Drain the Swamp? He'll drown in it.
Trump has claimed he will "drain the swamp", meaning that when he gets into power, he will get rid of the political elite in Washington, and freshen things up in an anti-establishment purge.
In some senses, that is refreshing, and perhaps not a bad ideal.
But in reality, it's just another ridiculously unrealistic claim.
Trump is a sort of loner. He didn't have universal Republican backing throughout his campaign, and he doesn't have the largest of teams around him. In fact, right now, he will be scrabbling around in order to get some sort of cabinet ready to hit the ground. In office, he has both houses as Republican backers now. They are the key to him enacting his promises and ideas. He needs them. They are the key to his success.
On closer inspection, I am not really sure what he meant be draining the swamp. Maybe, as the IBT states, he means something like this:
President-elect Donald Trump said he would remove all corrupt politicians and outside interests from Washington, D.C., during his tenure on the campaign trail with a hashtag that has become increasingly popular with his voting base: #DrainTheSwamp.
Trump supporters from across the nation have attached the phrase to varying meanings, from removing corruption and greed in local and federal government, to imposing term limits on politicians serving in Congress. The term comes from removing mosquitos carrying malaria from a region by removing the fluids from inside of a swamp, though it has more popularly been attributed to political organizers and politicians calling for an end to the status quo in government and policy.
One of the first known examples of the phrase symbolizing political change came in the early 1900s, when community organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones promised to “drain the swamp” of capitalists. Ronald Regan also famously used the term a year after being in office to remind the country why he felt he was elected in the first place: “I know it’s hard when you’re up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp.”
My goodness, if he could get rid of lobbyists, then the world would be a better place. But I think this is just another nebulous soundbite of a claim that will never happen. Worse, I think the swamp as the political class, and those of influence around the White House and Washington at large, are just the sort of people Trump will be doing deals with. He loves doing deals. He has, in a contradictory fashion, claimed he has been one of the ones doing deals and paying money to get return favours in the past. This is the world Trump lives in. He has been one of the largest alligators in the swamp for years. And now we expect him to bite off the hand that fed him. Perhaps he will; perhaps it will be a case of "Well, I know it advantaged me, but let's now get rid of it so that no other similar person can benefit"...
It seems Trump is all about contradictions. We have had three views on abortion in five days. We have had claims about illegal immigrants only to find out he employs as many as he can get his hands on, as well as marrying one. We have had claims of a free trade future alongside staunch nationalistic protectionism. And so on.
He says whatever he thinks people will want to hear at the time.
And this includes draining the swamp that will feed him. Feed him until, perhaps, he is so full that he sinks like a brick.
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