America lost a lot of face with the election of George W. Bush. About the only thing that *justified* that choice was that the pendulum of politics was swinging back after eight years of Democratic reign. Bush made a hash of things and then he was, uncannily, reelected and the only justification for that was the propaganda launched by none other than Chris LaCivita, which was the Swiftboating of John Kerry.
But the instability in the Republican party goes back even further than that. Dubya should never been nominated in the first place. The obvious candidate was John McCain. But for reasons known only to the GOP, they picked their worst candidate. And America paid a price, not only at home but in the eyes of the world.
But Dubya’s inept ministrations all pale before those of Donald Trump, who handily took the mantle of Worst American President away from Dubya, Andrew Jackson, Herbert Hoover and a few others. And now Trump has escalated his campaign to prove what a stupid and unserious people we are with his choices of diplomats to foreign countries. The Guardian:
They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.
For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.
To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.
And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.
The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.
Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.
Trump is the quintessential Ugly American. He displays the worst of this culture. You’ve all heard the famous quote, “It’s almost impossible to believe he exists. It’s as if you took everything that was wrong with America, scraped it off the floor and wrapped it in an old hot dog skin and taught it to make noises with its face.” That’s a pretty accurate description. And that’s what people see worldwide. They marvel that America decided to hire back the bum they fired in 2020.
We are definitely two cultures and two countries now, sane America and Trump America. Nobody knows what the sequel to Trump will be. It was thought that the GOP hit a resounding bottom with Dubya. Then the GOP said, “Hold my beer,” and gave us Trump. It’s beyond my imagination how the GOP will bottom this.
And that’s assuming that there will be a GOP. Trump has not only fractured America, he’s in the process of splintering the Republican party. It’s impossible to predict at this point what will be left.
As for the next four years, spectacle is guaranteed. Bread and circus and a clown car of appointees, diplomats, cabinet posts, you name it. We are the clown country now and the P.T. Barnum of politics is proving that nobody ever went broke (or was driven from politics) by underestimating the taste of the American public.
We’ve been ‘two Americas’ since the Civil(?) War. You can kill a person…but much harder to kill an idea…even an evil one. Half our voters are cruel, stupid, selfish and entitled. That’s one ‘fact’ that has reared its ugly head time and again. Welcome to Hell ladies and gentlemen. Be sure to read the inscription Dante noticed on the entrance: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here. The good news? The devil is a liar and the truth is a hard thing to keep in the box.
“truth is a hard thing to keep in the box” That said, the box lid is weighed down by big dollar interests, media cowardice and and a woeful ignorance of the genuine possibilities in the real world outside the pap sold ‘Muricans and Xtians. As Nobel Peace Prizewinner, John Hume said: “You can’t eat a flag.” Nor will it protect you against trade wars, viruses, climate and environmental change or, for that matter, the violence that can ensue from being careless in relationships with real and potential friends and foes. America First, sure. But not from disrespecting her own people and the rest of the world. Rather, first among equals.
Sorry Scott. Truth is meaningless to Trump voters. Alternative facts??? With Trump and his flunkies, we are sadly in a very post-truth era. Believing in truth, facts and reality just shows you STILL don’t understand humanity. The only person who truly gets humanity is Stephen Colbert: “truthiness”. It doesn’t have to BE true for people to “feel” like its true! The earth Is flat. Trump will “save us from the Biden agenda”. And on and on.
Truth is dead.
Long live the truth.
I am 71, and have a WIDE range of experiences, including working with ALL types of people for the past 46 years. I think I have a handle, or at least as good as anyone else, on ‘humanity’. I wasn’t saying truth would change anyone who wants or needs to believe in lies. That being said, eventually it does come out, and humanity HAS to change. 1500 years ago people believed the earth was flat. 500 years ago they believed we were the center of the universe. Sure there are holdouts, but I don’t see many magats questioning EITHER of those realities. The first MD to suggest there were invisible ‘germs’ and that maybe less patients would die if doctors washed their hands, was ridiculed by the medical profession. I bet any magat would raise hell if facing surgery and the MD said we dont wash here. The law never places them in that position, and they don’t question the fact of germs and infections.Of course, humanity is in a constant struggle, not only in our searching for the ‘truth’, but in maintaining our systems to reflect it. In ancient times, it appears there were few large uprisings over the repeated pattern of conquerors and the conquered. People just expected it. When it did happen and the rebellion crushed, it was expected. You were on your own. Social services, food programs, etc.,didnt exist, so we’ve clearly changed to improve life for billions. My point is a lie has no reality other than what the liar and the gullible give it. Facts are pesky things. They can deny climate change and ignore the scientists…for now. Wait til their beach house slides into the ocean. They can deny vaccines…wait til their child gets crippled by polio or dies from the measles. Reality has a repeated way of kicking humanity’s ass until we come around. The real question is whether we survive our stupidity, selfishness, and fear long enough to change. On that the jury is definitely out. Contrary to Hollywood and our warped view of our own history…there have never been any guarentees concerning the survival of the human species. Oh…and those thinking some divine force is going to appear to save our asses, are ignoring the hundreds of millions murdered in our recorded history. No bwolofsky, there are truths that will demand we come around…I just wonder how high the body count will go before the collective pain jars us awake to the dangers. Or if it will.
The South has been pining for a rematch since Reconstruction. Their schools suck. Those schools are why Trump pushes for inaccurate history and thinks teaching Christianity is a great idea. Toss in their worship of guns and hatred of women who differentiate themselves from.a doormat and you have the makings of Civil War Part Deux.
I used to think when I heard the term “ugly American” that it was because they didn’t really know us that well. How naive was I? They knew us better than I did.