DailyNewsGems

Trump Hopes to Play His Cards Right

Illustration Credit: Andy Thomas

Illustration Credit: Andy Thomas

 

For the first time in 167 days, President-elect Donald Trump, just last week, held a press conference, which gave the American people a brief glimpse of what to expect from his administration in the coming months and years.

As expected, he railed violently against the gatekeepers, calling one website, “a failing pile of garbage,” charged full force with his campaign promise to build a wall to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, while doubling down on his intention of replacing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with a more cost efficient health care program of his own.

With Mr. Trump about to be sworn in as the 45^th U.S. President in less than five days, I wondered what advice former U.S. Presidents will give the real estate tycoon if they were sitting right next to him.

So, based on previously published quotes from other U.S. Presidents (derived from speeches, interviews, articles, private letters, etc.), I assembled a fictionalized poker game in which the President-elect peppers former presidents on how best to tackle the many challenges he is likely to face once he takes up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

 

Q. Donald Trump: With President Obama having failed to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, a horrible Iran nuclear deal negotiated by this present administration, while others favor opening the gates to refugees from places like Syria, which is akin to inviting members of ISIS into our country, the U.S.'s reputation around the globe has been severely damaged. How can I make America Great Again?

A. Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.’’

A. Dwight D. Eisenhower: “There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.”

A. John F. Kennedy: “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.”

Q. Donald Trump: One of my biggest challenges as I assume the presidency is to end the bitterness and divisiveness in Washington and communicate strong leadership and an aggressive legislative program. How can I best accomplish this?

A. Harry S. Truman: “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

A. Richard M. Nixon: “Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.”

A. Barack Obama: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.”

 

Q. Donald Trump: What are the most essential attributes needed to become an effective leader?

A. John Q. Adams: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

A. Woodrow Wilson: “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.”

A. Dwight D. Eisenhower: “The supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”

 

Q. Donald Trump: Can I brag about my business success and vast wealth in order to rally support for my agenda?

A. Thomas Jefferson: “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to trial by strength, and bid defiance to laws of our country.”

A. James Madison: “The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of wealth.”

 

Q. Donald Trump: With 4,513 American lives lost in the Iraqi war; and another 2,392 American lives lost in Afghanistan (according to the most recent figures), the country is war weary. As commander in chief, how I can I best maintain peace and prevent our armed forces from fighting abroad?

A. George Washington: “If we desire to secure peace, it must be known that we are at all times ready for War.”

A. John Adams: “Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.”

A. Thomas Jefferson: “I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.”

A. Ulysses S. Grant: “I have never advocated war except as a means for peace.”

A. Theodore Roosevelt: “Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.”

A. Dwight D. Eisenhower: “The people of the world genuinely want peace. Someday the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give, it to them.”

 

Q. Donald Trump: What do I need to know before entering the Oval Office?

A. Rutherford Hayes: “The President of the United States should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves his country best.”

A. Lyndon B. Johnson: “Being President is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but stand there and take it.”

A. Ronald Reagan: “There are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.”

A. Bill Clinton: “Being President is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”

 

Q. Donald Trump: How can I earn the trust of the American people?

A. Thomas Jefferson: “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”

A. Abraham Lincoln: ``I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.”

A. James A. Garfield: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”

A. Dwight D. Eisenhower “History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid?”

A. Barack Obama: “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists-to protect them and to promote their common welfare-all else is lost.”

 

Q. Donald Trump: Do you have any profound words of wisdom to share about the U.S. Presidency?

A. Thomas Jefferson: “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

A. Theodore Roosevelt: “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.”

A. Herbert Hoover: “Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.”

A. Bill Clinton: “Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.”

A. Harry Truman: “My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”

 

-Bill Lucey

[email protected]

January 16, 2017

Netflix's `The Crown': How Historically Accurate?

Photo Credit: NetFlix

 

The Empire strikes back!

Last month, it was confirmed that The Crown, the 10-part biographical drama television series, created and written by Peter Morgan and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix has been commissioned for a second season.

Filming, in fact, has already begun.

The epic drama focuses on the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the longest remaining monarch in British history, from 1947, and her marriage to Philip Mountbatten, her bitter clash with her younger sister Princess Margaret, through Winston Churchill’s resignation in 1955 as Prime Minister, when the ‘’British Bulldog’’ was forced from 10 Downing Street due to failing health.

The series has largely been met with rave reviews.

And why wouldn’t it?

The cast is absolutely packed with star-studded talent, beginning with award winning actor John Lithgow as the grumpy old man, Sir Winston Churchill, English actress Claire Foy (who previously played Anne Boleyn for the BBC series Wolf Hall) as the young Queen, Matt Smith as Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh, and Jared Harris (who might best be remembered as Lane Pryce from the AMC drama series Mad Men) who packs a mighty punch portraying King George VI before his untimely death in 1952.

The sterling cast is matched by a spectacular budget. The Crown reportedly cost a record $130 million, making it the most expensive television production ever by Netflix.  The recreation of Queen Elizabeth’s wedding dress alone, worn by Foy in the premiere episode, cost roughly $35,000, according to The Telegraph.

In all, there were reportedly 20,000 costumes worn in Season 1, 293 speaking parts (up to 600 extras), and about 500 production crew hired across the UK, South Africa, and Kenya.

 

So why the need for yet another British period piece?

Some, like James Vernon, Professor of History at the University of California Berkeley, cast a skeptical eye.

What strikes Vernon the most about The Crown is its timing, coming so soon after the Brexit vote (Britain’s exit from the European Union). The strength and glory of the British Monarchy, according to Vernon, and its influence over public policy, has long disappeared.

Vernon argues that '' It [The Crown] is obviously part of a long tradition of aristocratic and royal shows (Downton Abbey being the most recent) with the fantasy of an independent nation, (one with an empire still) – only perpetuates and reproduces the nationalist idiocy that led to the Brexit vote.  This is the version of Britain they want to recapture.''

That, of course, is a profound political view of The Crown.

Others, like to highlight the show’s majestic, artistic quality.

According to James Sherwood, London-based broadcaster, curator, and author of ``Fashion at Royal Ascot: Three Centuries of Thoroughbred Style,” “the final three episodes did choose to shine too bright a spotlight on the marital difficulties of The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.” “The animosity between The Queen and Princess Margaret,” Sherwood thought, “was also rather overplayed when you consider how close the sisters remained for the rest of their lives. But apart from those two lapses in taste, I think The Crown was a huge success and looked absolutely glorious.”

John Lloyd, contributing editor of the Financial Times, and previously a reporter for London Weekend’s London Programme and producer on London Weekend's Weekend World, thinks The Crown lives up to its grand billing, though, he would one day like to the see the darker side of the monarchy dramatized.

“Like most films, documentary or fiction, on the UK royal family, it's essentially respectful, stressing the Queen's seriousness, responsibility and growing confidence. These are traits which she does seem to have; the allure comes not so much from her but from the glimpses given of royal life, the dramatic and romantic side of it played up.” Lloyd observed. “It's mildly narcotic, but after a while sickly, like too much of something too sweet.” “It would be good,” Lloyd suggests, “to have a radical film maker let loose on a film, illuminating the darker passages, and the still-servile attitude much of British society displays towards the royals. “

Anne Sebba, British biographer, writer, and author of a number of books, including, "That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor," while applauding the show's gripping and entertaining quality, does point out one factual oversight of The Crown.

According to Sebba, "Wallis [who married Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, which led to his abdication] is too simpering sweet for my taste." "She was angry at her exile", Sebba explained, this along with her humiliation at not being granted Royal status and the sacrifices she felt she had made to live with the Duke.  Their bitterness was corrosive and worsened with time. "

"Beyond the compelling entertainment," Sebba said, "it’s good to be reminded of the family dynamics that the public can otherwise only guess at. How Philip has bridled at his perceived straitjacket, how Churchill’s continuation in power made him a frail relic of a bye-gone era, how the loving relationship of Margaret and Elizabeth was complicated and shot through with envy, but above all how the shadow of the Abdication loomed over almost every decision and set the tone for how the Royal Family should behave long after that behavior was appropriate."

Patrick Allitt, born in England, educated at Oxford, and professor of American history of Emory University in Atlanta, gives The Crown two thumbs up, three thumbs up, in fact, if he had another thumb and looks forward to Season 2.

"I think it’s a really brilliant achievement," Allitt told me, "in that it manages to avoid either gushing over, or condemning, the monarchy.  The complexity of the characterizations is superb, as is the presentation of awkward dilemmas (like what to do about Princess Margaret).  I particularly appreciated the way in which Churchill is shown to be a very troublesome old fellow, not the demi-God we’re sometimes presented with these days. "

Personally, what I found so enlightening about The Crown, aside from the tug and pull of the complicated relationship between the state and crown, amid a rapidly changing world in the mid-twentieth century, was how the liberty and independence of Elizabeth was stripped from her as soon as she ascended to the throne. Soon after her coronation, she quickly realized, at times painfully, that she now had to cling to the office the Crown with its long held British monarchial traditions and practices, however archaic and out of date they may have seemed.

When Elizabeth, for example, first approved of the marriage of her sister Margaret to Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced war hero, she is reminded that the monarchy must submit to the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which stipulated that Margaret would have to wait until age 25 to marry a divorcee. In the end, Elizabeth deferred to the office of the Crown rather than grant the wishes of the sister she loved so much, including breaking a promise they once made to their late father, that they would always put each other first no matter what.

Elizabeth's personal liberty is subordinated, once again, when she wants to appoint her personal favorite as her private secretary, when her current secretary to the Sovereign, Tommy Lascelles, announces his retirement. She is soon strongly encouraged to stick to the tradition of the office, by appointing the senior deputy (not one of her own choosing) in keeping with the traditional line of succession.

So, even with all the gilded trappings of the monarchy living as she does in the splendor of Buckingham Palace with wall to wall servants, footmen and drivers, at her beckoning call; in the end, it all comes at a mighty high cost: Elizabeth’s personal freedom.

-Bill Lucey

[email protected]

January 8, 2017

 

The Royal Family: Did You Know....?

• In an average year, The Queen receives approximately 60,000 pieces of correspondence.

• Queen Elizabeth II was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 1952.

• The Queen always writes with a fountain pen that belonged to her father, King George VI.

• The only house the Queen is not permitted to enter is the House of Commons, since she is not a commoner.

• The Queen is distantly related to George Washington, the first President of the United States and General Robert E. Lee

• The Queen has 10 residences at her disposal: Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, St. James Palace, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Balmoral, Sandringham, Holyrood Palace, the Tower of London and the Palace of Westminster.

• The Queen's middle names are Alexandra Mary. She was known to her grandmother, Queen Mary, as `The Bambino.'

• As young girls, Elizabeth and Margaret were educated at home. They were the last royals not to receive a formal education.

• Queen Victoria was the first sovereign to take up residence at Buckingham Palace in July 1837 and in June 1838 she was the first British sovereign to leave from Buckingham Palace for a Coronation

• Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. These include 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms.

Source: The Royal Family website; ``The Book of Royal Useless Information: A Funny and Irreverent Look at the British Royal Family Past and Present'' By Noel Botham and Bruce Montague.