Still Thinking

Like many of my readers, I am still thinking of the aftermath of recent events in American current events. The Supreme Court nomination of Kavanaugh is a prime example of dysfunction. So too, the chaotic revamping of tariffs. The thunderous words against allies. The sweet-talking of current and former enemies.

Let’s see what’s been going on for the past 30 years in the diplomatic world. Clinton built up foreign relations. Bush bullied his way through Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama rebuilt international relationships once again. Trump is doing a neat job of destroying established relations with our foreign friends all over again.

Over the past few decades presidential whims have unsettled professionals in the foreign relations field. Career diplomats are an endangered species. Turnover, resignations and early retirements are legion. In the George W regime alone, over 500 career diplomats left their posts rather than put up with the nonsense of Bush/Cheney distortions.

I suspect the same will occur as a result of trump’s tenure.

That will leave who to do this important work with aplomb and professionalism? Good question.

There are other aftermath open wounds in need of healing. Truth is one. The American moral compass seems oddly skewed; hell, it’s smashed to smithereens. We have upended the logic of truth and the pathway to it.

The economy was rebuilt on a more solid foundation under Obama to repair the meltdown of the Bush years. But trump continues to undercut that foundation and has delivered a boon to the greedy. Tax cuts – unaffordable and inflationary – are given to the already rich. Tariffs undercut the stability of known markets and now unsettle the very credibility markets seek for stability. The stock market overinflates values and does so on a house of cards certain to collapse at no notice.

Unemployment numbers continue to fall below the ‘full employment standards’, but do not take in the vast numbers of idle workers who have been pushed out of disappearing careers. What of them, we ask? Who will help them find new work and purpose? Not to include them in the unemployment statistics is folly. And it is the crevasse of doom to the stock market and engine of happiness so readily believed by the high fliers.

The international banking system is being tested yet again; this time on a much shakier base. With both unsettled markets and international relationships, what could possibly go wrong? Just wait and see!

Values are important to a community. If they are shredded, the community becomes unsettled. Faith in the community wanes. People look elsewhere and in slow motion they move to other, more welcoming communities. If women cannot trust men, then half of our communities live in distrust. Anger follows. Simmering. Long lasting.

Immigration is bemoaned. It is scapegoated for cultural shifts long present in our midst. These are not new to us; they have been with us all along, from the inception of the New World. It defines who we are, not what is wrong with us. It is our strength.

For friends and family who suffer in these times of curious bewilderment, I hope our foreign friends will understand that America is on shifting sands of self-awareness. The process is not finished, nor will it ever be. But we pray they know of our unsettled nature and that most of us yearn for solid ground under our feet.

We will find it and become trusted friends once again. Have patience with us. Please!

October 9, 2018