In his resignation letter, General Mattis lists several “values” formed by his “four decades of immersion in these issues” that are not in line with Trump’s values:
- Providing leadership in our alliances and showing respect for those allies
- Being resolute and clear eyed about authoritarian leaders who gain veto power over their country’s economic, diplomatic, and security decisions
- Standing up to those who would promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors
Not only has Trump not acted in accordance with these values, he is actually promoting just the opposite, and turning America into something we have never before been in our history.
As we were warned by many domestic and foreign policy experts with similar levels of “immersion” as Mattis both before and since Trump’s election, he is a corrupt, self-indulgent person with strong authoritarian tendencies and selfish drivers and little morality beyond “winning.” After two years of trying to be an internal buffer to all those worst instincts, even Mattis now sees he cannot stop the damage Trump has done and will continue to do to this country and the world, while the GOP stands by in tacit support, continuing to put party and power before country.
These are dangerous times. They are getting more dangerous as even people like Mattis realize they cannot stop the disastrously self-centered actions of the person we were warned not to give this power to.
With McConnell driving the Senate towards protection of Trump at all costs in order to use his re-made Senate rules to replace a large portion of the Judiciary with unqualified life-time appointments that will further take America in the direction of an authoritarian Executive and all else run by Oligarchs, there is little to stop Trump now.
We all know what we should all be wishing for this Christmas, but that is unlikely to happen.
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Patrick On Politics 