https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/03/warren-of-lies-the-forked-tongue-of-a-very-red-indian/
“President Trump is another example of the non-cookie cutter politician. He’s an archetype, in fact. Has anyone noticed that, more than any other politician I can think of in my lifetime, Trump has delivered on his promises. At least he’s done so to the extent Congress has permitted. He’s appointed only solid, non-activist, interpretively conservative judges off the very list he promised he’d use. (Maybe the Liberals here in Australia, who have a truly terrible record on judicial appointments, might learn something. ) He has cut taxes massively, not a tiny bit (like here), that won’t even keep up with bracket creep. Trump has deregulated more than any President, including Reagan. He’s doing everything he can to get a functioning border in place. He’s completely jettisoned Obama’s foreign policy. As I said, he’s basically gone down the list of his election promises and tried to deliver on them. It’s so startling that you realise ‘he must not be a career politician’, for such is the novelty of any public figure actually treating ‘a promise made as a debt unpaid’.
My basic attitude to people who want to enter the democratic fray as candidates for elected office is ‘good on ya’. I’m something of a sceptic of the modern world’s embrace of massively over-powerful judges who, to varying degrees, have left behind old-fashioned judging and, under the guise of ‘human rights’, entered the arena of social policy-making. Judges, and the lawyerly caste as a whole, are today’s aristocracy. And they’re getting more powerful by the day.
So I’m nothing if not a fan of those prepared to try to get elected and enter the hurly-burly of the give-and-take of electoral politics. Some of these people will hold political views I agree with. Some won’t. Some will seem competent. Some won’t. Some will have charisma. Some will be blander than a loaf of white bread. On the whole, though, I like the fact that people go into politics. Sure, I wish that in Australia we drew from a wider pool of backgrounds – far too many of our elected MPs follow the cookie-cutter route of being ministerial aides out of university, or think-tank types, or union officials. And then, having built up contacts, go on to win a pre-selection and all too often a seat in Parliament.