I called an audible yesterday – I decided as I was driving home from work that I really needed to read “Fire And Fury”. I have an hour long commute and I’m in the habit of listening to CNN on SiriusXM during the drive. Short to long – the book is receiving so much attention right now that I felt like I’d be remiss if I didn’t give it a look. This is one I won’t buy in hard copy – I don’t think it’ll have much lasting value – no matter what happens with this administration, the book’s relevance will almost surely fade and I doubt anyone will remember it in a few years. Nevertheless, it has real relevance at this moment in time so I’m going to put “Midnight Tides” down for awhile. I ordered an e-copy last night and started into it.
This is going to be a challenging post for me because it’s really difficult to find steady, balanced middle ground in any conversation related to our current political and national situation. I’ve never been one to live too far out on either extreme. I’m an archetypal political middle of the roader. I’m permissive and liberal in my Social views, I’m noticeably conservative when it comes to National Security issues and I try to be very balanced when it comes to economic issues. I’m a committed independent – having voted Democrat twice and Republican twice in the last four Presidential elections. That type of profile tends to be both liberating and challenging. It also leads me – at times like this – to take positions that all too often fail to satisfy anyone. With that caveat, I’ll try to get some impressions down based on what I’ve observed and what I’ve read so far.
I want to start with a disclaimer. I’m uncomfortable with the current Administration and with the man who leads it. My greatest concerns in this respect have to do with the following:
- I’m extremely worried about the environment and the impact that human actions are having on climate and the sustainability of our planet’s environment. If I could change one personnel decision made by this President, it would probably be his appointment of Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Ryan Zinke represents a close second). I have a great deal of faith in this country, the principles upon which it was founded and the governmental institutions we’ve put in place over time. They have, over time, led to good governance and balanced policy. That just doesn’t hold true for the decisions being made at EPA and Interior right now. They involve what I see as long term, existential issues. I am profoundly uncomfortable with a political philosophy which prioritizes short term economic growth and the interests of the private sector over the long term interests of the planet and the human race as a whole. There’s an important discussion related to balance here but this Administration has pushed us too far in a dangerous direction. The consequences of constraining economic growth are manageable. The consequences of irreversible environmental damage and climate change are not.
- As a former Diplomat, I am extremely concerned about the decisions and messaging from the Administration which are, in my opinion, degrading the stature of this country internationally, weakening our traditional alliances and partnerships, diminishing our position of trust within the international community, destroying our ability to serve as an honest broker and our reducing our capacity to wield soft power. While there are capable people serving in senior National Security positions (Mattis, McMaster, Tillerson, Kelly) within the Administration who understand the importance of these things and are, I believe, trying to preserve the stature and position we’ve carved out in the world since the end of the Second World War, I can’t help but believe that they’re losing this battle. The current President seems to be so transactional, so focused on the use of hard power as a solution for everything and so unaware of both the complexity of the situations he faces and the negative consequences of the decisions he makes, that he’s already left us considerably diminished and isolated as a global player. His approach may, at times, lead to what he and many see as short term wins but I’m convinced that the long term negative impact on our reputation, our influence and the international good will upon which we’ve normally been able to rely will be catastrophic. The United States has been able to exercise global leadership for almost 70 years, despite our possession of military power that would normally make us a universally threatening presence on the global stage, due primarily to a relatively solid conviction among both our partners and our adversaries in our good intentions and our understanding of the need for restraint in the exercise of power. I worry that this conviction, outside of the United States, is rapidly disappearing and we will all suffer the consequences of that change over the course of the next several decades.
- I’m profoundly uncomfortable with the impact that the Administration’s actions and messaging are having on what I consider to be critically important public principles and institutions. While it’s never been seamless, since the end of the J. Edgar Hoover era, there has always been a principled effort, on both sides of the administrative divide, to maintain a firewall of independence between the White House, and the Justice Department (and the FBI). It’s one of those traditions / extra-legal principles that distinguish us from so many other countries and that give me comfort with respect to the preservation of our constitutionally guaranteed rights. This President does not seem to understand the importance of that principle and is willing to degrade both the institution(s) as well as the firewall that protects us all from politically directed utilization of law enforcement capabilities. To me, that is particularly frightening. I’m also extremely uncomfortable with the degree to which this President and his allies are willing to denigrate the country’s journalistic institutions. I’d be the first to note the frustrations I have with the profession of journalism as it’s currently practiced in this country. Our 24 Hour news services are a travesty – all of them – Fox, CNN, MSNBC – which no longer really deliver fact based reporting. I do make it a point to read both the Washington Post and the New York Times every morning and, while I do recognize the bias in their reporting, I feel more comfortable with their content based on the guidelines they both use in order to corroborate that content and the thresholds they’ve put in place to prevent inaccurate reporting. Even given the imperfect nature of the profession, however, I see it as essential to the health of the country and one of the many components of our public life that differentiate and distinguish us. This President simply does not seem to place any value whatsoever on the principle of an independent and free press. He’s willing to exploit the credibility issues that already exist regarding the profession and amplify them. In doing so, it only further weakens an institution that protects us all from the arbitrary application of governmental power and / or limits our access to information designed to shed light governmental excess or incompetence.
- I’m particularly concerned about the way this President has reframed the discussion in this country around race. I don’t know whether he’s racist or if he has prejudices that influence his words and actions – there is a difference and it’s not possible to know with any certainty – but he does project intolerant sentiments of race into our public discourse in a way that is both frightening and counterproductive. The United States is a diverse and multi-cultural country and it will only become more so over time. We’ve worked hard as a country to prioritize tolerance and to make this one of our foundational strengths – the Constitution demands that we do so. The President’s words and actions, on all too many occasions, stand in stark contrast to this national commitment and this Constitutional mandate. That weakens us and no good can come of it.
Having said all that, I’ll also say that the book doesn’t provide me with any sense of satisfaction. We all suffer, potentially in a catastrophic way, when a President fails or when he proves to be unsuited to responsibilities we ask him to assume. I do feel this President is failing us all but I don’t hate him for it and I don’t think he’s evil – a sentiment I find to be all too common in the country today. I simply see him as dramatically and tragically unsuited to the role he’s been elected to fill. He is what he is and all of us – collectively – chose him. As I’ve read through the first third of this book, all its really done is strengthen my impression that he’s simply unsuited and he’s likely not going to be able to rise to the challenge. He’s just not built to do the job and we’re all going to have to pay a price for a collective bad choice.
I will also say that I believe there to be a bunch of sludge in this book – I put it on the same level as a gossip columnist publication that has as it’s primary goal to leave everyone looking like a fool. Based on what I’ve read so far, the author has accomplished his objective. Nevertheless, if even a quarter of the content is valid – we all have a great deal to be worried about.
That’s my impression so far. I’ll come back and post once I’ve finished the darn thing.