The Republican tradition of trying to undermine a cabinet department by putting a secretary in charge who opposes its central mission goes back to the Reagan administration. But Donald Trump has greatly accelerated that. These days Rex Tillerson is getting a lot of attention as Secretary of State for getting the department of state at a time when diplomacy has never been more critical. He is refusing to replace important officials within the state department bureaucracy and he is encouraging people to quit without replacing them. It’s a strange strategy, and not one that is likely to work if history is a guide, but here it is nevertheless.
Sabotage from the Top
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Alas, Mr Tillerson is hardly the first US Secretary of State to exhibit a disdain for diplomacy and a worship of the military, as this admiring sketch in the New York Times suffices to show….
But somehow I doubt that either Mr Tillerson or Ms Clinton are vegans…. 😉
Henri
Mr. Tillerson and Ms Clinton are in my estimation humanitarians, members of that select group who find the flesh of humans roasting over funeral pyres to be an irresistible delicacy.
Theory of International Politics and Zombies – Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/08/18/theory-of-international-politics-and-zombies/
Well, Glenn, Zeus, tricked by Prometheus, chose bones wrapped with fat, and thus the gods had to content themselves with sniffing the smoke rising from the sacrificial altars, while worshipers got to feast on the roast meet. Can’t help but wonder to which group Mr Tillerson and Ms Clinton belong….
Henri
Maybe it’s all to the good. I haven’t enjoyed the great American imperium much.
We voted for The Donald so that he could help out the working class by removing health care, financial protections and all those pesky regulations which prevent honest billionaires from killing peasants for profit.
One day you too can own your own plantation, and all you have to do is give massa a bigger whip today.
MAGA!!!
It’s a tragedy when big countries tear themselves apart.