The Donald Trump Transition and Beyond – As Seen By a Republican Who Didn’t Vote for Him

I am of two minds as I watch the Donald Trump transition unfold, maybe more.  A few thoughts, in no particular order.

First, I didn’t vote for Mr. Trump so he’s not my candidate.  On the other hand, the person I voted for wasn’t really my candidate either.  I only voted for her because I thought her foreign policy views were better than Mr. Trump – and better than those of President Obama.

Second, while I didn’t vote Republican for president, I did for everything else.  I am very happy the Republicans kept control of the House and the Senate.  I really like and respect Paul Ryan.  I am very glad he will stay as Speaker of the House.  I am hopeful this will result in better domestic policies.

Third, keeping the Senate should enable Mr. Trump to appoint somebody to replace Justice Scalia.  It is very probable that Mr. Trump will appoint somebody better (in my opinion) than Hillary Clinton would have.  (I voted for former Secretary Clinton even though I knew she would appoint somebody I disagreed with to the Supreme Court; the foreign policy issue was that important to me.) 

     I know that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has threatened a filibuster if Donald Trump nominates somebody to the Supreme Court that the Democrats don’t like and has talked about how even the Democrats didn’t get rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.  But that’s just baloney. Tim Kaine, when he thought Secretary Clinton was going to be elected president and the Democrats would win the Senate, said the Democrats would get rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if the Republicans tried to use it against a Hillary Clinton nominee.  So did Harry Reid.  The rule is going to go away the next time the Republicans use it against a Democratic nominee.  We might as well get rid of it now.

Fourth, I don’t like a lot of the potential Donald Trump nominees I have seen listed in the media, but I’m not going to go bonkers over them.  They indicate Mr. Trump is going to do things, for example, in foreign policy, that I don’t agree with.  Big surprise.  That’s why I didn’t vote for him.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t like the people Hillary Clinton would be appointing either, especially those vetted and approved by Elizabeth Warren.

     It really boils down to which is more annoying.  Democrats/progressives going on and on about how bad Donald Trump and his nominees are or Democrats/progressives jumping for joy over Hillary Clinton’s nominees (if she had won).  It’s close to a coin flip.

Fifth, I worry about the next four years, especially, among others reasons, for the people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (here, too) – and many other places.  On the other hand, I have felt bad for the people in Aleppo and so many other places during the last eight years of the United States’ “leading from behind.”  The world has become a more dangerous place in the last eight years of leading from behind.  And I don’t know if it is going to get better any time soon.