President-Elect Donald Trump's cabinet is starting to take shape.
Right now it's taking about the same time to build as an cabinet from IKEA, but he's getting there.
So far, we have two official cabinet members: Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions will be Attorney General, while Kansas Representative Mike Pompeo will serve as CIA Director.
Before we get to the opinion part of this article, we'll start with some basic information about the two men above.
Senator Sessions served as attorney general in Alabama prior to being selected by Trump for the national position of the same name. Sessions was early to jump on the Trump train, and clearly is benefiting greatly from that decision. For conservatives, Sessions is a strong pick for AG, garnering praise from conservatives across the nation. Most notably, Ted Cruz came out in support of the Sessions pick, saying that the future AG is a "committed and deeply principled conservative." This is somewhat of a sigh of relief for conservatives who were cautious about Trump's conservative loyalty.
Rep. Pompeo is a somewhat different story. He was elected to the House in 2010 as part of the Tea-Party Lawmakers. He graduated from Harvard Law School, as well as graduating from a US Military Academy. He also served as a US Cavalry Officer. Currently, he sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Here's where he differs from Sessions: Pompeo did NOT back Trump vivaciously, as Sessions had. In fact, he backed Rubio over Trump in the primaries. When Trump secured the Republican nomination, a Pompeo spokesman gave a tepid endorsement, simply saying that "the congressman will support the Republican nominee because Hillary Clinton cannot be allowed to become POTUS," clearly a far cry from Sessions excited endorsement. Notably for Pompeo, he has been a very vocal critic of the Iran deal, which conservatives across the country agree with him.
Both of these picks follow the narrative Donald Trump set during the election, putting national security and law enforcement as priorities within his administration.
Now for the fun stuff.
Of course, both of these picks are being contested vehemently by leftists.
For Sessions, it's the normal accusations of "racist, bigot, Islamaphobe." It's nothing new, and it's ineffective as always. The general public is tired of the same accusations being lobbed at every conservative under the sun, rendering this tactic useless once again. In addition to these character attacks, they argue that Sessions is a KKK supporter because of a joke he made back in the 80's. Here are some fast facts about Sessions that are worth checking out.
Pompeo is not yet being attacked in the same way as Sen. Sessions. This is most likely because no one on the left really cares enough to know who he is, let alone what he stands for. Rest assured though, within a few weeks he will surely be labelled a racist or sexist.
For sitting Democrats, this will be an interesting time. Many Democrats have already vowed to attempt to block Trump's picks.
This is a bad idea for them.
Because all they can do is shout "racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe," they've begun to lose the support of independent voters within their states.
A number of Democrats who have vowed to block these and upcoming picks (again using tactics which are becoming increasingly ineffective to anyone who isn't an avid leftist) are either up for reelection, or are soon to be. A majority of these Democrats sit in states where Trump had large victories (I.E. Kentucky, the Bible Belt, the Rust Belt). The more they continue the rhetoric that lost them the national election, the greater the chances that they will lose to incoming Republicans. If Democrats want to keep what dwindling power they have left, they'll need to be willing to work with Trump and his picks, rather than continue to pander to radical leftists.