Donald Trump: The Anachronist

During the biblical epic, Ben Hur, shot in 1959, cameras caught the image of Charleston Heston  wearing a wrist-watch while commandeering a chariot, least of all a Chrysler brand or Chevy.  My dear brother can't reply to an  email if it arrived printed and delivered parcel post.  So,  what gives in America with the current President who continually goes rogue on Twitter to try and establish domestic and foreign policies. Well, holy Rosie O' Donnell, The Donald established himself on The Apprentice as a no non-sense kind of guy that favours his own for the top jobs, Rosie and Simon  Cowell be damned. So, this week when D.T. proclaimed on Twitter (once again) that certain female members of Congress - four  female members of the Democratic Party, hated America and one is an Al Qaeda sympathizer more damage control was needed, though most keep quiet to avoid his wrath. Some members within the Republican Party viewed his comments as racist as did the four recipients of his attack, naturally. Each day in Washington at Capitol Hill, bring more fires to put out than solve day to day government  business because of the myriad of distractions from an inexperienced leader in the White House. President Trump may very well love the United States, his home and native land, and his supporters, however,  here's the rub... Don, you represent all Americans  everywhere including Otto Frederick Warmbier who was left comatose due to treatment by North Korean officials while serving  15 years in a gulag for an attempted theft of a propaganda poster. Warmbier died six days after his release and return to the U.S. Yet, this President curry favours to autocrats and criticizes American allies. Go figure.

British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) who was a classical liberalist and espoused egalitarian virtues,  wrote in On Liberty "The time, it is to be hoped, is gone by when any defence would be necessary of the 'liberty of the press' as one of the securities against corrupt or tyrannical government."1

Mill cites basic human rights that are still evolving in the developed world e.g. Britain enacted universal suffrage in 1918 and the U.S. followed suit in 1920. Aboriginals in Canada did not fill out the vote until 1960. So, the notion of human rights, particularly regarding females and voting is just 100 years in the making. Women still do not receive equality in income, opportunity and are gradually finding more acceptance as heads of state i.e. Angela Merkel - German Chancellor and Christian Lagarde who was Chairman and Managing Director of the IMF and now will lead the ECB (European Central Bank.) Former U.S. President Barrack Obama named Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, although Condoleeza Rice and Madeline Albright were named before her by Presidents Clinton and George W Bush, respectively. Much work lies ahead in this regard, while President Trump is setting progress in many areas on a  backward trajectory.

While some scholars point to James Buchanan as America's poorest choice for President due to his inability to stop slavery among other issues, Donald Trump  has accepted strongmen like Kim in North Korea, Putin in Russia and  Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, while openly criticizing traditional American allies. American Presidents are looked at historically since WWII, to provide reassurance and leadership to the international community and not fomenting unrest in Foreign Policy matters that include economic policy; some Vietnamese, Iraqi's and Syrian's would disagree. As a Tibetologist and supporter of Tibetan culture, I do not find fault with his Sino policy and trade imbroglio with Beijing.  His inexperience is evident as he has little confidence in his people in important cabinet positions; hence, the appointment and subsequent dismissal of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State and the resignation of James Mattis as Defense Secretary, to name two prominent members of his government. Can Trump usurp George W Bush based on the two wars that led to, and according to the  Watson Institute at Brown University, approximately 266,000 civilian fatalities, 6,951 American soldiers loss of life with a total of 500,000 total deaths  from wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. 2 Recently, gun violence has struck at the heart of America once again with two mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas leaving 29 people dead. President Trump suggests linking immigration  to improved gun background checks further inciting divisions across racial lines. Congress, during the George W Bush administration allowed the ban on Ak 47 and other assault weapons to expire in 2004. Certainly, George W Bush  and Barrack Obama could have pushed for renewal of this law with an executive signature, if necessary.  Instead, sitting Presidents pay the obligatory "lip service" to the victims and their families.  In the meantime, what we have under Donald Trump is what Thomas Hobbes mused about in Leviathan, a  civilization without a central power to regulate society: "the war of everyman against everyman."3




1Stuart, Robert M, ed.  Readings in Social and Political Philosophy. New York: Oxford. 1986.  115.

2 Crawford, Neta C. Watson Institute International & Public Affairs - Brown University. Costs of War. Human Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars: Lethality and the Need for Transparency. 2018 November.19 July 2019 <https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs%2C%20Nov%208%202018%20CoW.pdf>.

3 The U.S. has  formally withdrawn from the 1987 INF Treaty with Russia furthering rancour with Moscow over nukes, sanctions, Ukraine, Turkey, and NATO.

Coming back to this point will be problematic.