Does “full transparency” mean you can see right through him? (Anthony Scarmucci/Facebook)
“Full transparency: I’m deleting old tweets,” Anthony Scarmucci, President Donald Trump’s choice for White House Communications Director posted to his Twitter feed. “Past views evolved & shouldn’t be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that’s all that matters”
Have they? Shouldn’t they be? Does he and is it?
“Progressive” opponents of the president are having a field day and proving the adage “The internet is forever.” That’s because Scarmucci’s Twitter activity showed positions directly opposed to Trump’s, on immigration, on climate change, and of special concern to those who believe in the right of the people to keep and bear arms, on guns, including:
and:
We would be remiss not to recall that before Trump became the darling of the NRA, his position on guns would have failed to make the grade. True, he was the recipient of one of those concealed carry permits New York City reserves for its elites, but that only proves self-interest, and his other positions, not to put too fine a point on it, sucked. For example:
“I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. With today’s Internet technology we should be able to tell within 72-hours if a potential gun owner has a record.”
Add to that Trump’s past strong financial support for Democrats ranging from Frank Lautenberg, to Chuck Schumer to Hillary Clinton, and it’s hard to argue that his consistency is in his principles, as opposed to in his self- interests.
Just the cost of doing business? Well paying those costs undermined the interests of the millions of his countrymen who believe in a Constitution of limited delegated powers and rights that are supposedly off limits to infringements. Have Trump’s “past views evolved,” like Scarmucci says his have?
Some of us have a tough time with that. We’re not used to dealing with chameleons and those of inconstant and mutable convictions. If you can change your principles the way you change your socks, do you really have any, or are they mere outward-directed fabrications, subject to being altered or abandoned altogether when political winds shift?
And is a guy like Scarmucci “transparent” or merely someone who is hollow and not all that difficult to see through? Maybe he doesn’t need to have unshakeable beliefs in order to do his job, which, after all, is to come up with excuses, diversions and happy talk to offset a media pretty much doing the same thing to see that the illusions it casts are the ones that prevail. Still, just the fact that communications come down through him makes their credibility susceptible to the type of ridicule now being heaped on the administration by its political and media enemies.
And all that said, how can Trump trust the guy, and why shouldn’t we believe he’ll turn on his new master if and when he’s offered a better deal? Are not betrayals and leaks (something Scarmucci vows to stop, incidentally) from within the administration being committed to bring about the president’s downfall, meaning to kill the very policies that induced flyover America to vote for the man?
For that matter, it’s good that President Trump has articulated some needed policy goals and achieved some limited successes where the Democrat/insider Republican axis hasn’t been able to stop him. That said, who is confident he won’t reexamine his principles if that’s what it takes to hold on to power?
Related to all this: NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch tweeted her concern over the Scarmucci appointment, but it was taken down and NRA refused to state a position on the matter. This whole business of those purporting to be leaders deleting the record is reminsicent of a similar effort to rewrite history by burying inconvenient truths. Our side is supposed to be better than that.
I had a chance to discuss this story Sunday night on Armed American Radio with host Mark Walters (download Hour 3 to listen).
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David Codrea’s opinions are his own. See “Who speaks for Oath Keepers?“
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