Abdication of Responsibility

Blame and deflect. Withdraw and deny. Brag, take credit and vilify. Shoot from the hip and avoid entrusting experts. Where facts contradict, create “new ones.” Where federal officials voice opposing views, fire them. Do not cloud decisions with preparedness. Give a voice to previously unrepresented anti-democracy extremists. Openly express admiration and connectivity to international autocrats. Where loyalists are convicted of felonious support for “the cause,” pardon them, pressure the DOJ or grant them clemency. Find joy in baiting opponents and sowing irreconcilable divisiveness. Embrace “law and order” to maintain white supremacy. Promise what cannot be delivered; predict what cannot be predicted. Place economic growth as the supreme value above human life itself. Embrace isolationism; decry global realities. 

This is Trump’s America, where democracy and constitutional protections are held in contempt by the President of the United States. Try and sell the message of American values and belief in our traditional values, the basis for the diplomatic connectivity of the United States, to most of the rest of the world in these most difficult times. Stretched thin by a horrible global pandemic, where we are, by comparison, doing far worse than the rest of the world. We are currently the most reviled nation on earth. 

“Entrusted with duties that include extolling democratic values in scores of developing and autocratic countries, [US] career foreign service officers are finding their mission undermined by events back home… ‘It’s absolutely tough to be a diplomat out in the field right now,’ said Barbara Leaf, former U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates who served under Presidents Obama and Trump. 

“Many diplomats say they don’t mind facing criticism about racism in the U.S. because it can open the door to frank discussions with other governments about the need to confront it, including in the United States… But Trump’s threat to unleash the military to ‘dominate’ protesters, Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s characterization of Washington’s streets as a ‘battle space,’ and the deployment of numerous mysterious, unidentified security agents to confront demonstrators conjured images more often associated with authoritarian regimes — the kinds of things American diplomats usually condemn.” Los Angeles Times, June 15th. 

Under Trump, the United States has pulled out of the Iran nuclear accord (which was working), retired from the Paris climate accord, terminated our involvement in the Trans-Pacific trade agreement (which went on, under a different name, without us), cut aid to various UN agencies, most recently the World Health Organization, elevated North Korea’s Kim Jong-un to full-on international status without accomplishing a damned thing, denied every anti-American step supported by Putin’s Russia, betrayed our Kurdish allies who fought by our side in Iraq and even with the trade animosity with China, given President Xi Jinping wink-wink support to send Uighurs to concentration camps and clamp down on protestors in Hong Kong. 

In flagrant violation of the UK-PRC treaty that gave Hong Kong, a former British Crown Colony, the same legal system and set of rights enjoyed during the British mandate until 2047, Xi has effectively repealed that entire HK legal system, replaced an open and free democracy with direct and harsh autocratic rules from Beijing – without any recourse to HK citizens. He has effectively unilaterally annexed Hong Kong, eliminating the “one nation, two systems” structure that had worked to date. Like most of the rest of the world, Xi views the United States and its ability to lead a global democratic vision as having been reduced to meaninglessness and irrelevancy. Without the slightest fear of US influence, Xi pulled out all the stops. 

We’ve ceded the political and moral high ground, leaving us with our economic power – itself crashing far worse than any other great global economic power under a profound mishandling of the pandemic – as our sole remaining bargaining chip. Even our military, mired in old-world technology which Trump keeps growing, faces China’s naval domination in Asia and Russia’s new hypersonic missiles and smart torpedoes for which we have no defense. If it weren’t for our still massive economic power – which is generating workarounds even among our purported allies in Europe – we would be relegated to influence parallel to that of North Korea. 

To understand how little influence the United States wields against major powers, you only have to look at how Xi is rubbing our face in their total repression of Hong Kong… without the slightest concern of “what the United States might do.” “After less than two weeks under a new national security law enacted by Beijing, Hong Kong residents already feel a curtain of control falling over a city that for so long had been a brash and defiant home to intellectuals, capitalists, artists and pro-democracy activists. 

“Mass protests consumed the semiautonomous former British colony much of last year, escalating as the Hong Kong government gave police free rein and refused protesters’ demands. Now the central Chinese government, empowered by the world’s distraction with the COVID-19 pandemic, is imposing its will to stop what it calls ‘secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.’ 

“Suddenly, words and even the imagined intent behind them have become crimes… Hundreds of people have been arrested for unlawful assembly since the law came into effect, some charged with violations for carrying items bearing protest slogans and Bible verses. No one knows what is safe. Even the word ‘conscience’ printed on a sticker can get you into trouble in an atmosphere that is scary and increasingly surreal… Art is stripped from walls and books from libraries two weeks after Beijing asserted its power in the city.” Los Angeles Times, July 12th. 

Divided at home, facing an out-of-control explosion of the novel coronavirus, vilified and ignored over most of the earth, the United States and its power just may have been irreparably damaged by a self-aggrandizing tyrant with little concern for facts and unencumbered by competency. Even if Trump fails to achieve a second term, many Americans – and a whole lot of international leaders – believe it is simply too late. What do you think?

            I’m Peter Dekom, and I get tired of trying to explain to my international friends and acquaintances that Trump’s vision of America is a momentary distortion of what most Americans hold dear… at least I hope so.