I was going to post this this morning but I got a bit distracted. It was a beautiful day so I took off on a real bike ride. It’s great therapy!! And when I returned, Jordan and her mom wanted to go for a hike so we headed up Triple Tree trail which is not very far from my house on the south-side of Bozeman. Lunch and a few chores around the yard and here I am. It’s too hot to work outside so I thought I’d finish this.
I am about a quarter of the way through John Bolton’s book which landed on my doorstep Wednesday night. As I stated before, I have never been a big John Bolton fan and disagree with him on a number of his policy stances, however, there is no doubt that he is extremely well versed in foreign policy and what’s going on around the world. He is known as a meticulous note taker, ingests tons of information and is able to clearly articulate arguments for or against policy positions. He is also a died-in-the-wool conservative Republican who has never been afraid to speak his mind. So, you have to ask yourself why would John Bolton take the extraordinary step of writing this book that paints an extremely unflattering picture of Trump?
There is, of course, the anger amongst the Democrats as to why Bolton refused to testify at the impeachment hearings. And there is the also the question as to why the Senate refused to call John Bolton when he did offer to testify under oath. Whichever side of this argument you land on, it really doesn’t matter at this point. He has chosen to tell his story now.
I’m sure there are those that will simply make the argument that he did it for the money or he’s simply a disgruntled employee. The two million that he will reportedly make on the book is a nice sum of money. However, John Bolton is not penniless with or without the book advance. He has been and will continue to be on the speaking circuit for years and gets paid a tidy sum for speaking at various forums. While the two million is nice – it’s hard to imagine that Bolton is so financially needy that he would risk the wrath that he will be subjected to for publishing this book.
As far as being a disgruntled former employee – well, he joins a growing chorus of people who have worked in the Trump administration who are all saying the same thing – Trump is incompetent, irrational, driven by his own selfish interests and, in a word, ‘dangerous’ for the future of this country. Can so many people who have worked in this administration and come to the same conclusion be wrong? It seems like rather than dismiss these claims out of hand, it might be worth peeling the onion a little bit.
Incompetence: The COVID-19 pandemic is surging. Yesterday the US set a record of 39,000+ new cases in one day!!! The US has 4 % of the world’s population and about 25% of the total number of cases in the world! And about 25% of the total deaths! This is a disaster and will get worse. Trump put his head in the sand in the beginning and he continues to put his head in the sand. His continued inaction and politization of CDC guidelines like social distancing and mask wearing in his push to re-open the economy is costing thousands of American lives. The European Union is discussing banning travelers from America from going to Europe because the situation here is so much worse than there. There is not now, nor has there been from the beginning, a national level strategy for dealing with this pandemic. The lack of leadership is astounding.
And then you have his anemic and totally unempathetic response to the racial unrest in this country. I’m only a quarter of the way through Bolton’s book and it’s very apparent that Trump’s performance on the world stage is pathetic and he is totally not respected by most of our allies and is viewed as an easy target to manipulate by our adversaries. And the list goes on. I wrote a letter to the Bozeman Chronicle some time ago detailing why I believed Trump was not a leader by almost any measure and I stand by what I wrote then.
Irrational: Trump’s decision-making continues to be a chaotic, hot mess based more upon how his decision are going to be perceived by his ‘base’ and Fox News than on any real overall strategy. His top administration officials are often caught unaware as he manages the country via Twitter. And then there is a big scramble to clean up the mess and walk back what Trump just tweeted or said. The people who work for Trump in this administration remind me of the people who follow the horse riding groups in parades. They follow along with there little shovels all dressed up in clown costumes to make cleaning up horseshit look fun!
Election driven: It seems like every single decision Trump makes can be tied back to how it will affect his re-election and how it will play with his ‘base’. He has done nothing to try to unite the country since his first day in office – nothing! Trump caters solely to his base and ignores the rest of the people in this country like ugly step children. Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of playing the role of Cinderella!! Of course, we all know how that ended up so perhaps there is still hope!!
Corrupt: Trump promised to ‘drain the swamp’ but instead he brought his own swamp! Just look at all of the people around Trump that have been convicted of crimes or are under investigation! And you have to ask why he is trying so hard to keep everything from the American people – his school records, his tax returns, his communications with foreign heads of state, and making the ridiculous statement that ‘I consider every conversation with me highly classified.’ This man is more secretive than any president in modern times. It is called ‘public service’ for a reason. Trump works for ‘we the people’ and we have a right to know about the character of the man running the damned country!!
I have had a number of conversations with my daughter and her mom recently about the upcoming election. One of the things that has come up is, ”what if Trump refuses to concede the election if he loses?” Never, in a million years did I ever think that I would be having a conversation about whether or not a sitting president in the United States of America would refuse to leave office if he did not win the election – but here we are. And, it’s not just me. I have heard that statement and seen many, many articles focused on that very issue. Even in the contentious Bush/Gore election where the courts were discussing ‘hanging chads’ in Florida to try to settle the close election, Gore finally conceded because it was in the best interest of the country. Given that Trump only cares about Trump, I don’t see him being nearly so gracious. And this is the ‘dangerous’ part. Trump will do anything to retain power – period!
He is already planting the seeds about a ‘rigged’ election. And, regardless what the final vote count is, if he loses, he will claim the election was rigged. Free and fair elections have been one of the hallmarks of our democracy over the years and the more aspersions that Trump casts upon the process, the more he shows he cares more about Donald Trump than about the United States of America.
Another good article. I wonder if Trump supporters would be proud of their sons and daughters if they grew up to be just like Trump. Then they would know first hand how terrible that would be.