“That’s It, We’re Through!”:
The Psychology of Breaking Up with Trump
Jef Costello
As everyone has now noted (including the Lügenpresse, seething mit Schadenfreude) the “Alt Right” has abruptly turned against Trump in the wake of his attack on Syria. “More like ZOG emperor,” opined Greg Johnson in a Facebook post. “I guess Trump wasn’t ‘Putin’s puppet’ after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet. I’m officially OFF the Trump train,” tweeted InfoWars’ Paul Joseph Watson. Richard Spencer issued a video titled “The Trump Betrayal.” Another of my Facebook friends wrote, “No one is coming; it’s up to us.” And Jack Donovan let loose with a barbaric yawp: “Your daddy emperor god king is just another puppet. Where’s your nationalist isolationism now?” These are but a few examples, of course.
Setting aside Mr. Donovan, who never supported Trump, there is a curious psychological dynamic going on in these reactions to Trump’s recent folly. I am tempted to characterize them as “overreactions,” but that’s really neither accurate nor fair. Trump’s folly is, after all, a really big one. Like some of you, I’ve been racking my brain trying to find some Machiavellian sense to make out of Trump’s decision to bomb Syria. Probably the best attempt to provide such a rationale (or is it rationalization?) has been made by Black Pigeon. However, Greg Johnson provides plausible counterarguments against the Pigeon’s case in his most recent essay.
At this point I am very reluctantly forced to conclude that this really is an epic blunder. All that remains is to comprehend what exactly led to it. Was Trump never sincere about “America First”? (I doubt that.) Is it really true that Ivanka talked her daddy into the bombing out of sympathy for the poor widdle children (likely victims of a false flag operation, and not of Assad at all)? Has Jared Wormtongue manipulated his father-in-law on behalf of ZOG? Plus: what will be the consequences of the attack? Possibly the most serious consequence has been pointed out by Greg: “Trump’s intervention in Syria is now being used as an argument to admit more Syrian refugees.”
So let’s just acknowledge that those on the True Right who supported Trump have very good reason to be pissed. Yet, in their responses, something else is going on. There is a real, palpable eagerness to denounce Trump on the part of these Right-wingers, who just a few weeks ago were falling at Trump’s feet, awash with optimism. It is not just that they were looking to be betrayed (let’s face it, we were all worried Trump would disappoint us). There’s more to it than that. There is a kind of gleefulness in my friends’ declarations that they are off the Trump train. What kind of weird psychological stuff is going on here?
Well, let us imagine the following scenario — which probably describes more than a few men of the Right. Imagine a man, call him Siegfried, who had a few disappointing relationships with women in the past, and has now been out of the game for a number of years. Tired of being hurt, he has deleted his match.com profile, regularly rebuffs attempts by friends and family to set him up “with a nice girl,” and can’t imagine himself, at this point, even setting foot in a singles bar. When the god Kama appears to Siegfried, distracting him from the important task of creating Kek memes, he banishes the god in five minutes by . . . ahem . . . surfing the Web. Gradually, he just detaches himself from the whole relationship thing and sees himself as a warrior-monk. Even the idea of love begins to seem remote; something he is now “over with.” Something that afflicts younger, less worldly people. Siegfried sees it in Schopenhauerean terms as nature’s trap. And he is more or less “happy,” in that he no longer has to deal with the “relationship crap” that plagues other people’s lives. Siegfried is no longer vulnerable.
Or so he thinks. For after a few years of this lonely detachment along comes a woman. Let us call her Brünnhilde. It doesn’t matter how they meet, but this girl seems to have everything. She’s Siegfried’s type (you know, pigtails, breastplate, etc.). She’s smart. She’s not into “pop culture.” She has good taste. She says she can’t stand “feminists.” She reads Counter-Currents. And, perhaps most importantly, she’s persistent with Siegfried. She sees his isolation, and ignores his self-protective attempts to frustrate her expressions of interest. After a while, his resistance melts, and they begin a relationship. Siegfried is “back in the game”: the serious game, the one about love.
And now all hell breaks loose inside Siegfried. He’s let Brünnhilde remove his armor and is vulnerable again. After every date he mentally reviews his behavior, convinced that he may have done something that will cause her to break up with him. This is so agonizing that he begins to detach himself from his feelings for her between dates, with the result that each time they get together he must work to overcome his initial reserve. He knows she is keenly aware of this — he can see it in her eyes. And this gives him fresh reason to worry. “When is she going to finally give up on me?” Siegfried thinks. He knows it’s coming, because he knows he is a hopeless, anti-social misanthrope who nobody could possibly live with.
When Brünnhilde journeys down the Rhine on business and is gone for a week, Siegfried is sure that while she is away she will “do some thinking.” And that as soon as he sees her on their next date he will feel that something has changed, and then he will hear the dreaded words, “Siegfried, we need to talk.” But nothing like this occurs. Soon he is forced to confront the fact that this woman genuinely cares for him. And then he realizes that, in fact, she is the only person who cares for him. So begin his morbid ruminations about her safety: “If she died, I would be all alone.” Oddly enough, he has to admit that just a few months prior he was happy being “all alone.” On the nights they do not see each other he worries about whether she has gotten home okay. So, he develops the habit of driving by her building at around 9:00 PM every night to make sure her car is there. Then he worries that she has seen him doing this (from the window of her first floor apartment). And this gives him new reason to worry.
Siegfried is madly, insanely in love. Something which he has a great deal of trouble admitting to himself — as if using the word “Love” would invoke the goddess and put him completely under her power, making him open to being squashed like the miserable bug he is. And he is very, very, very miserable. This love is pure torture. “Love at last!” says one part of him. “We’ve got to protect ourselves, buddy,” says another part. This part is very deeply entrenched, preferring the dark spaces of his soul, as it’s not pretty to look at.
And so comes the day that Brünnhilde inevitably disappoints him. I am not going to bother inventing a scenario (confession: as I don’t want to make my case vulnerable to the charge that “here the analogy breaks down”). Suffice it to say that it’s not the worst possible thing (which I suppose would be cheating on him with a black man). But Siegfried has good reason to be pissed with Brünnhilde. So he meets with her. On the drive over he is wrought up with an anger that feels oddly exhilarating. His thoughts race. He keeps rehearsing the break-up speech that he will give — for he has declared on hearing of her transgression, “That’s it!” And he feels strangely vindicated. Indeed, he knew it all along. He knew this was too good to be true. He knew he should not have allowed himself to become involved again, to become vulnerable. He wants to turn the clock back to his happy isolation and detachment. He wants an end to the emotional hell he has been putting himself through.
So he stands before Brünnhilde and delivers his speech. She simply looks astonished. And as Siegfried talks he notices that he is listening to himself, almost studying himself. The speech doesn’t sound like he thought it would when he practiced it in the car. He hears the perverse delight he is taking in ending this. And behind his words, he hears those years of hurt — hurt in relationships, and hurt in isolation and detachment and loneliness. He is “acting out,” as the shrinks say. But he is kind of on auto-pilot and the stuff keeps flowing out of his mouth. After a while the hurt look in Brünnhilde’s eyes disappears and is replaced by indignation. And then, worst of all, her eyes convey a flash of recognition. She seems to smile ever so slightly. Siegfried knows what Brünnhilde is thinking: “This guy’s crazy.” And he knows that she is right, and that this really is the end. Something in him wishes he could roll the tape back and erase his whole tirade. But something else (the shadow-dwelling thing) says that this is just weakness, and that he will be happier when it’s all over and he is alone once more. How did he ever allow himself to get tricked? Never again.
So, just in case you don’t get it: we spent years in isolation, having emotionally detached ourselves from the system and, really, from the country. We were happy and contented being against everyone and practically everything. There was serenity in believing that there was no hope. Hopelessness armored us against disappointment. We didn’t care that Clinton was President, or Bush. They were part of the same corrupt system, out of which no good could possibly come.
It didn’t even bother us when we got handed the First Black President. What do you expect from the Kali Yuga, anyway? We held out no hope for McCain (choke, gasp) or Romney. They had no purchase on our emotions, and for good reason. Did we stay up late to see who would win these elections? Of course not, we knew it didn’t matter. And that really was a beautiful arrangement: we could wake up the next day and feel untouched, whatever the outcome. And we could apply the same approach to virtually everything. For instance, I could watch my neighborhood go entirely brown and not get worked up about it. After all, the only hope is that everything gets worse and finally collapses, right?
We were contented in our hopelessness and detachment.
And this fucker Donald Trump has gone and ruined that. To be fair, we can’t blame Trump. Just as nobody makes you fall in love, you have to allow yourself to, so we allowed ourselves to get our hopes up about him. Just as the lonely monk-warrior secretly wants love, so we secretly wanted somebody we could believe in. Somebody who just might make things better. And so we allowed ourselves to come out of our hopelessness and detachment.
And now we are paying the emotional price. We have been paying it for months — really for most of us, more than a year. Once we allowed ourselves to like Trump (and he is eminently likeable), and to believe in him — to believe that he might actually do some of what he said he would do — we set ourselves on an emotional rollercoaster. Will the Republican establishment destroy him? With the MSM destroy him with fake (or real) scandals? Will he commit some terrible blunder? Will he prevail in the primaries? (I followed all the results.) Will he win the primaries but get cheated out of the nomination? Then, once he got the nomination, it all started over again: Will they destroy him . . .? Once he actually won the election we were all stumbling about in giddy disbelief.
And then our good mood became mixed with dark foreboding. There was talk about finding some way to nullify the election (“faithless electors,” etc.). There was all the Russia stuff — the genuinely disturbing mass hysteria. Once Trump was safely in office, he was really anything but safe. We watched as they doubled down on their attempts to destroy him. And something else nagged at us even more: will he actually follow through on his promises? Will he be “turned”? Have they already shown him the Zapruder film and told him “this could happen to you . . . or someone you love”?
My friends, we’ve been through — we are going through — an emotional ringer. This always happens to people who think they are out of the game and are fully detached. When they allow themselves to get their hopes up, they go WAY up. When they allow themselves to become vulnerable again, every blow doubles them over (for they haven’t felt what it’s like to be hit in a long, long time). In the last few weeks and months I have consciously caught myself wishing we could go back to business as usual — to a McCain or a Romney or a (God help us) Jeb. At least then I would not have to care. At least I could go back to being “detached.”
So is it at all surprising that we seize on this Syria business as an excuse to sever our emotional (and other) ties to Trump? Essentially, it’s an act of self-preservation. Hence the eagerness, the zeal with which our brethren have announced, “That’s it! We’re through!” Let me off this ride: I want to go back to how I was.
But we need to recognize that things have shifted in just the last two years. We are facing a radically new situation, one from which we cannot any longer detach ourselves. Whether Trump turns out to be a total failure or not, his election is a victory for nationalism. That’s the direction in which history is currently trending. We see the signs in Europe as well. Reality has news for you: there may just be hope after all. Things may not have to “totally collapse” for there to be positive change. And if you really believe the things you say you do, you have to care about this.
What this means is that, yes, you are going to be in for years of emotional hell. You will be in hell as you worry about whether Trump can make good on his promises. For although this Syria thing is a big, fat blunder, there’s still hope that something positive will come out of the Trump presidency. It’s far too early (and too silly, really) to break up with him at this point, using this one event as a pretext. You also will be in emotional hell as you watch the progress of the elections in France, and elsewhere. You will be in hell as you watch what happens in Sweden and hope that the Swedes will come to their senses. Ditto the Germans.
There is some hope, folks. But seeing this means that you are going to have to open yourselves up to the possibility of suffering and disappointment. That’s what a strong person does. Weak people shield themselves from suffering. Life is suffering, the Buddha said. But it’s also joy — and you can’t have one without the other. If you take no risks in committing yourself, whether in love or in politics, you will suffer no disappointments, but neither will you experience joy.
There are two kinds of people, somebody once said on the radio: the vulnerable, and the dead. Welcome back to the land of the living. I hope you stay, because our movement needs people who are alive and committed and ready to take risks, not people who are “detached” and emotionally dead.
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21 comments
It’s been a bit surprising to me to hear about how many of my friends actually got depressed upon hearing of the Syrian attack. I was disappointed, of course, but I always approached Trump in the Evolian (and traditional, in the broader sense) way: namely, supporting him, but not becoming attached to the expectation of any result coming from that action, but merely seeing it as something worthwhile to engage with. The Eastern religions have a lot to teach us about that danger. That may be being “detached,” as you say, but personally I can’t really imagine ever getting ecstatic about any liberal-democratic politician. The modern system makes that impossible.
To paraphrase Evola in relation to Fascism, my approach to Trump has always been: “To the extent that Donald Trump follows and defends our principles, so far we can consider ourselves Trumpians. So far and no further.”
I agree that just giving up on Trump is premature, however. But at the same time, as I said in my own article last week, not giving up on him does not mean being uncritical of him, which is really what many of us have been doing since the campaign – giving him a free pass. It is necessary for us to voice our displeasure at his action in Syria for us to retain any sense of our integrity, and so that he would know (if anyone in his administration cares) that we won’t just put up with anything he does and continue supporting him. So yes, we shouldn’t just turn our backs on him, but I don’t see anything that we’ve been doing or saying in the past few days as unjustified or premature.
By the way, when you mentioned the Zapruder film, it reminded me of an old Bill Hicks routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytv15ono5J0
Be of good cheer. The Alt Right is politically agile, dynamic, young and engorged and alive with pleasure like a fine menthol cigarette — that is, except for the thought wasted on wondering whether Trump actually means well.
I guess my age (54) and my late entry into Kekism and such make me something of an Alt-Right bystander, but I have some questions to ask. Whether they are rhetorical is up to the respondent.
John Morgan sez: “giving up on Trump is premature.” Because… why? Or I should ask, what does it really mean?
Will Trump — like Tinkerbell — just cease to exist if we stop applauding?
Will our support or denunciation have any affect his decision making? (Do his decisions have anything to do with actual policy?)
If it persists and inflammation occurs, doesn’t the soul-searching talk among ourselves resemble a form of coping (meaning self-obsession)?
If I may also paraphrase Evola:
“To the extent that anything in our foetid political system follows and defends our principles, so far we can consider ourselves supporters of it. So far and no further.”
Thus depersonalizing the sentiment, we proclaim our underinflated, conditional faith in something arbitrary and doomed. Momentarily, for the sake of moving forward, let us accentuate the arbitrary aspect, but remember ever the doomed.
But our future is not arbitrary, not doomed.
I do not wish to talk down to John or anyone here — some great writing and great thinking going on, which is overall very, very encouraging — but maybe some avuncular chiding is in order:
Let us, revolutionary ladies and gentlemen, proceed as adults. This is not the Versailles Treaty we’ve been dealt, and there will surely be many more difficulties ahead.
The presidency itself is something like a PEZ candy dispenser. The head is what sells, it moves, opens its mouth, delivers the candy — it’s popular and fun. The candy is… um, it’s crap. Just sugar, actually. Everyone knows this. No one buys PEZ and then complains about the crap candy. (Well, maybe once only. I never was much of a fan.)
Norman, I’m not that much younger than you (43), so I have been around the political merry-go-round a few times now. No, if we – either me personally, Counter-Currents, or the whole Alt Right – stop supporting Trump, or continue supporting Trump, I’m quite sure it will have no noticeable effect on Washington (at least for the time being). And I’ve never maintained anything different. However, we are, after all, engaged in metapolitical work, and that means we are obliged to offer our views and commentaries on what’s going on politically, even if politicians won’t rise or fall based on what we write. The difference between now and two years ago is that now, a pretty huge chunk of the general public has heard of us, and we have more people tuning in to what we have to say than ever before. (How many articles have there been in the msm during the past few days about the Alt Right’s disavowal of Trump because of the Syrian strike?) As such it’s vital that we offer our views. And, as I said in my previous comment, most of us have been giving Trump a free pass since the campaign, but now that he’s going back on one of his stated principles we have to call him on it. It’s vital that we do, and distinguish ourselves from the “pez dispenser.” We can’t just throw up our hands and say that we have no impact on it, anyway – then we’re right back where we were before 2015. So, no offense, but while you’re urging me to be of good cheer, you’re the one who really sounds pessimistic and I seem to be the optimist, if you actually think that we’re just self-obsessed and that nothing we’re saying or writing matters outside of our own circle.
The most important indices in the recent Syrian bombing are: Half of the Tomahawks did NOT reach their destination, the attack did not make sense militarily.
What has been accomplished for Trump: He made both doves and hawks shut up (remember the weeks of agonising drama in 2013 until Obama backed off), therefore he can retake the initiative. Tillerson reportedly stated that Trump’s position has not changed, forced regime change is not the goal.
To the 50% survival rate of the Tomahawks: Maybe Trump used this to demonstrate to his own general staff that they are indeed not able to project as much power as they would wish and make them thereby acquiesce.
This is just speculation on my part, but every passing day makes it more and more obvious that this is no part of any coherent military strategy, other than portraying incompetence. This makes no sense. Everything about this screams internal politics.
Btw: The Alt Right, the blogosphere etc will hail it’s God Emperor again when the dust is settled.
“When is she going to finally give up on me?” Siegfried thinks. He knows it’s coming, because he knows he is a hopeless, anti-social misanthrope who nobody could possibly live with.”
Many lol lines in this piece. Thanks for that.
I don’t think we are crazy though. I think Trump has Stockholm Syndrome. The traditional enemy has beaten him down and turn him out. That and the nepotism of his little girl swishing through the chambers of power.
I have never represented my vote for Mr. Trump as anything other than a stab-in-the-dark guess.
I see no evidence which contradicts Trump being a celebrity buffoon who was put into power by the Israeli far right. Nor do I see any reason to believe Trump has any ideas of his own, any principles, or any goals. He has no history whatsoever of supporting nationalist policies for America. It seems to me that Trump is not even leading the country but leaving Kushner to do everything as he plays golf. White America got played.
As Greg said, I don’t trust Trump anymore. I’m not sure if he can get it back either. Nothing is impossible but I wouldn’t bet money on it. I think pretty much all of us on the alt-right saw Trump as a vehicle that had utility in getting some of our messages out in the public sphere. That’s been quite successful. But the vehicle seems to have crashed into a mountain. Now remember, we need to get over that mountain. How long do we set in this vehicle. Maybe it’ll start, but it doesn’t seem likely. We can climb this mountain on foot. We can’t do it in a busted vehicle. And that’s ok, speaking for myself and I think many of us on the alt-right, I don’t have any time for liberal democracy, even if it appears to have finally worked for a change. It’s still a rotten system that has to go. Trump isn’t one of us and publicly disavowed us. We let that slide. I think that was more than fair of us. Now he’s proven himself to be a liar too. We shouldn’t let that slide. Perhaps I’m wrong and the deep state is threatening him and his family as Jef mentioned. That could be but it still doesn’t do us any good and just reinforces my earlier point that this system is rotten. Honestly I hope it is the case that he’s just a liar because the latter possibility seems much more menacing.
Thank you, Jef. Somewhere between you, Greg Johnson, Richard Spencer and the latest Murdoch Murdoch and Millennial Woes, I’ve found my to some perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJy7CW8q_Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEhap_eNKbw
Beautiful and entertaining analysis of the current situation with President Trump Jeff. I’m glad you reached the conclusion you did for now, because for some reason– my current low energy state, my self induced Trump paranoid state, etc. , I thought you had given up on him completely. I believe it’s too soon and as both you and Greg pointed out, he has had an enormous effect on the nationalist dynamics now overtaking many area’s in the Western World. Who else in the U.S. could have possibly brought this about? I think he deserves a little more time.
While there’s no Left monopoly on self-obsession, I did not mean, and do not think that you’re / we’re “just self-obsessed and that nothing we’re saying or writing matters outside of our own circle.”
No, Sir.
The risk of self-indulgence however is there, is what I’m saying. And that was not really a major part of my comment.
The Alt Right’s actual impact — the impact of your writing, and that of others — and the obvious potential for much more, is ample cause for optimism.
What I tried (maybe failed) to make clear is the dismal nature of US political culture (“arbitrary and doomed”), suspended as it is in kosher media brine. By all means, it should continue to be shaken, stirred, agitated, acidified, alkalinized, clarified, poisoned, memed, etc.
But let’s admit that US political culture is a shambles. Yes, a new way will have to come out of it, or from its ashes. While I personally think Donald Trump will contribute to, and even comprise, part of the ashes, his Syria thing is only a cul de sac.
I would say that WN is by definition bound to look beyond the current necrosis. That’s no more pessimistic that looking out the window and saying, “It’s raining. You’ll need an umbrella.”
That’s a nice story but I’m still not supporting Trump any longer.
To me she (trump) cheated with a black guy. That’s how bad this is. I’m not going to be a cuckold and rationalize staying with her. He is a globalist neo con. He has made that clear, not only with the attacks in Syria but also the attacks in Yemen and Somalia which get ignored by most people and his escalation with North Korea who, by the way, have done absolutely jack shit to us.
Some say North Korea is crazy for wanting nuclear weapons, I’d call them crazy for not wanting them. If Kim Jong Un doesn’t build up his military, his country is going to be invaded and he’s going to be killed. So what choice does he have?
I was really hoping Donald Trump would be a lot better at being diplomatic and deescalating conflicts with other countries through talks but so far it’s like he’s not even trying. He bombed Syria before ever even talking to Assad. Has he ever even offered to talk with Assad or even with Kim Jong Un? Why not? The worst they could do is refuse in which case you could say at least you tried to be diplomatic. To me North Korea is like the weird quiet kid in school who sits in the back of the classroom and never talks to anybody. Occasionally he’ll do something disturbing yet harmless like read a macabre poem in class which will scare the other students and make them think one day he’ll go crazy and shoot up the school. Maybe he will shoot up the school but if he does it’ll probably be because all the other students were dicks to him for being different.
Has it not been like this since time immemorial? You could move to the capital city and take part in exciting political intrigues, possibly rising to fabulous wealth and power, the downside being that if your faction ever lost a power struggle, you’d all be drawn and quartered.
Or you could be a peasant farmer growing turnips in some distant province and not caring who runs the country.
As Mr. Costello usually comes across as somewhat pessimistic (realistically, of course), I found it very reassuring and refreshing to see him, of all people, telling us to keep up hope. This is a terrible situation we Alt-Righters find ourselves in, but I agree with the sentiment that it’s still too early to jump ship. After all, my 2 pairs of New Balances and my Trump t-shirt have barely been broken in!
Maybe it really is nothing more than Trump making a quick display of power. He warned Russia ahead of time, and apparently there were VERY minimal Syrian losses….the base itself was barely destroyed. It could be that the Neo-Cohens are are being overly giddy about the prospects of this action, but don’t necessarily have as much influence over Trump as the media makes it seem.
The I-told-you-so-fags need to chill, and so do the train-jumper-fags. Give it another week, at least.
Has anybody caught up with certain faction within alt-right/alt-light sphere who consider the opposition towards America’s alliance with Saudi Arabia and Israel a form of “spite” towards America’s “strength”. Even worse, the realistic strategic concerns of the American establishment are being taken as a clue how the Establishment is “right this one time”, when in reality, the establishment has single-handedly manufactured every single one of them in complete opposition to White American interests.
Excellent essay. There’s clearly been an overreaction (to Trump’s Syrian actions) from AltRight figures who claimed they weren’t too invested in him to begin with. The emotional investment in a Trump presidency by the AltRight leadership / readership was more excessive than we suspected. Imprudent! The clear-eyed detachment and perspective on this matter one would expect from AltRight leaders has been absent. Instead, they flipped out. As I said from the beginning: Trump was never a solution–he was always just an opportunity.
As ineffective the missile strike was, the US has had boots on the ground for a long time in Syria. We just dont see it in the media. So it appears to me that this is the flare, the raising of the battle flag, for all to see what your intentions are, rather than a significant military action. Long held military traditions are hard to dismiss. The real question is; who got to Trump and with what leverage. And who are those that “got” to him. To me it is fairly obvious. It stinks! But even more important than that is the question of what do we do now? Well, it would be funny to solidify the meme of anti-war is fascist. So lets have fun while we try to save the world. Why not. It is easier to die standing, pointing a finger while you laugh, than to kneel down and cry while you wait for the sword.
Two core questions.
What is the likelyhood of the voters, who got Trump into office, going into the streets in their masses against his new, unacceptable political direction?
What will be the reaction amongst the Alt+Right, should Trump suddenly return to his previous, acceptable political direction?
An excellent article, which sums the situation up very well. Many on our side are overreacting to a turn of events which they rightly do not like, but that might well turn out to be no more than an unwelcome one off.
I am opposed to air strikes against Syria. Indeed, I am generally pro-Baath/Assad, since the secular nationalist Syrian government is a stumbling block to Islamists and a shield for Christians, Alawites and other minorities threatened by murderous Wahabbist terrorists, as well as a principled opponent of Zionist expansionism.
If however President Assad really authorised the use of poison gas against civilians, which I doubt, I cannot condone that, any more than I condone the use of cluster bombs and heat seeking missiles, all made here in Great Britain and touted around the Gulf by the merchants of death in our arms industry to our barbarous Saudi allies, the better to maim, mutilate and murder Shia women and children in the Yemen.
Strangely, however, the two cases are not being treated alike. I am not expecting President Trump to authorise a strike by Tomahawk missiles on a British Aerospace factory any time soon, and certainly not before his state visit this autumn!
The lively reaction of various alt.right luminaries to President Trump’s decision seems to me as much an emotional spasm as the decision itself, and just as lacking in depth of analysis.
Granted, it is disturbing that military policy at the highest level appears to depend on what has upset the first daughter that day and sent her crying to her daddy, but the raid had many curious features that bear further examination.
It is not usual, to say the least of it, to tip off the target’s principal ally and protector that you are about to launch missiles at the target. Why might President Trump have done that? I am reminded of the Ugandan officer in charge of perimeter defence at Entebbe airport, who was asked at the court of enquiry into the Israeli raid on Entebbe why the attackers had succeeded so easily? “It was the element of surprise.” the African master strategist answered. “If the Israelis had told us that they were coming, we would have been ready for them.” There cannot have been much of an element of surprise about this raid.
Moreover, Secretary of State Tillerson seems to have re-reversed policy on regime change in Syria no less quickly than the first reverse, which is hardly consistent with the supposed capture of foreign policy by Ziocons.
All in all my assessment of recent events is that some who had up to now set too much store upon the Donald now place too little faith in him. This whole episode might turn out to be an aberration. As the maid remarked to her mistress at the end of Maupassant’s “Une Vie” in one of the wisest insights into the human condition in 19th century literature: “madame, in this life, things are rarely so good or so bad as they seem.”
Have faith in Kek, and his avatar the Donald might get back on message sooner than you all think!
I don’t recall Trump ever promising during the election campaign to turn the US into a hermit kingdom, having nothing to do with any other nation. In fact, he repeatedly stated that he would destroy ISIS and that some actions in the mid-east would be taken in order to clean up the mess that previous administrations left.
I heard Dr. Gorka being interviewed the other day on Laura Ingraham and he suggested that action was taken by Trump for both a moral imperative but also a national security imperative (stopping the spread of ISIS, etc.).
If Assad did the attack, maybe he had gotten too cocky and thought that Putin had offered him unconditional support. All I know is that a lot of Syrians look like Southern Europeans and I don’t like to see pictures of them under siege. Just like I had no sympathy for Saddam Hussein because he had attacked the Kurds–descendents of the Medes. But I have to be honest and confess that I am not all that moved when I hear of atrocities in Sudan or some other African hell-hole.
I’m now rambling here, but if Trump gets rid of Bannon, I’ll be disappoined.
Well Mr. Costello, I don’t think you’ve captured my feelings about Trump, but you sure have described my personal life to a “T”. Excellent writing, by the way.
I’ve come to my own conclusion about Donald Trump, and it doesn’t involve any relationship psychology, any conspiracy theories, or any n-dimensional baccarat. It’s actually so simple that the revelation of it will be rather anticlimactic.
I think he’s just not really that smart. He doesn’t have a deep and complex mind. He doesn’t know a whole lot about the world, about history, geography, science, philosophy. And the Deep State has figured out that flattery avails quite a bit with him.
In short, we’ve elected King Lear.
I can’t honestly say I was fooled. Looking back over the campaign, the signs were all there. Trump did and said more than a few things which I found absolutely cringe-worthy from an Alt-Right perspective, but which I willingly repressed out of a fierce desire to get a victory for nationalism. I knew that this was our time to stand our ground and fight, and we did that. The Alt-Right has proven that it is able to think politically, to define objectives and to organize and pursue them with rational strategies. We are, as Greg Johnson said, “a government in exile.”
Despite the failures of our candidate, the fact that we managed to elect him was a real victory for us, and I will take that with me as I soldier onward.
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