gratifications and pleasures shall be referred to as "ego gratifications").
There is a tension between the selfish nature of human beings to seek their own benefit (financial or ego gratifications) and the societal imperative that members of the society who have the governing powers exercise the powers to benefit the society and its members as a whole.
In the foregoing tension, different individuals have different power-seeking and power-wielding motivations. Some individuals will be more disposed to properly use their governing powers to benefit the society and its members as a whole. Other individuals will be more disposed to using, or trying to use, their governing powers to benefit themselves personally, be they financial or ego gratifications.
The Founding Fathers were very occupied with limiting the accumulation of power and this was much on their mind in having checks and balances in the Constitution to protect society accumulations of power that have potential for great harm to the society.
B. Evaluating Trump
In the foregoing tension, different individuals have different power-seeking and power-wielding motivations. Some individuals will be more disposed to properly use their governing powers to benefit the society and its members as a whole. Other individuals will be more disposed to using, or trying to use, their governing powers to benefit themselves personally, be they financial or ego gratifications.
Further, there is a tendency of all power-seekers towards wanting more power, and as more power is obtained, the desire for more power increases. There is risk of this afflicting even power-seekers with the best of intentions to use their power properly. (In short, Lord Acton's famous quote, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," that "succinctly captures a truth that has resonated throughout history. The essence of this quote is that when individuals or groups are granted power, there is a risk that they will abuse it for their own gain or become tyrannical in their actions." Lord Acton: 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' — The Socratic Method)
Regarding power-wielders seeking to benefit themselves personally, the power-wielder seeking personal financial benefits generally needs to hide the financial benefits being sought and obtained. As for ego gratifications the power-wielder seeks, the power-wielder needs to keep the members of the society from thinking that the power-wielder is excessively interested in his ego gratifications and is not sufficiently attentive to benefitting the society, with and society in fact not getting the benefits it should be getting from the power-wielder's exercise of his governing powers. In short, the power-wielder needs to fool the other members of society about this.
For power-wielders seeking personal benefits,it is especially helpful if the power-holder has aides and other parties who are willing to help the power-holder in hiding the truth about how the power-wielder is using his governing powers.
Even better is if the power-wielder is able to somehow get the members of the society to be blind about, or not care about, the extent to which the power-wielder is using his governing powers for his personal benefit.
Further, a power-seeker seeking personal benefit from his power has a nature of being willing to lie, deceive, and manipulate other members of the society, in connection with his using his power to get financial benefits and for ego gratifications.
In the midst of the foregoing realities about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely, it is a central societal concern to ward off power-wielders from using their power to benefit themselves personally. For this purpose, the society has laws making it unlawful to for governing powers to be used for personal benefit. There are disclosure laws to help in this.
There are structural checks and balances to keep governing powers distributed and to constrain power-holders in their accumulation of power. on persons who gain power exercise the power for the benefit of the society and that the power not be held and wielded for self-gratification purposes as detrimental to the society. Accordingly, it is of central importance that there be checks against too much power being obtained by a person.
The Founding Fathers were very occupied with limiting the accumulation of power and this was much on their mind in having checks and balances in the Constitution to protect society accumulations of power that have potential for great harm to the society.
B. Evaluating Trump
In evaluating Trump's power seeking, it should be said that politicians generally are ambitious power-seekers. Take Chuck Schumer as an example. Chuck Schumer began his political career in 1974 and has spent 40 years rising to leader of the United States Senate. It is fair to guess that Chuck Schumer gets ego gratification from the power he holds, and the greater the power he holds, the greater the ego gratification he receives.
Chuck Schumer may have exercised his power to benefit himself financially and Chuck Schumer may have been powerfully motivated to aggrandized power for his own ego gratifications. Regardless, the critical thing to say about Chuck Schumer is that he has been limited and checked in power seeking by laws, by the Constitution and by other constraints.
A history of the United States could be written about how much power-seeking has gone on by power-seekers, how much they have benefitted themselves financially, and how laws, the Constitution and other societal controls have kept their power-seeking check.
Now, turning to Trump, just about everyone is agreed that there has never been anything like Trump in American history.
A history of the United States could be written about how much power-seeking has gone on by power-seekers, how much they have benefitted themselves financially, and how laws, the Constitution and other societal controls have kept their power-seeking check.
Now, turning to Trump, just about everyone is agreed that there has never been anything like Trump in American history.
Trump supporters believe that utter destruction of the country is happening under the Democrats, Trump will be the savior of the country, and Trump will fix all that ails the country very quickly. Never in American history has there been a Presidential candidate who has made such outlandish promises to voters, and tens of millions of his supporters believe his promises, or they know how outlandish the promises are and cannot be fulfilled but they don't care and being emotionally carried away by Trump is what matters to them.
For those against Trump, Trump is unprecedented in American history at the Presidential level as regards how blatantly transactional Trump has been in using his governing power to benefit himself, his family and friends financially. how unashamedly he pursues ego gratifications from his power, how successful he has been in getting tens of millions of Americans to be blind to that or not care about that, how much Trump has unshackled himself from Constitutional, legal and institutional checks on his power seeking to benefit himself personally.
There is much available information to consider as regards the foregoing.
There is how Trump lived his life before 2016, how narcissistic he was in striving for as much attention as he could get to himself, and his questionable business ethics such as the fraudulent Trump University.
There is the question of why Trump ran for President in 2016. Many think Trump did not believe he had a chance to win the Presidency, but that running would bea great way to advertise and promote his business including his goal of building a hotel in Moscow. Also, running for President itself would provide enormous ego gratifications for Trump, and, if Trump won the Presidency, being President could provide the ultimate in ego gratifications. Also Trump may have had plans to use the Presidency to benefit himself and his family financially, as it actually turned out.
On the opposite side, Trump supporters don't give any thought to any of the above and simply believe Trump, in 2016, decided to make a great personal sacrifice for the laudable motivation of simply wanting to make the United States better ("Make America Great Again").
II. What Trump will do as POTUS
II. What Trump will do as POTUS
With just about everyone agreeing that there has never been anything in American history like Trump as described above, what Trump will do as President if he is elected somewhat depends on which of the opposing two views is more the truth about Trump.
It is a reasonable prediction that Trump will largely do whatever he wants to.
My view is that main determinants of what Trump wants to will be ego gratification or financial benefits he or his family or friends will get from doing a particular thing, and Trump will not be amenable to do doing such and such is a thing because it is a right or good thing to do for the country, unless Trump sees something that is in it for him, his family or friends if the does the right or good thing in question.
In this view of mine, Trump could decide he doesn't want to do a mass deportation after all and Trump does not do that. The same could be the case with tariffs. It would also be unpredictable whether Trump will once again try to repeal The Affordable Care Act.
Trump may get ego gratification by terminating American support of Ukraine.
Under my view, there is a risk that Trump would as POTUS dedicate himself almost exclusively to things like eradicating the sources of his grievances, destroying any independence of the Department of Justice, punishing parties who opposed Trump (such as Mark Cuban) by means of his Presidential powers related to commercial matter that affect the parties he wants to punish, wielding the pardon power to induce people to do things that Trump wants done but that are unlawful and for which he can grant a pardon, and expanding his power ssuch as over Federal Reserve Board.
If the view of Trump that his supporters have that Trump is mainly motivated to do things for the benefit of the country, Trump may do things for which there is nothing compelling in the nature of ego gratification or financial benefit.
_______________________________________
Email to 40 friends
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: [email addresses omitted]
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2024 at 06:43:11 PM CDT
Subject: Trump and power
Dear Friends,
With eight days to go, and with no holding of focus groups at my house as originally contemplated, this has been relegated to group emailing as a lesser substitute for whoever is interested.
All are invited to "reply to all," or to request removal from the email group list if that is desired.
Last Tuesday I emailed "AMERICA'S CLOSING ARGUMENT AGAINST DONALD J. TRUMP".
I have sharpened my thinking and narrowed its focus.
In The Final Battle against Donald J. Trump: What will Trump be and do as POTUS, I am drafting a section labelled "Trump and power."
Appended below is the current state of the drafting.
The country is in agony now, and what agony will continue after November 5th remains to be seen.
We will see what Harris says on the Ellipse tomorrow.
Your friend,
Rob
["current state of the drafting" is omitted]
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: Brannon Buck <bbuck@badhambuck.com>; Terri B. Lovell <terri.lovell@alabar.org>; mckinney@watsonmckinney.com <mckinney@watsonmckinney.com>; suzanneduffey@mc-ala.org <suzanneduffey@mc-ala.org>; flatta@burr.com <flatta@burr.com>; wbrewbak@law.ua.edu <wbrewbak@law.ua.edu>; sgarrett@bsol.com <sgarrett@bsol.com>; ccampbell@faulkner.edu <ccampbell@faulkner.edu>; blakehudson@samford.edu <blakehudson@samford.edu>; christy.crow@jinkscrow.com <christy.crow@jinkscrow.com>; richard.raleigh@wbd-us.com <richard.raleigh@wbd-us.com>; daoffice@baldwincountyal.gov <daoffice@baldwincountyal.gov>; baldwinDA@baldwincountyal.gov <baldwinda@baldwincountyal.gov>; "baldwinda@baldwincountyal.gov" <baldwinda@baldwincountyal.gov>; bob@schreiberadr.com <bob@schreiberadr.com>; jvance@law.ua.edu <jvance@law.ua.edu>; jws@willsellers.com <jws@willsellers.com>; cdobson@maynardnexsen.com <cdobson@maynardnexsen.com>; jwilson@birminghambar.org <jwilson@birminghambar.org>; Ross Cohen <rcohen@bakerdonelson.com>; spratling@wskllp.com <spratling@wskllp.com>; Mark Ezell <mee@ezell-law-llc.com>; John Steiner <john@steinerlawllc.com>; spoer@scottdukeslaw.com <spoer@scottdukeslaw.com>; ddowd@burr.com <ddowd@burr.com>; Chris Christie <chris.christie@dentons.com>; Gwen Windle <gwindle@charter.net>; hello@waterssullivan.com <hello@waterssullivan.com>; ryeilding@bradley.com <ryeilding@bradley.com>; glondon@burr.com <glondon@burr.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 02:57:08 PM CDT
Subject: What will Trump be and do as POTUS
Hello again, Alabama lawyers:
None here seem sufficiently bothered by my emails to put a block of my email address on their email account, or to ask me to remove them from this email list.
So, what the heck.
It is down to the wire, and below is the current state of "What will Trump be and do as POTUS" that I am drafting at The Final Battle against Donald J. Trump: What will Trump be and do as POTUS .
Thank you very much.
[current state of "What will Trump be and do as POTUS" omitted]
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: shannon.isbell@wbrc.com <shannon.isbell@wbrc.com>; Susana Schuler <susana.schuler@hearst.com>; brendan.kirby@fox10tv.com <brendan.kirby@fox10tv.com>; jama.killingsworth@waff.com <jama.killingsworth@waff.com>; Mike Wright <mwright@waaytv.com>; Kay Norred <knorred@wvua23.com>; rmartin@cbs42.com <rmartin@cbs42.com>; Baylor Long <blong@hearst.com>; dwingard@wsfa.com <dwingard@wsfa.com>; news@mynbc15.com <news@mynbc15.com>; randy.merrow@fox10tv.com <randy.merrow@fox10tv.com>; gmcdonald@waka.com <gmcdonald@waka.com>; comments@abc3340.com <comments@abc3340.com>; newstip@abc3340.com <newstip@abc3340.com>; wvtm13@wvtm.com <wvtm13@wvtm.com>; dlamb@cbs42.com <dlamb@cbs42.com>; mnelson@ua.edu <mnelson@ua.edu>; alfranks@uab.edu <alfranks@uab.edu>; jzb0124@auburn.edu <jzb0124@auburn.edu>; mcarey@samford.edu <mcarey@samford.edu>; cofieldj@montevallo.edu <cofieldj@montevallo.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2024 at 04:00:41 AM CDT
Subject: What Trump will be and do as POTUS
The Final Battle against Donald J. Trump: What Trump will be and do as POTUS
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: algop@algop.org <algop@algop.org>; blumber@hiwaay.net <blumber@hiwaay.net>; oshaw@knology.net <oshaw@knology.net>; jwezell2012@gmail.com <jwezell2012@gmail.com>; claycogop@gmail.com <claycogop@gmail.com>; cummingsresearch@hotmail.com <cummingsresearch@hotmail.com>; elmoregop@gmail.com <elmoregop@gmail.com>; Fayettecountyalabamagop@gmail.com <fayettecountyalabamagop@gmail.com>; "fayettecountyalabamagop@gmail.com" <fayettecountyalabamagop@gmail.com>; genevacountygop34@gmail.com <genevacountygop34@gmail.com>; jeffcogopal@gmail.com <jeffcogopal@gmail.com>; lawrencealgop@yahoo.com <lawrencealgop@yahoo.com>; leecountyalabamagop@gmail.com <leecountyalabamagop@gmail.com>; lcrecsecy@gmail.com <lcrecsecy@gmail.com>; Party@mgop.org <party@mgop.org>; "party@mgop.org" <party@mgop.org>; gopmobilecounty@gmail.com <gopmobilecounty@gmail.com>; monroecountyalgop@gmail.com <monroecountyalgop@gmail.com>; montgomerygop@mgmgop.com <montgomerygop@mgmgop.com>; garydhead@hotmail.com <garydhead@hotmail.com>; chairman@shelbyalgop.com <chairman@shelbyalgop.com>; chairman@stclaircountyalabamagop.com <chairman@stclaircountyalabamagop.com>; membership@degagop.org <membership@degagop.org>; TallaGOP@outlook.com <tallagop@outlook.com>; "tallagop@outlook.com" <tallagop@outlook.com>; tuscalgop@gmail.com <tuscalgop@gmail.com>; contact@aldemocrats.org <contact@aldemocrats.org>; houstoncountydems@gmail.com <houstoncountydems@gmail.com>; chair@baldwindemocrats.org <chair@baldwindemocrats.org>; info@chiltoncountydems.org <info@chiltoncountydems.org>; chair@limestonedemocrats.org <chair@limestonedemocrats.org>; chair.jeffersoncountydems@gmail.com <chair.jeffersoncountydems@gmail.com>; chair@mobiledems.org <chair@mobiledems.org>; shelbycountydems65@gmail.com <shelbycountydems65@gmail.com>; cleburnealdemocrats@gmail.com <cleburnealdemocrats@gmail.com>; tuscaloosadems@gmail.com <tuscaloosadems@gmail.com>; mtnbrookdems@gmail.com <mtnbrookdems@gmail.com>; hooverdemocrats@gmail.com <hooverdemocrats@gmail.com>; montgomerycountydemocrats@gmail.com <montgomerycountydemocrats@gmail.com>; info@madisoncountydemocrats.com <info@madisoncountydemocrats.com>; RocketCityDems@gmail.com <rocketcitydems@gmail.com>; "rocketcitydems@gmail.com" <rocketcitydems@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2024 at 10:04:08 AM CDT
Subject: What Trump will be and do as POTUS
The Final Battle against Donald J. Trump: What Trump will be and do as POTUS
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: lane.mclelland@ua.edu <lane.mclelland@ua.edu>; wbrewbak@law.ua.edu <wbrewbak@law.ua.edu>; jos.smith@ua.edu <jos.smith@ua.edu>; bsbutler@ua.edu <bsbutler@ua.edu>; alex.house@ua.edu <alex.house@ua.edu>; knorred@wvua23.com <knorred@wvua23.com>; jmccain@maynardcooper.com <jmccain@maynardcooper.com>; pfoster@algop.org <pfoster@algop.org>; contact@aldemocrats.org <contact@aldemocrats.org>; jvance@law.ua.edu <jvance@law.ua.edu>; letters@thecrimsonwhite.com <letters@thecrimsonwhite.com>; tuscaloosadems@gmail.com <tuscaloosadems@gmail.com>; mtnbrookdems@gmail.com <mtnbrookdems@gmail.com>; hooverdemocrats@gmail.com <hooverdemocrats@gmail.com>; montgomerycountydemocrats@gmail.com <montgomerycountydemocrats@gmail.com>; info@madisoncountydemocrats.com <info@madisoncountydemocrats.com>; Cathleen Erwin <coe0001@auburn.edu>; amcewan@samford.edu <amcewan@samford.edu>; mwithers@samford.edu <mwithers@samford.edu>; jcobia@samford.edu <jcobia@samford.edu>; dburch1@samford.edu <dburch1@samford.edu>; Christopher Jones <jonesc1@uab.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2024 at 06:22:41 PM CDT
Subject: What Trump will be and do as POTUS
233 Mental Health Professionals Spell Out Dangers Of Donald Trump In Chilling Letter
For filing in The Final Battle against Donald J. Trump: What Trump will be and do as POTUS.
Email addressees on this email are email addressees on emails posted on Be An Alabama Rootstriker* with Rob Shattuck: Presidential debate in Tuscaloosa & ABA Democracy Task Force conversation event
No comments:
Post a Comment