[jammies]

I give it 6 months of the Republicans trying to work with Trump before they realize he wants headlines, not policies. Then there will be struggle in the backrooms and obstructionism reborn. 2018 will be a bloodbath as Trumpistas try to use the primaries to unseat those in the party perceived as the old elites, in favour of toadies and true believers more amenable to Dear Leader.

The problems with American politics lie in the Constitution, which was designed for a mostly rural country happy to let the gentlemen rule. The electoral college, specifically designed to thwart populism, has entrenched a binary choice of President instead, and actually enabled a populist shyster to take office despite a minority of votes in his favour. The Supreme Court has become, rather than a brake on tyranny, a kind of tyranny in itself, beholden to none once confirmed and with attitudes dictated by the exigencies of the partisan battles taking place when each Justice is nominated. Congress is concerned with re-election and satisfying special interest groups' and their states' interests over the nation's; and also is not much concerned with prudent governance, for that buys no television ads.

What amazes me even more than electing the old rich white beneficiary of elitism as some kind of reformer, is that Americans paradoxically make a positive fetish of the founding fathers, the Constitution, and the idea of America while simultaneously decrying the institutions that these foundations and ideas have established, seeing them as hopelessly corrupt and broken. Yet, this is inevitably what you get when your Republic lasts too long, an infirmity of ideas - just look at the slowing and now glacial rate of Amendments to the Constitution, where there have been 2 in the last 45 years, and the most recent (1991) had actually been proposed over 200 years before ratification.

Trump won't make things better because of many reasons - not least his intellectual incapacity and preference for bombast over rationality - but he can certainly make them worse. The hope that he will kick over the whole rotten structure would only be appealing if he wasn't likely to either have a worse replacement in mind, or no idea at all what he wants other than to gratify his ego and need for adulation. While there was certainly little scope for positive change under Clinton, there is none under Trump. It's not just that his call back to an older, better America is revisionist and flawed, it is that it is impossible. The Rust Belt will keep on rusting, illegal immigrants will keep on doing the jobs Americans won't, and Wall Street will still manipulate the markets for the benefit of the insiders - and the crazies will keep getting crazier.

PS: the two amendments are: in 1971 lowering the voting age to 18; and in the 90s preventing Congress from voting itself raises and getting them right way, instead they now have to wait 'till the next election cycle.