Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
After the end of the Cold War, the assumption in the Western nations (and the newly liberated Eastern ones) was that we would now, through disputation and debate, settle the form of what constituted a fair and humane society and proceed to an outcome acceptable to almost everybody. The only disputes would be about priorities and detail which we would discuss in a grown up way. Well, forget all that.
In the United States, under whose shadow all these things must be dealt with, there is a febrile atmosphere which bears little resemblance to debate or even common sense. It is all about vengeance, personal power and a quite bizarre demonology that used to belong only to minority cults and fringe outfits. President Trump shamelessly declares his intention to make use of the powers of office to destroy his enemies. His vice-president, JD Vance, uses the memorial service for a murdered colleague to make an official declaration of evangelical commitment on behalf of the government – which is contrary to the explicit principle of separation of religion from the secular state that is enshrined in the Constitution. This interpretation of political power and its uses is not just controversial. It is stark staring mad.
The most powerful country in the world, supposedly constructed under the quite strict, binding terms of its Founders, is now apparently being governed by people who regard personal vengeance as an appropriate motive for national policy, and whose whimsical mood changes may determine the fate of whole continents. An American president who surrounds himself with acolytes and sycophants, goes, within the space of a week, from reversing his judgement on Vladimir Putin who he now acknowledges to be the West’s most dangerous adversary, to spreading absurd medical misinformation. And the world must somehow accommodate itself to this quixotic journey. The sane, if mediocre, political leaders of grown up nations have to find ways of addressing these developments as if they were a part of the reasonable give and take of diplomatic life. They are not.
In the United States, under whose shadow all these things must be dealt with, there is a febrile atmosphere which bears little resemblance to debate or even common sense. It is all about vengeance, personal power and a quite bizarre demonology that used to belong only to minority cults and fringe outfits. President Trump shamelessly declares his intention to make use of the powers of office to destroy his enemies. His vice-president, JD Vance, uses the memorial service for a murdered colleague to make an official declaration of evangelical commitment on behalf of the government – which is contrary to the explicit principle of separation of religion from the secular state that is enshrined in the Constitution. This interpretation of political power and its uses is not just controversial. It is stark staring mad.
The most powerful country in the world, supposedly constructed under the quite strict, binding terms of its Founders, is now apparently being governed by people who regard personal vengeance as an appropriate motive for national policy, and whose whimsical mood changes may determine the fate of whole continents. An American president who surrounds himself with acolytes and sycophants, goes, within the space of a week, from reversing his judgement on Vladimir Putin who he now acknowledges to be the West’s most dangerous adversary, to spreading absurd medical misinformation. And the world must somehow accommodate itself to this quixotic journey. The sane, if mediocre, political leaders of grown up nations have to find ways of addressing these developments as if they were a part of the reasonable give and take of diplomatic life. They are not.
