I see more liberal media Op Ed writers asserting that
president Trump is an idiot (see, for example, Michelle Goldbergs’ piece today
in the New York Times: Everyone in Trumpland Knows He Is An Idiot.) . They apparently haven’t thought this argument
through very carefully. If Trump really is an idiot, then that implies that the
Democratic candidate in the last presidential election (Hillary) and the whole
Democratic platform on which she ran is so bad that even an idiot could beat
them. And perhaps that is really true, because the reality is that Trump did
win the election, despite all the attempts to claim otherwise.
Now clearly Trump has some unfortunate traits. He certainly
wasn’t my choice for president, but then neither was Hillary. He is
narcissistic, uninformed on many topics, misinformed on many other topics, vengeful,
thin-skinned, sometimes crude and often economical with the truth – though in fact
that could be said about many of his predecessors as well (and some of
these adjectives would fit Hillary just as well). On the other hand he seems to
be a pragmatist not locked into an unthinking ideology, either liberal or
conservative, and he is certainly shaking up the so-called “Washington
consensus” on foreign policy, which the events and missteps of the last three or
four administrations suggest is badly needed.
My assessment is that eccentric as he is, he is
a lot smarter, and a lot more aware of public sentiment, and a lot better at
manipulating public sentiment, than many of his detractors in the media and
politics. He is certainly (in my opinion) wrong on lots of issues, but that
doesn’t mean he isn’t smart or effective at achieving his goals. He was elected
by his base to be a bull in a china shop and shake up the incestuous and smug
Washington politics, and he is certainly doing that. Liberals would be very
unwise to underestimate his persuasive skills and his ability to sway voters.
They already made that mistake once
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