JUNE 24, 2020 – I’ve never liked John Bolton, and now I like him less. Burned by the Naked Emperor, he decided to get even instead of mad.
What’s “even” does little good. In an interview on the Late Show, Bolton said he wouldn’t vote for Trump in November but wouldn’t vote for Biden either. That’s not getting even. That’s announcing that despite all the scurrilous and scandalous revelations in his book, Bolton doesn’t think Trump is decidedly worse than Joe Biden. Why then only a book about Trump? Where’s Bolton’s book about Biden?
I ain’t buyin’. The book that is. If Bolton’s “even” plan is to benefit financially at a supposed billionaire’s expense, I’m not contributing. Bolton’s “book play” explains in large part why Bolton played everyone—Republicans and Democrats alike—during the impeachment process.
But there’s more to the story. It’s about blindness, hubris, naivete, arrogance, obstinance, and, of course, a Naked Emperor not concerned with governance but obsessed with personal fealty and public adoration at any cost. Bolton reveals that he voted for Trump in 2016. In that decision was blindness and naivete. Bolton claims he’d interacted with Trump before the election and thought a vacant mind would be a receptive one. Bolton doesn’t cite any evidence of prospective receptivity. He can’t because there wasn’t any.
Bolton signed on as National Security Advisor because he thought he could influence outcomes. So far, neither Iran nor North Korea has surrendered its nuclear capabilities. And the Naked Emperor is no more interested now in briefings or policy considerations than he was before Bolton’s appointment. Call it hubris and arrogance on the part of the most obstinate advocate of pugnacious foreign policy—and one who has never actually worn a military uniform.
Bolton’s revelations about the vacuity inside Trump’s head, the corruption behind Trump’s motives, and the lack of deliberation surrounding Trump’s actions are sample embers from an out-of-control fire. Any passer-by without blinders but with nerve endings could see and feel that the forest was afire long before Bolton’s media tour and attempt to charge $24.99 a pop to read, “The forest’s burning!”
Bolton asserts that for him, it’s “all about his philosophy” of foreign policy. If he’d been “in it” for the money, he would have practiced law after he graduated from law school. He touts his volunteer efforts on behalf of Barry Goldwater, work for Reagan, and association with Bush administrations I and II. Most grating of all, Bolton reminds us of his 10-year stint as a “regular” on FoxGoebbels.
What galls me most, however, gets back to Biden. “Diminished Joe,” as Trump mocks him, is hardly the Washington, the Lincoln, the FDR of our times. But like a spoiled child, Bolton laments, “Until fellow Republicans send in an S-2T aircraft to douse the fire, I refuse to support scruffy volunteers on the ground battling smoke and flames!” Simply stated, “Let Biden burn along with the forest.”
I say to Bolton, “Let your book burn, as well.”
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
