Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross

In the past, Republicans took not only a principled stance but a responsible stance on the federal budget.

For example, the Constitution says that human services programs must be largely decided and funded on the state level. So, when even the worst of Republican presidents like Richard Nixon decided to end federal efforts in some of these areas, his party shifted certain health, education, and welfare funding back to the states in the form of “block grants.” That way, the states could decide similar local programming there more flexibly on their own using their own tax dollars.

Not so Donald J. Trump. He destroys the living hell out of programs with no thought about how or if the program can ever be funded or administered anywhere ever again.

This is also how he is conducting the war in Iran. There was no real forethought about starting the war except, “I hate Muslims,” and “I hate countries that control their own oil.”

He couldn’t say, “I hate nations that are run by authoritarians…” Yeah, you get why.

Trump evidences even less thought about how and when to end the war. He says it will happen when he feels it “in my bones.” Notice, nobody else’s bones are mentioned here, like the Congress’ bones or the American peoples’ bones.

The principle is the same whether we are talking about domestic or international force with Trump. Destroy whatever it is you don’t like and do it so irresponsibly that you hamstring any future efforts to make things right or to make a viable peace.

The irresponsible way to do war is to require “unconditional surrender.” This stresses to everybody that you personally are totally right and your enemy is totally wrong. It allows you to beat on your chest like an ape and to feel like you are the master of all the world.

Unconditional surrender necessitates total humiliation of the enemy so that they will never have any respect for the nation that did this to them. Smart, Donny, really smart. This surrender policy of yours will ensure that your offspring will have Iranians in their faces for generations to come.

The policy of war rather than negotiation, and domineering policy over negotiated policy is also Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy for Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran…yeah, you see the picture. In order to keep himself in power even after all his sins and crimes, Netanyahu is willing to subject countless future generations of Israelis to the artificially created hatred of Palestinians who are being treated so badly by his ruthless policies.

This is the kind of cycle that starts with just one evil leader in the beginning. Today’s evil meted out by Israel in the Middle East started first with Hitler, who ruthlessly worked to exterminate Jews in order to keep himself in power. He stoked the latent hatred that can be created deep inside an insecure, illiterate, and impotent people and that can only be enabled after decades, even centuries of civil decline, like in Germany.

Having been abused essentially as a child in Germany, the Jewish community then grew up to adulthood in a very tenuous situation once they returned back to Palestine. They stood at a fork in the road where one path led to a humanitarian way of interacting with neighbors and the other path led to hate, abuse of, and war against the neighbor. All that was required to goad them into taking the wrong path was the devious hand of a couple of evil leaders who decided to put personal interest in political survival over higher interests like social betterment, religious freedom for all, and future national stability.

Netanyahu isn’t the first modern self-interested politician “leading” Israel and he won’t be the last. Trump isn’t the first self-interested politician “leading” America, but he clearly is the worst.