A Distribution Of Motives

     It’s commonplace for private-citizen observers of political squabbles to assume a uniformity of motives on each of the contending sides. However, it’s seldom that way. It certainly isn’t that way in the “impeachment” foofaurauw currently dominating the news from Washington.

     For a first mouthful, have some observations from Tucker Carlson:

     Carlson’s take on the motives of those such as George Kent and William Taylor, career State Department functionaries, is almost certainly a bull’s-eye. Over time, individuals in the “permanent government” – what we’ve more recently been calling the Deep State – come to believe that they’re more important, vested with more authority, than they really are. For example, Kent and Taylor have argued, without being perfectly explicit about it, that they’re empowered to make foreign policy, rather than just to carry it out. But that’s not their role.

     The United States of America’s head of state – the individual who speaks for our country in our dealings with other lands – is the elected president. Within the constraints of Constitutional and legislated law, it is he who determines American foreign policy. He may ask others, from the State Department or elsewhere, for their knowledge and opinions, but he is not bound by them.

     It’s become clear that President Trump’s decision to de-emphasize distant conflicts in which the U.S. has never been more than a third-party participant has rankled the foreign-policy establishment. They want control; Trump has wrested it from them.

     It put me in mind of a segment from an old movie: Harrison Ford’s star vehicle Air Force One:

     Far too many “experts,” career diplomats, and assorted “advisors” would react just as did the national security advisor in the clip. It offends them that the President is the true holder of foreign-policy authority. Many of them will strive to usurp it from him...just as William Taylor and George Kent appear eager to do.

     But the motives of those careerists are essentially “rice bowl” motives. They’re trying to protect “their turf.” The motives of the Congressional Democrats conducting the impeachment farce are quite different. They are all too aware that President Trump’s foreign-policy changes have been both beneficial and popular. Those changes will be assets to him in his bid to be re-elected: an effort that appears destined for a smashing success. Indeed, one of their current glamor-girls has already admitted it:

     Some commentators believe that the impeachment attempt will rebound to the Democrats’ detriment. Some of those commentators are on the Left. That suggests that there’s a division within the Democrat Party: possibly a more serious division than the visible fissures in the GOP. Time might yet reveal infighting the Democrats’ top management has been anxious to keep en famille.