"But while the second Trump administration has accomplished a number of significant doctrinal shifts toward greater realism and restraint, its actions signal a continued—and in some cases growing—imperial ambition."
Thus is just inane. Do you listen to anything said by Rubio, Bessent, Vance, etc., explaining that all US military action under Trump are all connected to the corrections needed to revover from the destructive overshooting of the US funded global order, and to bolster the US national industrial policy push... that the legacy media, Democrats and Uniparty Republicans still attempt to defeat?
Destroying the Iranian terrorist regime and preventing them from acquiring nuclear weapons is 100% in the US's interest for long-term peace and prosperity. Just look at the MidEast. Iran is the last piece of the peace puzzle.
Frank, maybe you're on to something. Don's repeated statements pre-election, on tape, were just another clever head fake, art of the deal, 4D chess. Or, maybe it was just inevitable that Don's flock would obediently flip flop along with him, miraculously transforming into Iran war hawks. Y'all joined the neocons, and are now NeoMagaCons. Maybe Iran will beat out Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, and Greenland to become the 51st state.
Don belatedly cobbled together five goals for MAGA's Middle East war. Maybe he'll achieve one or two eventually. At the moment though, he twists in the wind, knowing he'll eventually be forced to sign a weaker deal than Barack Hussein Obama's deal.
Meanwhile, I hear we're close to a deal, or, ending their civilization, or, we already won, or, the war is over, or, it's not even a war, or...
Well said but what is Common Place doing to effect change and how can we help? I am exhausted by the opinions of smart people on the internet who aren’t pointing the way to get those things done.
It wouldn't have helped with Iran but all the other post WW2 wars were fought with large conscript or professional armies. A militia army a la Switzerland would remove a lot of temptation. No one, even Hitler or Stalin, wanted to run into that buzz saw. The last invader was Napoleon and the last foreign war was never. As for Iran it is best seen as a punitive raid but the longer it goes on or if the mission changes to regime change, the greater the risk.
The slide into an empire of influence (via trade, treaties or foreign aid) is SOP in geopolitics. If the U.S. does not, another super-power surely will. They already are.
Geographic empires (e.g. British Empire) are no longer tolerated. However, empires of influence are inevitable.
Yes, no more European or really London muscle. England or really London has always played us like a fiddle. Washington, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson knew this and advised staying away from them.
We must also understand too, wars today are not fought with bullets and guns anymore. Since TV especially they are fought with misinformation and false intelligence schemes to weaken nations and societies. And even easier now with the internet than TV.
Thank you for this fabulously researched, hugely persuasive comment on the founders' views of republic! I can't really compare rescuing Ukraine - Putin urgently needs his ass kicked, solving many Western Hemisphere problems thereby - with mistaking Saddam Hussein for Osama bin Laden, but this is an illuminating view of national health having always emanated from within - not just "how are all the citizens doing?" but "how is the heartland doing?" per se.
I'll just add that the complaint against a go-along Congress shifts around depending on whether it's business as usual (one party on the White House, the other in Congress) or whether we're having one of these rare one-party moments when things are _happening_ in DC for a change. Most years, the only thing Congress and the White House DO agree on is jumping into this or that conflict/defensive response, etc. I well remember how tired I usually am of nothing else going on, due to endless gridlock/political theater, but yes, since the Gulf of Tonkin, whenever there's some kind of threat abroad, that's the one time we can expect that Congress will just let the president go. Thank you again!
I often wonder if the elites of the "new" right/MAGA ever read the daily bleats of our president on social media, or actually listen to his slurred, rambling rants. Clearly Katherine has not. The thought that this aging, angry, corrupt imbecile is somehow implementing an actual strategery is absurd. The best hope to impact his decision making is to dangle some cash. Unfortunately, the rest of the world has figured this out, and we're just beginning to pay the price for his corruption and ignorance. Too bad we have no allies left beyond Russia, El Salvador, Venezuela, and a few minor African countries willing to take our brown deportees for petty cash...
I read your responses to most of the things posted here at commonplace and over and over again it seems to focus exclusively on Trump and his supposed importance to those of us on the post-liberal right. But When Oren came out against Trumps war with Iran, or when Katherine Thompson calls for follow through on republican ideals instead of neocon imperialism, or whenever Commonplace has called strikes and balls as they've come in the Trump administration, instead of reasonably concluding that maybe we aren't the Trump worshiping simpletons you make us out to be, instead it's even more evidence that that is precisely what we are. Katherine couldn't be pointing to legitimate strategical planning on the part of the Trump administration (because there is none), so she must just be ignorant of the ineptitude of said administration. As if Trump is behind every policy and action his administration takes and isn't being lead by better and worse counsel at different times.
Now understand, I do not support Donald Trump, I do not like Donald Trump, I did not vote for him in any of the three elections he ran in. His using the executive branch for his own personal gain and to satiate his ego and narcissism is public knowledge, as is his lack of principle and general support of vice. But when his administration makes good decisions I'm going to acknowledge them, and when they do stupid or harmful things I'm going to call it out. I would just like to see you do the same. You have legitimate points and criticisms, but when your under every post here pretending that we worship the ground Trump walks on, it gets hard to take you seriously man.
Jacob, I have a fundamentally different view. I care not a whit about policy issues during this stretch, bad policy can be fixed. Preserving our liberal democracy is the only mission of the moment. Elites like those who frequent this space have a special responsibility to do their part.
For over a decade, I’ve watched establishment elites on the right (where I have resided my entire life) who know the truth dissemble, deny, and excuse, then ultimately remain silent and fall in line. People express concern, furrow their brow, shake their heads, but invariably, as we say in the country, pull up lame at the gate. AC is filled with such establishment elites. They’ll occasionally muster a simple policy critique, but refuse to confront the higher order issues at stake. They pretend this is all normal, just regular ole partisan battles. Worse, they don’t just stay silent, they make accommodations for their own benefit. Gotta preserve their “access” to keep the money flowing.
Oren fancies himself a buddy of JD. He fancies JD an avatar of the “new” right, a leader of tomorrow. So let's look at just one of myriad issues I could raise. What if Mike Pence had done what JD dutifully promised, on video, he would have done? JD said publicly that he would have defied his oath and acted in contravention of the constitution by refusing to certify the election. Of course, the constitution has no provisions dictating what would have come next, we would have been plunged into a constitutional crisis. This was on the heels of Don’s election lies and insurrection, the worst acts ever committed by a US president. And yet, Oren uttered not a peep. I’ve yet to see any commentator in this space utter a peep. Instead, they enable him. They still believe Don and JD are fit for office. Do you?
"But while the second Trump administration has accomplished a number of significant doctrinal shifts toward greater realism and restraint, its actions signal a continued—and in some cases growing—imperial ambition."
Thus is just inane. Do you listen to anything said by Rubio, Bessent, Vance, etc., explaining that all US military action under Trump are all connected to the corrections needed to revover from the destructive overshooting of the US funded global order, and to bolster the US national industrial policy push... that the legacy media, Democrats and Uniparty Republicans still attempt to defeat?
Destroying the Iranian terrorist regime and preventing them from acquiring nuclear weapons is 100% in the US's interest for long-term peace and prosperity. Just look at the MidEast. Iran is the last piece of the peace puzzle.
Frank, maybe you're on to something. Don's repeated statements pre-election, on tape, were just another clever head fake, art of the deal, 4D chess. Or, maybe it was just inevitable that Don's flock would obediently flip flop along with him, miraculously transforming into Iran war hawks. Y'all joined the neocons, and are now NeoMagaCons. Maybe Iran will beat out Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, and Greenland to become the 51st state.
Don belatedly cobbled together five goals for MAGA's Middle East war. Maybe he'll achieve one or two eventually. At the moment though, he twists in the wind, knowing he'll eventually be forced to sign a weaker deal than Barack Hussein Obama's deal.
Meanwhile, I hear we're close to a deal, or, ending their civilization, or, we already won, or, the war is over, or, it's not even a war, or...
Well said but what is Common Place doing to effect change and how can we help? I am exhausted by the opinions of smart people on the internet who aren’t pointing the way to get those things done.
I think I know what you mean. Words are not actions. Opinions are not plans. Politicians are useless as leaders.
It wouldn't have helped with Iran but all the other post WW2 wars were fought with large conscript or professional armies. A militia army a la Switzerland would remove a lot of temptation. No one, even Hitler or Stalin, wanted to run into that buzz saw. The last invader was Napoleon and the last foreign war was never. As for Iran it is best seen as a punitive raid but the longer it goes on or if the mission changes to regime change, the greater the risk.
"A republic, madam, if you can keep it."
Alas, we have failed Mr. Franklin. Or perhaps we've merely lived up to his expectations.
The slide into an empire of influence (via trade, treaties or foreign aid) is SOP in geopolitics. If the U.S. does not, another super-power surely will. They already are.
Geographic empires (e.g. British Empire) are no longer tolerated. However, empires of influence are inevitable.
Yes, no more European or really London muscle. England or really London has always played us like a fiddle. Washington, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson knew this and advised staying away from them.
We must also understand too, wars today are not fought with bullets and guns anymore. Since TV especially they are fought with misinformation and false intelligence schemes to weaken nations and societies. And even easier now with the internet than TV.
We are at war on many fronts right now.
So well written.
Thank you for this fabulously researched, hugely persuasive comment on the founders' views of republic! I can't really compare rescuing Ukraine - Putin urgently needs his ass kicked, solving many Western Hemisphere problems thereby - with mistaking Saddam Hussein for Osama bin Laden, but this is an illuminating view of national health having always emanated from within - not just "how are all the citizens doing?" but "how is the heartland doing?" per se.
I'll just add that the complaint against a go-along Congress shifts around depending on whether it's business as usual (one party on the White House, the other in Congress) or whether we're having one of these rare one-party moments when things are _happening_ in DC for a change. Most years, the only thing Congress and the White House DO agree on is jumping into this or that conflict/defensive response, etc. I well remember how tired I usually am of nothing else going on, due to endless gridlock/political theater, but yes, since the Gulf of Tonkin, whenever there's some kind of threat abroad, that's the one time we can expect that Congress will just let the president go. Thank you again!
I often wonder if the elites of the "new" right/MAGA ever read the daily bleats of our president on social media, or actually listen to his slurred, rambling rants. Clearly Katherine has not. The thought that this aging, angry, corrupt imbecile is somehow implementing an actual strategery is absurd. The best hope to impact his decision making is to dangle some cash. Unfortunately, the rest of the world has figured this out, and we're just beginning to pay the price for his corruption and ignorance. Too bad we have no allies left beyond Russia, El Salvador, Venezuela, and a few minor African countries willing to take our brown deportees for petty cash...
Hello Karl.
I read your responses to most of the things posted here at commonplace and over and over again it seems to focus exclusively on Trump and his supposed importance to those of us on the post-liberal right. But When Oren came out against Trumps war with Iran, or when Katherine Thompson calls for follow through on republican ideals instead of neocon imperialism, or whenever Commonplace has called strikes and balls as they've come in the Trump administration, instead of reasonably concluding that maybe we aren't the Trump worshiping simpletons you make us out to be, instead it's even more evidence that that is precisely what we are. Katherine couldn't be pointing to legitimate strategical planning on the part of the Trump administration (because there is none), so she must just be ignorant of the ineptitude of said administration. As if Trump is behind every policy and action his administration takes and isn't being lead by better and worse counsel at different times.
Now understand, I do not support Donald Trump, I do not like Donald Trump, I did not vote for him in any of the three elections he ran in. His using the executive branch for his own personal gain and to satiate his ego and narcissism is public knowledge, as is his lack of principle and general support of vice. But when his administration makes good decisions I'm going to acknowledge them, and when they do stupid or harmful things I'm going to call it out. I would just like to see you do the same. You have legitimate points and criticisms, but when your under every post here pretending that we worship the ground Trump walks on, it gets hard to take you seriously man.
Jacob, I have a fundamentally different view. I care not a whit about policy issues during this stretch, bad policy can be fixed. Preserving our liberal democracy is the only mission of the moment. Elites like those who frequent this space have a special responsibility to do their part.
For over a decade, I’ve watched establishment elites on the right (where I have resided my entire life) who know the truth dissemble, deny, and excuse, then ultimately remain silent and fall in line. People express concern, furrow their brow, shake their heads, but invariably, as we say in the country, pull up lame at the gate. AC is filled with such establishment elites. They’ll occasionally muster a simple policy critique, but refuse to confront the higher order issues at stake. They pretend this is all normal, just regular ole partisan battles. Worse, they don’t just stay silent, they make accommodations for their own benefit. Gotta preserve their “access” to keep the money flowing.
Oren fancies himself a buddy of JD. He fancies JD an avatar of the “new” right, a leader of tomorrow. So let's look at just one of myriad issues I could raise. What if Mike Pence had done what JD dutifully promised, on video, he would have done? JD said publicly that he would have defied his oath and acted in contravention of the constitution by refusing to certify the election. Of course, the constitution has no provisions dictating what would have come next, we would have been plunged into a constitutional crisis. This was on the heels of Don’s election lies and insurrection, the worst acts ever committed by a US president. And yet, Oren uttered not a peep. I’ve yet to see any commentator in this space utter a peep. Instead, they enable him. They still believe Don and JD are fit for office. Do you?