As I was driving to take the BeBè to day care today they had some clips on the news talking about the general insanity that we are all living through. As usual the "Glorious Leader"®ᵀᴹ was going off about something or other that was making him mad. It made me think about a clips of an interview I heard from his former ambassador to Panama talking about going in to brief him and how he knew he couldn't work for him anymore. Basically he discussed how he was preparing to brief the president, and how he had briefed presidents before and had a general idea of how these things would go. The think that was striking to him was that the president asked "what do we get from them?" That was his focus, what we get from a tiny country like Panama. However, that's been his general foreign policy focus, to figure out what we can get from other countries and complain and act aggrieved because we aren't getting enough from others.
This got me to thinking about leaders and their followers, but also how those leaders act. You could go with someone like Washington, who had many followers and supporters. He had an idea of insulating us from the "foreign entanglements" which was a nice was of saying don't let them pull you into messes that have nothing to do with you. You have people like Monroe, who crafted a doctrine that told Europeans to keep their noses out of the hemisphere saying that it was a sphere of influence for the US (though you could consider is kind of related to Washington's "keep out of European nonsense" by saying, you Europeans STAY ON YOUR SIDE! Lincoln said a house divided can not stand. Roosevelt said to speak softly but carry a big stick. Obama said when they go low we go high.
Leaders have always had lots of approaches, and it hasn't always been great or effective, but they had goals and priorities, and they were all forced to work with others one way or another. We could go through and judge each of them if we liked, but that's not what I'm thinking about right now. I'm thinking about leaders, and their view of the world. US leaders of course can be arrogant, I mean, how often have we heard "leaders of the free world" when talking about global politics. However, at the same time, the structures and how the world has operated since 1945 have kind of leaned into that. If we look at something like NATO, that President Pissy Pants has been complaining about for a long time, there is a clear situation where the United States has for sure been the largest contributor to. However, at the same time leaders knew that meant the US would have a big say in how things go, and had to act like leaders. I of course am greatly simplifying this all, but there were benefits and responsibilities. Like they say on Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility.
Then I think of the Tangerine Menace®ᵀᴹ and his focus on "what do we get from them" and "what can we get from them?" There are leaders like that in the world too, that look at things as exploitative. Extract what we can because we're bigger and we can force them. The thing is, those leaders are bullies. They have their little minions, but in the end, they're just pathetic losers who are bullies and use their perceived strength to steal someone's lunch money or force others to to do what you want. This isn't ground breaking ideas, it's obvious that Donald of clan Combover is this kind of person, but it's just gotten so blatant lately. Not even a charade to hide behind, just pure Might is Right. They've event embraced the old Greek quote by Thucydides, "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." This kind of thought should be shamed out of the public square. We aren't some Iron Age city state, we have learned and know better than such nonsense, we should be more civilized than such small minded outlooks. Greatness doesn't gloat. Greatness doesn't bully. Greatness doesn't ask what we get from others. Greatness doesn't destroy. So, perhaps the president is right and we do need to make America great again, because what he's doing sure isn't great, but it is embarrassing.
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