March 31, 2017
Woodrow Wilson
The 45th American president has been in power only a couple of months, yet the media are howling about losing Uncle Sam’s moral authority. Well, a president should not stoop to answer”which he doesn”t and shouldn”t”but all he has to do about this one is to ask: Who gave George W. Bush the moral authority to cause the deaths of more than one million Iraqis, including close to 200,000 children? (And on a phony charge of WMD provided by the neocons.) Who gave LBJ the moral authority to kill more than 3 million Vietnamese? Who gave FDR the moral authority to economically strangle Japan in order to force the island nation to attack the mighty uncle, who then dropped a couple of A-bombs to seal the deal?
Let’s face it. Phony stories like the loss of moral authority because of Trump’s election do not hold water. Moral authority is an amorphous and idealistic situation that can be ascribed to anyone by interested parties. Americans have always felt they were on the side of the angels, because most of the time they were. Americans are good people who mean well, but that doesn”t mean others think like them. I am always surprised when Greeks blame Uncle Sam for their self-induced disasters. When the French blame the U.S. for the cultural disasters of McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. When the Mexicans use “gringo” as a swearword. When the Muslims call the good uncle the Great Satan for his support of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.
Mind you, Donald Trump needs my advice as much as America needs to read the Times. “How can we get rid of him?” was an extremely plebeian columnist named Kristof’s idea of helping the nation. Even worse, a bald crybaby called Roger Cohen wrote that Trump knows nothing about Europe, hence he should quit. Well, Wilson knew a lot and look what happened, just another world war. A really fearsome-looking scarecrow, Paul Krugman, complains weekly about…the pro-Trump coverage by the media. (Nurse, this man needs help.) Poor Uncle Sam. Nobody loves you.
