A void filled with unchecked self interest
Greg Sargent points out that Trump is not actually putting America first in clinging to Saudi Arabia while shrugging off the torture-murder of Jamal Khashoggi; he’s lying about US interests while putting his personal hatreds and prejudices first.
The bigger idea at stake here in Trump’s response is the notion that our commitment to international standards of human rights [is] to be jettisoned when they get in the way of our “interests.” It’s true that the United States has a long history of turning a blind eye to Saudi human rights abuses. But this does not preclude responding to this particular atrocity, and merely claiming Trump is revealing “the truth” about our previous realpolitik does not justify the current absence of any response.
More to the point, Trump is not merely acquiescing to this unfortunate “truth.” He’s actively weakening our commitment to human (and civil) rights on many other fronts as well, both at home and abroad.
The idea that adherence to international standards on human rights — but also international commitments other matters, such as reducing climate change and taking in asylum seekers and refugees — is a zero-sum negative for America is of course supposed to be foundational to Trump’s worldview. But the administration has never actually defended this proposition on any of these fronts in a fact-based manner.
This is most glaringly true on asylum seekers and refugees. Limiting their entry is also foundational to “America first” Trumpism. But Trump has not merely tried to reduce asylum seeking; he has justified this with all manner of lies about the supposed threat it poses to us. Trump has not just slashed refugee levels to historic lows and employed bureaucratic chicanery to reduce those levels further. His administration deep-sixed internal data showing them to be a net economic positive.
And why? Because he hates them, of course. He wants America to look like Princess Ivanka.
The point here, again, is that Trump is placing his prejudices — his determination to implement a white nationalist agenda — over any good-faith effort to determine what the actual impact of this agenda will be on the country. On the migrants, the self-interest runs even deeper than this. The lies about the “caravan” were all about keeping the House in GOP hands — he even used the military as a prop in this exercise — to prevent Democrats from taking the House and subjecting him to accountability.
But the racism and lying was of course a happy bonus.
Need more? The New York Times reports that Trump privately wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. There is no possible way this is based on any conception of the national good, unless Trump is totally delusional, which would itself mean there’s no such operative conception here. Everyone knows Trump appointed Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general not because of his qualifications, but for the sole purpose of protecting him from the special counsel.
There is no big and unpleasant truth at the core of Trump’s vision of what’s good for the country. That vision is largely a void filled with unchecked self interest, both disguised and sustained by lies.
And the unchecked self-interest is both $$$ and the joy of hatred. He loves the hatred.
In some ways, I do appreciate Trump’s honesty in the Saudi Arabian case. If it were any other President, they would issue some strong rhetorical denounciations of Saudi Arabia for PR purposes, but that’s about as far as it would go. At least unlike other presidents, Trump doesn’t insult our intelligence by pretending to care about human rights.
Off topic, but interesting, or at least I think so:
Today I was reading up on the situation at South African Airways, and something weird leapt out at me.
The genesis of SAA’s current financial mess can be traced back to the late nineties, when the ANC hired an American guy to turn the airway around. He produced the profits through some dodgy accounting tricks (Selling off planes and then leasing them back for example).
Anyway one of the things he did was hire – Bain and Company as a consulting firm.
This is the same consultancy involved in the current mess at SARS, it also got a dodgy tender from Telkom, and it has links to dodgy goings on at Transnet. It even has some connections to Eskom.
It is also the parent company of Bain Capital, which it spun off in 1984 – with Mitt Romney as the first CEO. I think it is safe to say Bain is Republican aligned.
One of the things that really struck me with Donald Trump when he was campaigning was the fact that, when confronted with his crooked dealings (Including stiffing contractors) he saw it as being smart.
He was actually proud of stealing from the people who worked from him, and cutting legal corners. He wasn’t even ashamed of sexually assaulting people, he saw getting away with it as an indicator that he was a star.
And this isn’t new to the Republicans, there are basic standards of decency and, when it comes to their business dealings they take a pride in violating them.
With regards to Saudi Arabia, I think the Republicans as a party, not just Donald Trump, admire it. A part of them admires the act of doing despicable deeds and getting away with it.
It isn’t so much that they necessarily agree with murdering journalists, as the thrill of the transgression. They’re like a party of shoplifters given nuclear launch codes, they get off on pushing those boundaries and see in Saudi a kindred spirit.
Maybe I’m just being weird here though.
Well that’s a good description of cut-throat capitalism, for sure. Tea Party Republicans enjoy being transgressive, but that doesn’t fit the evangelical wing so well (or didn’t until they ignored all Trump’s transgressions). It’s an interesting thought at least.
Oh, I think that the evangelical wing is perfectly fine with transgressive behaviour as long as they are the ones getting away with it. They only frown on people who are not-them breaking their rules. After all, they’re only anti-abortion when it’s other women getting one; they know God will forgive them if they or their daughters/wives/sisters have one.