The best possible move for the United States to make in regards to the war in Iran is clear. President Trump should declare a resounding victory in the war, order our entire naval fleet to weigh anchor, and then steam out of the region tomorrow with no intent to return.
This would not be a good outcome for the US. In fact, it would be a bad one in many ways. However, Trump has proven to be such an abjectly incompetent and bumbling Commander in Chief that it would result in less damage to the US than any move Trump would order our military to make while staying in the region. Incidentally, it would also be the least damaging to our allies (if we have any left), the global community, and even the Iranian people.
The truth of the matter is that it would not even be a minor victory, let alone a resounding one. In fact, it would be a sound defeat. But Trump never lets the truth get in the way of tooting his own horn. More importantly, he is always willing to do something that he thinks makes him look like a hero, regardless of its impact on the US. And if he gets any negative reaction from the American people, he could just blame it on Joe Biden.
It would not solve any of the geopolitical problems Iran poses to the region. However, the international community could do a much better job dealing with the fallout than Trump ever could. And they would be much more likely to step up and start working on the problems if the proverbial American bull left the Iranian china shop.
So for the good of the United States─or at least the least bad─please take my advice, Mr. President. That way, you can leave a legacy of being the victorious war President (in your own eyes). Maybe then you would even be worthy of grabbing someone else by the peace prize.
Over 76.5-million Americans voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election two weeks ago. It has left the rest of us contemplating how so many Americans could vote for a man who has done countless things, any one of which, even MAGAmericans would say should disqualify any other candidate from the office of the President. I have heard many explanations but no one else has expressed the reason that I think Trump was elected.
I have listened closely to MAGAmericans express the reasons why they support Trump and why they opposed Kamala Harris (and before her, Joe Biden). I have also noted their responses to me and others who have expressed why Trump is disqualified for the White House. I have seen a dynamic that has been consistent in all of these observations. When it comes to MAGAmericans’ perceptions of both candidates, they have been untethered from objective reality.
MAGAmericans have created a persona of Trump in their minds that does not reflect the person that he actually is. It’s a caricature of him that has only positive characteristics MAGAmericans want to see.
MAGAmericans have also created a persona of Harris that does not reflect the person that she actually is. It’s a caricature of her that has only characteristics they consider negative. For example, they say that she’s Communist when they obviously don’t even know what communism means.
And the only criticism that they can level against her is that she “cackles.” Granted, there are short video clips of Harris laughing in a strange manner but, if MAGAmericans were to watch extended videos of her, they’d see that most of her laughing is very normal. She laughs no more frequently than the typical person with a positive demeanor does, not to mention that it’s irrelevant to her qualifications to be President anyway.
I have also seen that MAGAmericans’ alternative reality is not limited to the candidates’ personae. It extends to the issues surrounding the campaigns. For example, they think that President Biden has made the United States more reliant on foreign sources of petroleum. The truth is that the United states is a net exporter of oil (i.e. it produces more than it consumes), a level of production that is greater than at any time Trump was President and America is now the largest crude oil producer in the world.
They think that crime is increasing when, in fact, violent crime is declining in America. I even know a Trump supporter who regularly blamed President Biden for the conditions in the United States in 2020. When I reminded him that Trump was President then, he simply denied it, insisting that Biden was President in 2020. He had literally convinced himself that President Biden had mismanaged the year of the pandemic because it fit his MAGA narrative.
These are just a handful of the countless examples of MAGAmericans’ alternative reality that I could cite. When they don’t have a grasp on reality and they think these caricatures are representative of the real candidates, it makes sense for Trump’s supporters to make the choice that they did two weeks ago. They don’t have to be racist or fascist or stupid to have a reason to decide to cast their ballot for Donald Trump.
But the SCOTUS makes a major logic flaw in that statement. The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution says in Section 3 that, “Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability”. The “disability” to which the amendment is referring is disqualification from holding the office of the President of the United States (or any other federal office, for that matter).
That is to say that Congress is only responsible for removing a disqualification from holding office, not for “enforcing” one, as the SCOTUS claims. If only Congress enforced a disqualification, the clause regarding a vote of two-thirds of Congress to remove the “disability” would be moot. Congress could only remove a disqualification from the ballot put in place by some other agent.
So you don’t fool me, SCOTUS. I see what you’re doing there.
The Progressive Zone 