American Leadership - Ceded like a Child Who Couldn’t Play
by their Own Rules
When I was growing up on Glencrest Avenue as a boy in the
early 1980s, there was a spot on the street called the “water rights” where
many a game was played among us kids in the summer and other times of the
year. This area was a grassy field under
some high tension power lines and was a distinctive right of way for the local
water authority that was never built on in the neighborhood. This was a time where soccer was gaining
traction in many places, but in the summer it was most often baseball that we
played on the “water rights”. We’d lay
out bases using Frisbees or whatever else we had, and we would make up our own
rules.
Back in those days I was not a leader, but more of a joiner,
and given some semblance of athletic ability, often among the many kids playing
on that field. So when it came to
defining things and making the “rules” it was most often one of the more popular,
or bigger, or stronger kids that laid out how we would play, based on who all
was there. Many times the games went off
without a hitch and we’d play until one of several things occurred:
- “the street lights came on” which was the universal sign it was getting dark and we needed to head home;
- Someone’s parents rang a bell or other such signal that it was dinner time and we didn’t want to miss that;
- The inevitable case of someone sliding into a base, or running into each other to catch a ball, or a twisted ankle or some other injury caused us all to stop and recognize the situation and get the applicable person some help;
- It became just too darn hot and we just decided we’d come back another day; or something else.
But sometimes, the game ended for other reasons. Namely a fight would break out over the rules
being broken in one way or another, occasionally ending in fisticuffs, but more
often just yelling, harsh words, anger, frustration and resignation. Now said rules issues could sometimes be
solved by appealing to fairness and reasonableness, but the ones that were the
worst kinds of altercations were of a distinct stripe. The worst ones were when the bully was the
one that had made the rules and he was losing by his own measures. You see in those games, when he (and it was
most often, but not exclusively, a he) was losing to the rules of his own
making, he wanted to have universal and unfettered right to change the rules in
his favor without consulting the rest of us playing the game. The rest of us, however, would point out how
he made the rules, he should have known the consequences, and the fairest thing
was for him to live by them. And instead
of trying to find a way to get to a consensus rule change, said bully would
stand their ground, insist on having it their way and look all the foolish for
being so “babyish”. As we grew, more and
more said bully didn’t look like a leader, no matter his or her popularity, or
size, or strength. And given a few of
these breakdowns, said person, even if they insisted, was not allowed to make
the rules of the game anymore, as we appealed to true leaders who were fair,
and would actually live by their own rules.
A former military compatriot of mine posted the following
meme after a rally that occurred for and by President Trump in New Hampshire on
15 August 2019 that has me reflecting on things on Glencrest long ago:
As a play-by-play commentator on American foreign policy,
I’ll just go ahead and call it: Donald
Trump just declared America is no longer the leader of the free world.
Now, many may try to debate this, but there’s times you just
need to say what is true, even, especially when it hurts. I have long been a critic of this President
and especially his approach to foreign policy; with all of its showmanship over
statesmanship, its bluster without tangible results, for its death defying (or
perhaps not so defying) trade policies, for being completely unreliable, and
for its forgoing strong long-term allies to cozy up with (what we would have
called in another era) the tyrants of the world. So it’s no surprise that I would pick out
this meme and roundly criticize it. However,
it is not just the meme, it is the entire presentation given by Trump at this
rally in regards to globalism, which hasn’t really changed much since he
announced his run for the presidency before riding down an escalator.
What we are seeing folks, is the same as what happened on
the “water rights” in my neighborhood as a kid.
After World War II, the United States was without question
the biggest, the strongest, the most popular kid in the planet. We were given the unparalleled opportunity to
rewrite the rules for the world, and we did.
Given our historical development and our immediate recent past, we knew
that leaving the world in the hands of an ethereal “balance of power” or the
whims of ideological and manic power brokers was not only harmful for those
outside our borders, but also devastating to our own interests and our own
well-being. We knew that the unique call
of the Declaration of Independence was based upon universal truths that could
not be left up to others to defend any longer.
We had to change the paradigm and ensure that the world never again saw
the kind of engulfing conflagration of war that was wrought in the first half
of the twentieth century, lest we be destroyed ourselves.
So we put into place a rules based system. We established the United Nations, we created
NATO as an alliance of defense, we launched the Marshall Plan, we created the
GATT (now WTO) and so forth. These were,
first and foremost, our way of putting into the world a new American based
order of things. We literally wrote the
new rule set and we submitted that this set of rules would be something we
would not only impose on others, but also impose on ourselves. Just like on Glencrest Ave, we put out the
bases, we made everyone aware of the rules of the game, often by dictating them
to the world, and we started playing ball.
Now as we started the game, it went relatively well. From the Suez Crisis to the Berlin Airlift to
the shift of powers in post WWII China, the world averted global war again and
again. As the communist ideologues
pressed against the rules, even they had to submit and play the game the same
as everyone else. Tests to the strength
of the system happened in Korea, and in several other places around the world,
but it held. Even in the midst of the
possibility of world annihilation in the Cuban missile crisis, these strictures
stayed the course. American leadership
from Truman, through Eisenhower, to the Kennedy/Johnson period all the way
through to George HW Bush saw that the rule maker was reasoned and appealed to
universality on the global stage, creating the longest sustained period of an
absence of total war in history. Were
there times where folks were injured or killed?
Yes, but even then the rules stuck and global thermonuclear and total
war were averted. Were there times where
various powers had to step back and reassess?
Absolutely. Were there needs to
change the rules now and again to keep up with new realities and
circumstances? Assuredly, and with that
came things like START and the revamping of the GATT into the WTO, and so
forth.
So like the games we played as kids, so long as the rules
were fair and reasoned, the game was played, was generally enjoyable, and,
while not everyone could win, no one sat out or pouted off in a huff or tried
to unmake the game. This was because the
game was not rigged against anyone, and most often favored reasoned American
leadership and prevalence. And for the
USA, it served, and continues to serve, us exceptionally well. This rules based system, that we created and
imposed on the world, has opened nearly every market to us, put us in the driver’s
seat for most every crisis, and has enabled us to run the gambit to our benefit,
wherever we look. Now have all of the
benefits been equally spread? No. Have there been sacrifices made? Certainly.
Is there cheating here and unfairness there? You bet.
But on the whole the fact that there is a rules based system means we
can address and work to fix these ills by making others follow the rules that
are set and are fair for all. After all, these kind of rules-change efforts have been a part of the system that has made it so
effective, so good for the world, and, especially, the United States.
But now has come the next game on the “water rights.” This is when the least-mature, headstrong
person realizes that they don’t like the rules, if nothing else because the
flaws in the rules are of their own making.
And they are given the right to be the arbiter of the rules, for the
game. And they believe they have the
right to just arbitrarily change things or, more simply, destroy the system of
their own making instead of playing the game they created in the first
place. President Trump uttered these
words at the rally, “Globalism enriches foreign countries at our expense.” Even if that were true, and it isn’t[i], we have the power to fix
that dynamic, after all we were the ones that created this system, and of any
other nations, have the greatest influence in altering the rules to stop that
from occurring. But Trump isn’t interested
in fixing anything, he just wants to cry about how the game that is of our own
making is not allowing us a guaranteed win.
Wah Wah! Do you want some cheese
to go with that whine?
He then goes on to say that “America will never bow to a
foreign nation like we were for so many years.”
Which years were they Mr. President?
When have we ever bowed to foreign nations as the USA? Was that when we have dominated the Olympics
for going on 5 decades? Has that been
when we have been the largest economy since the end of WWII without a
break? Has that been when our military
could go any place, at any time, and defeat any military force it wanted to
around the globe? Has that been when we
have bent every nation to our will of following an international set of rules
that they had little say in creating?
The fact that the President of the United States has made this
statement, when it is utterly false, is a demonstrable case of personal
weakness and propagandizing in order to buy into his sham patriotism as he
purports to save us. Just like the bully
who doesn’t want to play by his own rules (and ineffectually tries to convince
the players that his arbitrary change really is fair and will help the players),
Trump et al are trying to get us all to buy into the idea that America has
failed before his arrival and that what he is doing is “saving” America. The facts, however, demonstrate the opposite
to be true [ii]. Over and over again, it’s clear that what is
happening here is that Trump is changing the rules or utterly obliterating them
for no other reason than to help himself, while doing irreparable harm to
America[iii]. What Trump continues, as he’s done for a
lifetime, is convince you he is the idol to follow and then ask you to
continually feed into his idolatry as he lavishes in ill-gotten gains and
leaves a wake of destruction behind him.
And now, that wake includes American leadership in the world.
He said the other night, “I love our country. I'm the President of the United States of
America. I'm not the President of the
world.” He is, I am sure, in love with
America, because he has continued to reap all of the benefits, exacted nearly
none of the sacrifice and cost, and has solidified a cult of personality in his
person that idolizes him. He is indeed
the current President of the United States of America, a mighty and powerful
position that deserves a person of the strongest character, the utmost
integrity, and the humility for the position it deserves. Luckily, the fact that Donald Trump is POTUS
is something that we have the chance to rectify in November 2020, as he shares
none of those values. And finally, he is
right, he isn’t the President of the world; there isn’t such a position. But he has certainly proven that the POTUS
isn’t necessarily the leader of the free world anymore, and he has done almost
all he can to destroy the American leadership in the world[iv] that we largely created.
“They respect us again, and you see it.” Actually, no, Mr. President, I see the
opposite and so does anyone who isn’t blinded by your narcissism. You are making it so that the world is
shaking their heads, or laughing, or worse at the USA. You’ve ceded American world leadership just like
a child who couldn’t play by their own rules.
And while I blame you for many things, it is ultimately “We the people …”
that are to blame for allowing this to happen.
Luckily, we can opt to choose an actual adult to be the President in
2020, let’s hope, pray, and take action so that we make that right choice. After all, the game being played is much more
important than any I played on Glencrest Avenue, on the “water rights”, as a
child.
[i]
Trump continues to fail to understand how global trade flows and economics
work, as Paul Krugman
[ii]
See the numerous reports of economic, social and political harm that are being
accomplished by this administration, Bill Kristol, Max Boot, Richard Haas,
among them. And yes, the Mueller Report.
[iii]
For instance the IMF treaty lapsing
[iv]
E.g. stepping back form the JCPOA, haranguing allies, cozying up with despots
