A team of rivals v bowling alone
My greatest concern
about Donald Trump becoming president is not just his campaign based on fear and loathing
of certain religious and ethnic
immigrants, hostile reporters, and
anyone who crosses him. It is his arrogance and unwillingness to respect and
consider other opinions in decision making.
It is bowling alone when his measure of success is the opinion he has of
himself and his ideas and who surrounds himself with yes men, valuing loyalty
over anything else.
It is an ultimate contrast with the “team of rivals” style
of the Obama administration. Barack Obama purposefully included those who had disagreed
with him such as Hillary Clinton, to provide different judgement calls in the
debates over shaping foreign policy. At last reports, Trump even had no team of foreign policy experts
advising him.
Trump may be a strong leader, but the dangers of having too much
strength by someone who is autocratic and egocentric in control of the White
House is not good for democracy or our national security. We should be wary of a leader with that style
of leadership in a democracy, particularly one that disdains or is ignorant the rules of law , vows revenge on those who
‘disrespects him”, tramples individual
and human rights protected by the
Constitution and who has no respect for the innocents he would destroy in
pursuit of a foreign policy that would “bomb the ___ out of them”.
Trump’s demanding respect and then taking revenge when disrespected sounds more
like something out of “The Godfather”. He is already been disrespected
by the very allies, Arab and the United Kingdom, for his anti Muslim stance. That is a formula for having to bowl alone in
executing foreign policy, using our own blood and treasure with little help
from our friends.
Respecting and including different views leads to looking
all options and collateral, unanticipated consequences, but that is wisdom in decision
making. Say what you will about the
decisions coming from of his administration, but Obama did deal with blunders
of the prior Bush administration that upset the balance of power and kept us
out of another Mid East war, the bottom
line of most Americans. His
international poll numbers show greater respect than his predecessors.
I am not one to call Donald Trump a fascist or a dictator,
but he has the seeds within him when he makes proposals that ignore the Constitution
such as putting American Muslims in monitoring devices, using religion as a
test of who can and cannot enter the United States, and replacing general who
do not agree with his preconceived notions or that “he knows ISIS better than
they do”. Both former secretary of Defense and CIA director Robert Gates and retired Army Chief General Raymond Odierno as well as retired
Rear Admiral John Hutson, who was the
Navy’s top lawyer, have not been shy in criticizing
Trump’s attitudes as well.
I have faith that our
Constitutions’ checks and balances will kick in to constrain a leader like that
but it will be a painful process. Worse, ignoring sound advice may lead to
blunders that defeat him in the next election cycle. The stress and strain on
the conflicts and power struggles will cause stress, chaos, distractions, that
make the current Washington gridlock look like child’s play, accomplishing
little, weakening our ability to form alliances in our fight against ISIS, and
disappointing many.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/13
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/24/7-charts-on-how-the-world-views-president-obama/
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