General Discussion

babylonsister

(171,079 posts) Mon Dec 18, 2017, 06:44 PM Dec 2017

Charles P. Pierce: A Normal Monday with a Normal President*

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a14457323/trump-foreign-policy/

A Normal Monday with a Normal President*
Requiem for reality.
By Charles P. Pierce
Dec 18, 2017

The president* presented his national security strategy on Monday. That strategy seems to consist primarily of his impression of his own obvious greatness. The speech was fat with banalities that he struggled to pronounce, vague policy prescriptions that he struggled to enunciate, and sheer unmitigated bafflegab that he struggled to deliver. Plus sniffing and gasping and a two-handed death-grip on a small glass of water. The president* himself sounds worse than his rhetoric does, and that boggles the mind.

Before we begin, we should note (again) that the climate crisis apparently has disappeared from the country’s national security strategy in favor of “energy dominance,” whatever the hell that means. (He did pat himself on the back—again—for withdrawing from the Paris Accords, so it’s unfair to say that the climate crisis went entirely unmentioned.)

For over a decade, and probably longer, the Pentagon has been the one place in the federal government with its hair consistently on fire regarding the security consequences of what we are doing to the planet. Whether it’s outfitting naval bases for the eventual rise of the ocean, or explaining patiently that climate-related crises in public health, water supplies, and agriculture are going to be at the root of most of our future wars, the Pentagon has been way out ahead of civilian institutions because its concerns are literally life and death. But the present commander-in-chief believes the climate crisis is a Chinese hoax, and his EPA is gumshoeing through the emails of its career staff to make sure none of them are secret agents of said Chinese hoax. So there we are.

The rest of it was pretty much what we’ve come to expect. America had lost its way until the genius of its people, acting through the magic of the Electoral College, installed the One Man Who, Alone, Could Fix It. And fix it, he alone has.

On top of everything else, our leaders drifted from American principles. They lost sight of America’s destiny and they lost their belief in American greatness. As a result, our citizens lost something as well. The people lost confidence in their government and as a result, they lost confidence in their future. Last year, all of that began to change. The American people rejected the failures of the past. You rediscovered your voice and reclaimed ownership of this nation and its destiny. On January 20, 2017, I stood on the steps of the Capitol to herald the day the people became the rulers of their nation again. Now, less than one year later, I am proud to report that the entire world has heard the news and already has seen the signs that America is coming back, and that America is coming back strong.

When this speech veered into becoming a commercial for Ford pickup trucks, I do not know. What I do know is that this president* got himself disinvited from Great Britain, for pity’s sake, which knows America is coming back, it just doesn’t want it coming back to London right now.

The speech was not a horror. It simply was his typical 2016 stump speech gussied up with overpraised non-and-quasi-accomplishments. As a preview of how he’s going to run for re-election, if he indeed runs for re-election, it was depressing as all hell. As an assessment of where we are now as a nation, it fell several dozen hectares short of reality.

My favorite part was when he talked about how the CIA had helped Vladimir Putin thwart a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg, and how Vlad had thanked him for his help. (Did this actually happen? Who the hell knows?) “That,” said the president, “is how it’s supposed to work.” I’m sure. Maybe, as a gesture of gratitude, Putin can give us some of our democracy back.