It is 12:50 pm EST. I had to type “President Trump” as the title of this post, because… well, I had to let it sink it.  If felt awful.

He’s been president for 50 minutes.

I don’t have much to say.  I said a lot on Facebook, which I will reprint here:

Please indulge (or ignore) my thoughts about you-know-what, keeping in mind that I have been pretty much wrong about everything my entire life but especially this political season:

At some point during the campaign, Aimee Mann wrote a song called “Can’t You Tell?” in which she got into the head of Donald Trump. In the song, Aimee/Trump sings the refrain:

Isn’t anybody going to stop me?
I don’t want this job
I don’t want this job, my god

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I think it is prescient. I don’t think Trump wants this job. I think he wanted to win the election, and I think he wants the glory (as opposed to power) that comes with the job. But he doesn’t want the job itself. You can tell by the victory lap of large-audience speaking events. You can tell because he never did the so-called “pivot” to “being presidential” that everyone expected. You can tell because of his Tweets about the inauguration guests (celebrities, John Lewis, etc) rather than policy. You can tell because he has already thought of his slogan for the re-election campaign (true!).

This man WANTS to be a figurehead president. This man WILL BE a figurehead president. He’ll champion America (i.e., himself) and maybe “make a few deals” (whatever the hell that means), but as for anything resembling actual governance or public service? I don’t expect a lot in that area from Trump. He’ll delegate that.

Is Figurehead Trump a good or bad thing?

Well, it’s good in the sense that the Hitler comparisons fall by the wayside. I don’t think he’s going to be ultra-fascist, although that word gets thrown around a lot. He might come down hard on the press with some attempts at unconstitutional restrictions (since that bears on his figurehead plans)…. but other than that, I think Trump will prove historically to be a WEAK president. I’m sure this is the perception already held by many in Washington and the world (e.g., Putin).

What we’re left with then is a struggle to fill the vacuum left by Trump’s limited interest in public service. Paul Ryan (through Chief of Staff Priebus), Steve Bannon, Ivanka Trump and Mike Pence will certainly attempt to “work” Trump internally. They will often be at cross-purposes, and I expect that conflict to escalate in the first two years.

For those of us on the progressive side of things, we can just stand at the sidelines with bemusement as the dysfunction spills into the headlines. By the way, you’ll want to root for Ivanka, but in the end, I think the Ryan/Priebus wing (the so-called “establishment”) will prevail. Trump and Bannon have about as much chance of changing the Washington establishment as I do changing the NFL from within. Plus, Ryan and Priebus have home field advantage and all that.

And THAT’S where we need to be vigilant. It’s not Trump we have to watch out for (I believe) — it’s Paul Ryan and the Republican Congress. After years of obstructionism and being the party of “no”, the GOP is primed to pass (or repeal) anything and everything they want. This is their last and best chance for the much-vaunted “permanent conservative revolution.”

Good news: I don’t think they have as much support as they think, and Obamacare is the shining Exhibit A. Everybody “hated” it for so long, and now that it is on the verge of repeal — where it is actually PALPABLY going away — its approval rating is at its highest ever. So, when millions of people can’t afford health insurance, or when other changes are made that hurt Americans, please don’t be afraid to say to your Republican friends and family, “THIS is what you voted for”.

Get ready to say that a lot.

But what I would like to see most in the next four(?) years a return to respect for excellence. I don’t know what happened, but somewhere in this country’s recent journey, we’ve lost respect for competence. People talk about the “Washington elite” and the “media elite” like they are talking about lepers. When was being “elite” a bad thing? If I need surgery, I want an elite surgeon, right? Somehow, though, we have come to revere a nutjob with a blog as a better journalist than people like Cronkite or Rather. Or that duck hunters are worthy of our praise and attention because they’re on television. Or that failed rich businessmen who have not done anything by way of public service would make for better politicians because “America needs to be run like a business” (a ridiculous trope, as we shall all soon learn).

So it is my hope that, going forward, we will strive to be excellent in whatever we do — as a teacher or parent or lawyer or citizen. We should also expect excellence in others, especially those who serve us in government. Do NOT suffer fools gladly, but rather — expose them for what they are. And then seek the alternative. Or BE the alternative. Be excellent. No more noobs. In media. In government. In arts. In life. BE EXCELLENT!

A final thought directed to the #NeverHillarys on the far left: you are the noobs of the progressive movement. Your ideological purity is part of the reason the country is about to go backward. I know many of you grew up in a world where everything is faster and you can become famous from a single YouTube video or one season on a reality show. But politics in this country does not work that way. In fact, it was designed to be a slow deliberative process. On purpose. One election never brings about the change we want. One person cannot ever make the country what we want, no matter what office he or she holds. Politics is a game of attrition, and each election moves us in a direction. We’re going in the wrong direction now and your antics haven’t helped. I hope you remain vocal and passionate, but before you protest or throw rocks or whatever, understand the world you live in.

I don’t have much to say about Trump’s inauguration speech.  I didn’t see it, and I only glanced at the prepared text.  It seemed more like a campaign speech, full of promises.  it wasn’t divisive, but that’s only because Trump didn’t write it.  It tried to use “we” a lot, but the only ones listening and cheering were them.  It was a speech for Red America.

He used one line that people seem to attach to: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he said.

This American Carnage is either a really pad NPR store, a punk rock band, or some fancy Canal Street clothing outlet.

Here’s some Inauguration Day notes:

• At 11:59 am eastern, the official White House website had a lengthy information page about the threat of climate change and the steps the federal government had taken to fight it. At noon, at the instant Donald Trump took office, the page was gone, as well as any mention of climate change or global warming.
• The White House was lit in a rainbow last night.  Love and defiance.
• GM is letting 2,000 workers go…. today.

And as of today, we still have many unresolved Trump conflicts.