I found this a reasonable analogy –
Title: Draining the Swamp is Messy
By Michael Master
Our home is in a community of 2,000 homes located on the intercostal in North Carolina. Everything lives here. Alligators. Water moccasins. Rattle snakes. Sea hawks. Egrets. Giant blue heron. Mosquitoes… blood sucking mosquitoes. We’ve watched from our back porch as dolphins chased sail boats
and motor boats up the intercostal and watched the moon rise over the ocean to cast its glow over the intercostal.
When the community decided to drain the swamp in the center of the community, it was a big deal. Draining the swamp was messy. The swamp was about 10 football fields, about 6 feet deep, with lots of creatures living in it. It was a dangerous swamp. Not one that you would walk or swim. You would not dare sit next to it in the dark of a moonless night. If not the snakes, then the mosquitoes would eat you alive.
As the water level decreased, the creatures were exposed. As the water level disappeared, all that was left was 3 feet of yucky black mud and the roots to dying cypress trees. The fish, snakes, frogs, rats, and birds were all stranded in the yucky mud.
Those creatures of the swamp fought for their lives as the swamp disappeared. The fish flopped around in the black mud looking for some water for life. The frogs croaked incessantly all night while their young pollywogs were stranded lifeless at the top of the black mud. Snakes slithered in every direction in the black mud in search of food. The rats that live in hollows all along the water abandoned their nests while the birds that feed off the swamp creatures also abandoned the area.
Finally, the mud dried out. No more snakes. No more rats. No more fish. No more frogs. No more mosquitoes. And no more birds that feed off those creatures of the swamp.
That same thing is happening to the political swamp in America. Trump is draining the swamp. His picks for his cabinet are all swamp drainers. Yeah, 3 are from Goldman Sachs. 3 of 23. Practically all of his cabinet have executive experience (military, or government, or private sector) .. and it is the executive branch, now isn’t it?
The mud is becoming visible as all the creatures who live in the swamp are fighting for their lives. Government employees at the IRS, EPA, and Education are flapping in the mud like dying fish. The lobbyists are slithering here and there looking for government funds like the snakes in the mud …especially those who wrote Obamacare. The liberal media cartel is chirping and croaking all the time like frogs trying to reverse the draining. The tax and spend politicians are dying off like the blood sucking mosquitoes. The political appointees of Obama are fleeing DC for other jobs like the birds who lost their meal tickets. And the information leakers like Comey and Lynch are looking for new places
to nest like the rats that left the swamp. Soon, all that will remain will be the dying institutions like public education as the dying cypress trees of our society.
Everyone who lived off the swamp is praying for rain. Election rain so Democrats might win some elections from Republicans since the Democrats suffered such horrible defeats during the 8 years of Obama. Impeachment rain so the professional politicians can get rid of Trump as the swamp drainer. Low approval rating rain so the media can claim they were correct about Trump. Virtual rain, fake rain, so pundits can claim that Trump is not making any progress even though the results say the opposite.
Draining the swamp is messy, muddy. But the mud will soon dry. Democrats just lost special elections in Arkansas and Omaha after sinking millions into them. Democrats might grab an election here or there in places like Georgia where the demographics are changing to black communities, but not without millions and millions of campaign money … and Democrats cannot afford to do that for all the elections in 2018. Democrats must defend 23 Senators in 2018 as compared to 10 for Republicans and
Democrats must win 25 seats in the US House from Republicans and then win back 900 state legislative seats and 14 governorships. If Georgia is an example, that will cost Democrats hundreds of millions to try.
SCOTUS will be rendering its decisions about Trump executive orders just before the 2018 elections …and more than likely, SCOTUS will rule against the Obama appointed judges who live in the lower court swamps. SCOTUS will help Trump.
Comey is gone. Lynch is in trouble. Clinton is back in trouble. The Clinton Foundation donors are talking. Clapper and Yates both said that there is no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians.
Schumer is gasping for rain like one of those stranded fish. His Republican swamp buddies like McCain will abandon him as he dies … a rat leaving the swamp even though they shared an apartment together. His Wall Street swamp buddies cannot help him. The Washington Post and The New York Times and CNN and NBC are all trying to seed the clouds. But none of it is producing enough rain to help Schumer stop
Trump from draining the swamp.
Draining the swamp is loud. Listen to all the hysterical liberal media cartel who are trying to make it rain in order to save the swamp where they live. Chanting. Lies. Rain dances. But no real rain is coming. Only fake rain. The swamp will soon be dry. And when it is, then the next task to make America great again can begin.
“No more snakes. No more rats. No more fish. No more frogs. No more mosquitoes.”
I realize this sentence was a metaphor, but I must say I envy you (although I obviously don’t mind fish).
I’m so politically incorrect, I want to drain the Everglades; we’ve already had three sightings of Burmese pythons in my city who have slithered up the coast. No thanks!
I support environmental havens such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier because certain types of wildlife are far more worth saving than others.
As for the political nuances of this post, I’m with Sean Hannity! I want Nancy Pelosi to remain in power because she is wreaking some major damage on the Democratic party that no Republican could possibly match. 60 Congressional seats lost in the course of a two elections?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo
We are back to why “Conservative Thinkers” found themselves to be abandoned.
Your analogy or metaphor is very good.
Trump is messy, occasionally clumsy by Media standards, but not by his supporters. He is Grant to McLellan. “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.”
Will all be of ideological perfection when done? Absolutely not. Will things be better and much damage averted? I say yes.
Americans who wanted their country back were like people with a house afire. You can let the volunteers who get there put it out as best they can, or you can wait for the professionals to arrive if they can fit you in.
Trump is messy, but only because he doesn’t edit his comments as well as he should. I don’t care.
I like him, I understand the memo, and I’m willing to ignore the un-pc comments and focus on the core of his message: jobs, jobs, and jobs.
The economic ignorance of this country both astounds and dismays me. The D gets it and honestly, I would work for his administration in a NY minute if asked.
I’m a believer.
I agree his heart is in the right place. I just wish he better understood and championed the free market i.e. less government = more jobs.
That’s an interesting comment Brent; pls explain some of your concerns. My impression thus far is that he’s working hard to undo a lot of damage incurred by govt. What say you?
I say that anyone who consults John Boehner on spending and then signs the largest continuing resolution in our history has no interest in limiting the size of government no matter where lies there heart.
Size of the federal government is directly proportional to spending. Trump has consistently advocated and signed onto more spending.
Every dollar spent by the federal government is a dollar not in the hands of bright entrepreneurs like you.
We’ve discussed the Boehner issue before and I still say Trump was working him to get a full grasp on the House ops because Paul Ryan is no friend.
Keep in mind it has taken us a good 70+ years to get to where we are today. We won’t go back in any quick action or time. Just undoing the damage of the last 8 years will take time and effort.
I believe we are moving in the right direction. There is clearly a different view of the country. If all Trump says doesn’t jive with our sensibilities, perhaps it doesn’t with his either, but he needs to do what he is doing to keep things going.
It is up to us to keep the legislature’s feet to the fire. They are the ones who will change things; Trump can only do so much. It is only our luck Obama did so much as executive fiat, allowing executive order to undo it. Trump has done a ton of that. But if we can’t get congress to do the right thing, we are still in the swamp.
Good points.
However, Trump has not shown any action that indicates he is wielding his power over Congress. That he wanted to veto the continuing resolution because it was bloated is a great sign.
That he consulted Boehner and relented is not.
Well, BrentB67, reducing regulation is less government, although not as flashy a spectacle as ground breaking legislation such as tax reform. I am practicing patience, which is difficult, but not as difficult as draining a swamp.
Absolutely agree with last paragraph in particular.
TW, I think you will find that few regulations have been eliminated or reduced. What has happened is that new regulations are slowing to a crawl Thanks to Mr. Trump’s leadership.
The reason spending is so important and ‘flashy’ is that the secular foundation of liberty is private property. Our ability to earn and accumulate it is key because he who has property wields power.
The govt’s spending centralizes power in its corrupt halls.
I agree with Liz, Mr. Trump’s heart is in the correct place and he has made the chip shots/lay ups with exec orders and slowing the growth of regulation.
However, to date he’s not revealed a guiding principle with respect to the size/scope/role of government outside of consulting the most sinister big government hypocrite and extending the exponential arc of federal spending. That does not bode well for long term, free market embracing entrepreneurs.
I would like to think you are right and we need to begin immediately advocating private property, a significant decrease in governmental spending, and a return to liberty.
The reality is the Mitch McConnell is still in control of the Senate. He has seen to it that a constitutionalist SCOTUS judge was installed, but I would hardly call him a free-market advocate other than by voice.
Remember the famous quote by Rumsfeld (whom I like while so many did not) – you fight with the army you have, while working to improve it as you go. We will need to elect lots more constitutional members of Congress. That’s on us. We need to encourage men and women who think like us to run, then work for them as you worked for Cruz and get them elected.
Take heart in the last lines of the Gettysburg Address, which, while not directly applicable, are in sentiment.
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
“Take heart in the last lines of the Gettysburg Address, which, while not directly applicable, are in sentiment.
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
I love this sentiment and I live by it, but unfortunately, I’m concerned that the majority of Americans are doing the following:
1)Taking their relative prosperity and security for granted with no perspective that ‘freedom isn’t free.’ These folks would include RINOs and moderate Republicans. I recently listened to a lifelong GOP voter declare China a “benevolent dictatorship.” Of course I created an uproar when I responded, “That, sir, is the definition of an oxymoron.”
2) Enabling violence and fascism perpetrated by the left, particularly on college campuses. This does not bode well for our future. In a very few years, these indoctrinated students will be running our country or even worse, find themselves incapable of doing so.
Where are the up and coming Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg? None of these entrepreneurs have/had much sense politically, but they are ‘secret capitalists’ and have provided many jobs, great dividends and wealth for investors.
They are/were different from today’s Millennials because they focused purely on their business and making the best possible product. Society reaps the benefits from people who focus on excellence.
And innovation!