As I read this morning about how NAFTA re-negotiations may be crashing over a Mike Pence-delivered ultimatum of a five year sunset provision on the agreement, I started mumbling about how this entire Administration is continually pulling shit out of its ass. I have no idea why this ultimatum was presented, and nor does WaPo. This being a few days ago, maybe the Administration just as quickly dropped it when Trudeau refused it.
President Trump wanders about the stage of the Presidency, making vague pronouncements and judgments which, in hind-sight, turn out to be so much bullshit. Ever think about comparing that to President Obama? If President Obama had wanted to renegotiate NAFTA, I think anyone who paid attention would realize that Obama would have been giving speeches which laid out, section & clause, his objections to the treaty and why, and how he’d prefer to fix them in such a way to benefit both the United States and Mexico and Canada. After all, this was public business and deserved a workmanlike approach to the matter.
His specificity was a reassurance.
In comparison, Trump is a bombast, a braggart, a grasping fool. One of the verbal flags of his personality is his dependence on absolutes in his verbs – worst treaty ever I believe he used in describing the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal). He never deals in specifics, it’s all in vague absolutes, and therefore he’s difficult to evaluate on specific matters – until one steps back and asks whether he’s believable.
No doubt, in his career as a real-estate developer he could be relatively successful using this style because the various groups he dealt with didn’t intercommunicate as a rule – a rule broken during legal proceedings, wherein rumor has it Trump’s inclination towards lies tends to catch up with him.
But in the national spotlight, everyone talks to everyone else. Fact-checking occurs and is broadcast. I tend to see supporters of Trump as the self-deluded, those desperate to return to a time colored rose by their regretful peering into the past. The facts are out there, staring us in the face, but we have to be willing to open our eyes and see them for what they are.
To borrow one of Andrew Sullivan’s favorite quotes:
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
– George Orwell
