Worse than Corruption

I know people who think that the worst thing about the Trump administration is the corruption: the Trump family lining its pockets in various grifting ways, be it emoluments via hotel; deals in the shadow of official favor; multiple appointees acting like swamp-dwellers wasting tax money on first class airfares, hotels, weird security apparatus and guards, or office furniture.

I disagree: the worst things about the Trump administration are legal or at least carry a figleaf of legality: our disgraceful treatment of would-be immigrants and refugees; withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change and other anti-environmental decisions; the war on healthcare; and now, the nearly irrational decision to blow up the Iran nuclear deal.

The stated reasons make no sense: if one is afraid the Iranians have nuclear plans that they can pick up at the end of the 10-year deal period, there is no sense in accelerating that window of opportunity to today.

Rather, if one thinks there is any method to the madness, one is left to choose among two lousy hypotheses: perhaps Trump is so consumed with Obama derangement that anything Obama must be blow up; or, worse and yet more likely, the Bolton vision of attacking Iran is in ascendant and the reason for ending the accord is to drive the Iranians into nuclear development that could then be waved as a casus belli. That means war.

As far as I am concerned, the Trump family and its hangers-on could steal all the money they want if they would just stop hurting and poisoning other people.

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One Response to Worse than Corruption

  1. anon says:

    Most of the worst things you note involve foreign policy, which most people don’t vote on. After the massacres in israel/palestine against primarily peaceful protesters asking for freedom of movement over a domestic border and a failure of American leadership in both parties to support equal civil rights for all people in the region regardless of religion or ethnicity, I won’t vote for another democrat, including nelson or levine, or anyone for that matter who doesn’t support the civil rights of all individuals in greater palestine/israel. I also won’t support a candidate pushing us into war with iran or who continues trump’s policies on most of the issues you note. Unfortunately, the democrats are not talking about the most important issues or in many cases agree with trump’s policies.

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