MAGA is a cruel repudiation of the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation
Originally published July 28, 2018
During a 2015 visit to France, my wife Ann and I slowly wandered in separate directions, reading gravestones in the American Cemetery on the bluff above Omaha Beach. I glanced up as a middle-age woman approached.
“Are you American?” she asked in French-accented English.
“Yes,” I nodded.
She reached out and placed a hand on my arm. “Thank you,” she said simply.
We stood looking at each other for a long moment, our eyes brimming. Then she turned and walked away.
I have thought of that moment many times since, most recently when the NATO allies met in Brussels earlier this month.
Proving he is either heedless of our history or ignorant of it, the American President treated our allies and their leaders like they were little more than members of one of his golf clubs, delinquent in their dues. This, just after sabotaging an agreement of the G7 meeting in Canada and just before hanging the British Prime Minister, Teresa May, out to dry while in London. Trump seems to be jilting the UK and our longstanding “special relationship” for the likes of Kim Jong Un (“We have developed a very special bond”) and Vladimir Putin, over whom he practically fawns.
But, it was the NATO trashing that most got to me, that was most starkly suggestive of an America in decline. An America that may be shrinking before our eyes.
Prior to World War II, the United States was content to be relatively isolated, buffered by great oceans from the problems of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Because President Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the League of Nations, most people don’t realize the US never actually became a member. In the 1930s, with new tensions building in Europe and the nation overwhelmed by the Great Depression, there was plenty of reason to shy away from a role on the global stage.
Once drawn into the war, however, we were all in. More than 400,000 Americans died in Europe and the Pacific. Our natural resources, labor, and capital were the prodigious fuel of an epic economic engine that eventually overwhelmed the Axis enemy with a seemingly endless supply of munitions and men. Then, at war’s end, we could have simply come home, leaving Europe and Japan to try to sort things out and get back on their feet. If we had, the history of the past 70 years would obviously be very different. I wonder if the French woman would still stop an American visiting the Omaha Beach cemetery to express appreciation for the sacrifice of earlier Americans who drove out the Nazis. Possibly, but I think she was thanking us for more than that.
As it happened, we stayed. The Marshall Plan in Europe, as well as something quite similar in Japan, was an unprecedented undertaking. The US economic engine continued at full speed but was now supporting wartime friend and foe alike in feeding their people, rebuilding their cities, rebuilding their economies. The current equivalent of over $100 billion went from America to Europe between 1948 and 1951.
At the same time, geopolitical tensions, most significantly stemming from the threat to Europe by the Soviet Union, led to the forming of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. With the strong support of President Truman, we joined with 11 western European countries in 1949 to form a defensive military alliance that would eventually grow to 29 nations. NATO has provided the security and stability undergirding over seven decades of peace and prosperity in Europe.
Yes, the US has paid the lion’s share of the cost and been the military presence required to deter threats to that peace. Yes, previous presidents have sought an increase in the military contributions of NATO’s members. But, it is a serious mistake to believe that we do not incur proportional benefit for our investment. It is also short-sighted and small-minded to think this is not our obligation, that our national abundance and power do not carry responsibility.
Yes, the US has often abused its superpower role throughout those decades. Despite that, the rest of the world has continued to recognize us as the best available model of a nation that embodies principles of freedom and opportunity to accompany that power. Most countries have continued to see us as a flawed but basically trustworthy giant who understands that cooperative military and economic alliances make everyone safer and more prosperous.
For 18 months of erratic actions and mixed messages in place of any semblance of foreign policy, this accidental president has made a nervous country and world hopeful that others in our government would manage to keep us safe. At the end of this tumultuous month, those hopes have been largely shattered.
And by whom? By someone J.K. Rowling famously called “a little, little, little man.” Someone who is incapable of seeing any situation, event, or encounter through any lens other than his inner kaleidoscope that always keeps him at the center of a distorted reality.
Rather than being humbled by the office, as his predecessors found, or being helped along by seasoned professionals, as would be welcomed by a normal person with no previous government experience, he has instead concluded that he is his own best advisor and is most comfortable doing things his way.
It is not news that Trump is childish, egoistic or narcissistic– take your pick– and massively uninformed and resistant to new learning. Watching him here at home is uncomfortable and depressing for most of us. Watching him on the world stage this month, seeing what we have unleashed on everyone else, has brought something into sharper focus.
The men (sadly, so far just men) who have held the office most successfully have understood that the Presidency is Constitutionally intended to be a stewardship. It is a mantle put on at inauguration and worn until leaving office. It confers awesome authority and respect to the wearer and puts the resources of a great government and military at his disposal. Over two centuries of practice and built-in checks and balances are the counterweights to prevent abuse of that power.
Donald Trump is constitutionally incapable of understanding this. He clearly believes he himself possesses all the qualities required to rule and that his election gave him that right.
When he is here at home, Twitter and the incessant partisan crossfire provide daily distractions. What used to be the Republican Party props him up amid scandal upon scandal that would have sunk any previous president. We know he is unfit, but there he is in the White House, surrounded by staffers and cabinet members, valiantly striving to maintain the illusion.
Then, this month: Canada, Brussels, United Kingdom, Helsinki. Each stop more eye-popping than the last. There was this little, little, little man for all the world to see. He has refused the mantle of his great office, believing the greatness is his own, and the emperor was seen to be naked. Allies recoiled. Putin smiled. Americans who weren’t busy pretending the emperor’s clothes are just beautiful were horrified and humiliated.
Humiliation we can withstand. We can look forward to 2020 (and maybe postpone any trips abroad until then.) Unfortunately, while Putin has never stopped his efforts to meddle in our elections, his protégé has likewise been meddling apace. “Make America Great Again,” in true Newspeak fashion, turns out to really mean “Make America Small.” Aside from boosting corporate profits and the fortunes of the most fortunate, virtually everything the Trump administration is doing, and doing very quickly, is about reducing, eliminating, excluding, and less, less, less. Less immigration, less diversity, less environmental protection, less health care, less international cooperation, less alternative energy, less scientific inquiry, and on and on.
Is America shrinking? Unquestionably. Is it temporary? Who can say? But, I want my grandchildren to live in an America that inspires the kind of gratitude I encountered in Normandy. I think there is no time to lose. So, for myself at least, it is time to get back off the sideline.