I’ve been mulling over the following question: how did each of the modern presidents from Nixon to present impact the world the most?
Richard Nixon: Opening relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Gerald Ford: The Helsinki Accords. The human rights plank encouraged the growing dissident movements in the Eastern Bloc. They took seriously what the Soviets were willing to put on paper in the albeit non-binding resolution.
Jimmy Carter: Enabling the Islamic totalitarian revolution in Iran.
Ronald Reagan: Fomenting the end of the Cold War. “Reagan bolstered the U.S. military might to ruin the Soviet economy, and he achieved his goal” – Gennady Gerasimov
George H. W. Bush: This may be a controversial choice, but I’m going with the “New World Order” speech, or rather what it represents – encouraging the United Nations to take a more active role in foreign relations. One of the legacies of the UN is the enshrinement of the ethic that wars must never be won, only fought to the point of ceasefire.
Bill Clinton: Granting the People’s Republic of China access to supercomputer technology vital to targeting manned, unmanned, and munitions-bearing rocketry. It’s the one great leap forward in China that actually worked.
George W. Bush: The Iraq War. Aside from altering the geopolitical landscape in the region, it convinced Muhammar Qaddafi to cooperate with the US to end Libya’s WMD program.
Barack Obama: Opening Iran to financial markets, thus magnifying its ability to conduct proxy wars.
Donald Trump (first term): It may be a bit early to gauge the legacy of the Abraham Accords, but opening the door to Israeli cooperation with some of its Arab neighbors is bound to have significant impact on Iran’s regional ascendency. It also breaks from the stupid tradition that any negotiations between Israel and any of its neighbors must include the Palestinians, as if Palestinian and non-Palestinian relations can’t be delt with separately.
Joe Biden: Opening Iran to financial markets, thus magnifying its ability to conduct proxy wars – assuming the Ukraine Missile Crisis does not top this. (Our own Trent Telenko is cited in the linked article.)
Alan K. Henderson
What’s the Matter with Wisconsin?
Curious about election result changes in one of the swing states, once Wikipedia had the final vote counts of the 2016 election (allowing a relatively simple copy to an Excel spreadsheet), I took a look at stats for Wisconsin’s two most recent presidential elections to see if I could spot signs of any trends. The exercise confirmed what I already knew about the divides in both parties – better than expected.
35 Years Ago Today
Demolition of the Berlin Wall began.
On the 20th anniversary I wrote a parody of the Bowling for Soup song “1985” in honor of the collapse of European Communism. I seriously want someone to make a music video out of this.
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Honecker built the wall
He thought that he had it all
Head of the GDR, oh
Wife’s in the Politburo
His dreams were smithereens
By October 16
He was the Number One man
What happened to his plan?
He was the head of party
He was the head of state
He shook his Commie fist
Dissidents he sealed their fates
His own SED
Is now the enemy
Miffed by his corrupt life
And nothing, has been…
All right since
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They’re all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
(1989)
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Pozsgay read the Marxist classics
He knew every creed
“Class struggle,” “Labor theory”
“From ability to need”
But Hungary was whammed
Economy was jammed
Thought he’d try a hand
To come up with a new plan
Where’s the full stores
Like the ones in the West?
And what’s with those East German guys
And weekly unrest?
When did Polish dissidents
Get on the TV?
What ever happened
To Comintern, Five Year Plans
(In the streets were)
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They’re all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Ceaucescu hates these times
He wants to make it stop
“When did the Berlin Wall
Become a pile of rocks?
And tell me why did Prague
Surrender to that playwright?
Please make this stop
Stop, STOP”
[sound of rifle cocking]
“Please no more…”
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They’re all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They’re all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Sis Boom Bah
No, this has nothing to do with exploding sheep.
Linking a Powerline article on the election at Hot Air, Ed Driscoll takes issue with one of its points:
I’ll disagree with my friend John a bit here. There has been a cult of personality around Trump, which is what happens with charismatic figures in politics. There was a cult of personality around Obama too, which Obama purposefully cultivated, and one around Reagan that came together more organically.
Hinderaker doesn’t deny a cult of personality, he just says correctly that personality did not drive Trump’s campaign. “[H]e ran on the issues. He talked relentlessly and effectively about inflation, the border, and war and peace.” Other candidates with personality cults also ran on issues. The hip, personable Bill Clinton (the last fun Democrat to run for Prez in the general) ran on blaming Bush for the recession, whose root cause was undoubtedly the S&L crisis (in which the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan played a tiny part). The quasi-Messianic Obama ran on War on Terror criticisms and on blaming the Republicans for the Great Recession.
Recall the pep rallies of high school, and their outrageous taunts of the opposing team. People from all factions bring this spirit into politics. It seems that scarcely anyone other than the right applies the other key element: over-the-top aggrandizement of the home team. This looks weird to many leftists and to many conventional schlubs on the right because their approach to their own candidates is more subdued; to them hilarity must directly deprecate the other candidate. As a larger-than-life personality facing outlandish political enemies, Trump is a magnet for pep rally treatment. He is seen in memes as comically heroic, riding an eagle or wearing a superhero outfit or leading dogs and cats to safety away from the clutches of migrant diners.Â
What We’ve Got Here is Failure to Communicate
Back in March I explored conflicting perceptions of the meaning of “woke” and “racism” as applied to the original Star Trek, describing social media as “a gold mine of jargon” that means different things to different people. Today I’d like to take a look at other terminology that obstructs political discussion.