Trump’s speech at the UN

I am again seriously impressed by the disconnect between the reality star in the White House and the President of the United States.

Is it possible there are two Donald Trumps? Does he have a twin brother who’s in charge of Twitter while the president writes speeches?

What else could explain the chaotic undisciplined twiterstorm versus the focused, well-organized, down to earth yet inspiring speeches?

If you like Trump you should watch the entire speech.

If you loathe Trump you must watch it.

Agree or disagree, Trump defined the issues and made his case without rancor or rage, in marked contrast with the disturbed child who also spoke at the UN recently – or even his own public persona.

Globalism versus nationalism; Trump argued that every nation has the right and the responsibility to serve their own interests first. Which among other things means control over their borders.

He furthermore said that this is the only basis for peace, respect, and friendship between nations.

Then he said nice things about how Mexico has been cooperating on us with that problem.

On the trade war with China, where he is most at odds with his own supporters, he outlined China’s arrogance, currency manipulations , and theft of intellectual property with concrete examples. He made the case for sanctions but on a hopeful note that it will be worked out and massaged the ego of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

That’s a nice balance between a message of “we’re not going to tolerate you messing with us anymore” and “but we respect you” so necessary for dealing with leaders from cultures notoriously touchy about face.

He called out Iran and Venezuela as brutal dictatorships, but affirmed our sympathy with the suffering of their people.

And significantly he mentioned there is food waiting for the starving people of Venezuela once the walls come down. Which incongruously made me think of Charleton Heston playing El Cid at the siege of Valencia where he wheeled the catapults up to the walls – and flung loaves of bread over them.

And here is where he defined the difference between two views of the world order.
“Like my beloved country, each nation represented in this hall has a cherished history, culture, and heritage that is worth defending and celebrating, and which gives us our singular potential and strength.”

There is a great deal of talk about “diversity” and “multiculturalism” these days. Which sounds great except the people who do most of the talking expect a rigid intellectual conformity among all the best people, and who seem to have little real understanding that other cultures really are quite different from ours. Their vision of a globalist future seems monotonously bland, like the world remade into a California suburb.

And he repeated his previous statement that, “America will never be a socialist country” and called out socialism for the murder of a minimum 100 million people in the past century.

I realize many people have a different definition of socialism more like the capitalist social democracies of Europe. Well if you do, now you have to explicitly define what you mean and defend your position because Trump has drawn a line in the sand.

If you agree with Trump I think you’ll be heartened that your position is not being represented by the bombastic idiot he is portrayed as, with some justification to be sure.

If you disagree I’d say watch it more than once, analyze it, and formulate your answers to it point-by-point. Because this is an argument that cannot be answered by a screaming hissy fit.

A collection of Steve Browne’s essays and newspaper columns, “The View from Flyover Country: A Rural Columnist Looks at Life in the 21st Century” is available on Amazon Kindle.

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