Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.
This week, From and Fuller discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign affairs aspirations, including the purchase of Greenland, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, annexing Canada as the US’s 51st state, and retaking, by force if required, the Panama Canal. They answer how seriously the country and the world should take Trump’s goals for American expansionism. Al and Craig also talk about the devastation caused by four fires taking place in Los Angeles and the political and economic ramifications related to its recovery.
This video podcast is approximately 19 minutes in length.
To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:
Background
While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.
The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.
Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”
Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”
For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.
Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last eight years, where he now chairs the board of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and is a former board member of the Academy Art Museum and Benedictine. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors and writes an e-newsletter available by clicking on DECADE SEVEN.
With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.
Willard Tod Engelskirchen says
Another consideration is immigration. Construction workers in CA and FL are largely immigrants. If the incoming president deports as many as he can, the construction labor force will be gone. Without workers rebuilding will be very slow and expensive.
Michael Davis says
I always enjoy these discussions. And find myself thinking about these subjects long after I watch the videos.
Both gentlemen think that a President of the United States who constantly lies will pay some sort of price for that. The price could be in domestic politics or on the world stage. I don’t think he’ll pay a price at all. He did not his first term. As just one example, he said we should drink bleach to stop Covid-19. Some people did that and ended up in the hospital thanks to the bleach, not Covid. They paid the price, but not Trump. As one of you said, everyone’s forgotten about his handling of Covid.
Trump is a master at blaming other people. He does is very quickly and that is important as then everyone is on the defensive. We used to say at work, “The first liar always wins.” And he does it over and over and over so eventually people believes him regardless of the facts. He did not invent this approach. It is in the book “1984” and he probably learned it from Roy Cohen. Roy paid no price for his rotten behavior.
On the world stage, America has so much money and so much power, allies will not want to anger Trump. And dictators won’t call him on his BS because they love him and he loves them.
Democrats are theoretically supposed to make him pay a price. But they aren’t fast. He’ll dump 10 lies on them while they are still in focus groups trying to figure out what to say. And, they don’t speak the truth over and over. They let Republicans control the message while they scatter uncoordinated talking points.
We’ll all know in two years when Americans gets another vote on national. politics. I hope I’m wrong, but Trump appears to suffer not for all his lies.