I once had a beer with John Bolton and can say that he was an affable fellow with very dangerous views. This appointment solidifies the neoconservative approach the administration is taking to Iran, North Korea, and what I see as a troubling “Israel/Saudi Arabia First” approach to Mideastern geopolitics that completely undermines American interests in the region. He is not subject to Senate confirmation, but Mike Pompeo is and Democrats and Republicans concerned about this direction should really pounce on these dangerous trends. Anyone who voted for Trump hoping for a less interventionist foreign policy was mistaken then and is surely delusional now.
Please share widely!
Charley on the MTA says
Saying Bolton is progressive on LGBTQ issues is the answer to “other than that Mrs Lincoln how was the play?”
jconway says
I only mentioned it since Kelly is for the ban and Mattis and McMaster are against it. This likely maintains the status quo where trans troops can continue to openly serve. A small silver lining considering the many other dangers I outlined, but as someone who has a good trans friend with a security clearance, I am grateful they are not
in danger of losing their job.
Charley on the MTA says
I get it. I’m half giving you a hard time, and half completely freaked out.
jconway says
Oh I’m 100% freaked out. He’s a real life General Ripper.
petr says
What does it matter? Whatever shreds of moral imagination Bolton has — and however meager any such shreds may be — they are surely to ultimately provide future contretemps with Trumps complete lack of moral imagination whether the proximate cause is LGBTQ or… pick something random. Should Trump, somehow, survive the next three months, Bolton will be gone before the fourth month is over….
This isn’t another political chess move to analyze: this is Trump being impulsive under a very great deal of stress; the exact recipe for his most egregious blunders. This is, in fact, the feces about to fully meet the fan…
jconway says
Look, I was pretty clear that I find his foreign policy views dangerous and immoral. He will likely be far more sycophantic than McMasters ever was going to be. I’m with Petr that it’ll likely be a short tenure since the short fused Bolton will probably clash with the equally short fused Trump. We talked in 2008 and he surprised me by being for gay marriage and gay troops.
He also shocked me by endorsing an unrealistic Mideast plan where Jordan and Egypt take back Gaza and the West Bank, a preemptive war to disarm Iran, and arming the Saudis to take over our nation building responsibilities in the Middle East. He was also in the “expand the war to Syria camp” to stop the flow of insurgent troops into Iraq along that border. This was well before the Syrian Civil War. So if I buried the lede on that, I apologize. He’s a nut job, plain and simple. Albeit an affable one, who should stay in academia and not be allowed to make policy.
johntmay says
The people I know who voted for Trump don’t seem to care about anything that one might see as a sound reason for them to withdraw their support. In any case, I think more Trump voters want a fight, a war, a military parade.
SomervilleTom says
And yet you vigorously protest any effort to properly characterize those voters as ignorant, irresponsible, and — yes — deplorable.
Voting is a privilege and a responsibility. Each voter who pulls the lever for Mr. Trump is, in fact, responsible for the crisis we are headed for. Each voter who chose to stay home rather than vote for Ms. Clinton is equally responsible.
I don’t care whether it’s popular or not, in my view that is the plain fact of the matter. When we agitate otherwise, we only compound an already desperate situation. Yes, of course, we do whatever we can to improve our messaging, our outreach, or GOTV efforts, and so on.
We must NEVER forget that each voter is ultimately responsible. That is what “democratic republic” means.
When Mr. Trump launches the nuclear first strike against Iran or North Korea, and the inevitable response takes out — say — New York, Washington DC, and Chicago (perhaps Boston is too small to matter), it won’t matter.
If it DID matter, then it is those voters who put Mr. Trump in power by either voting for him or not voting for Ms. Clinton in the key states of MI, WI, and PA who have blood on their hands.
johntmay says
You have me confused with someone else.
Just to set the record straight, I did not, and will not agree that all those who voted for Trump were ignorant, irresponsible,or deplorable. To believe in such fantasy will only lead to another crushing loss for the Democrats and a second Trump term.
I do and will maintain that anyone who is still in support of Trump is ignorant, irresponsible and deplorable.
Big difference, huge, enough that to not see it is to be part of the problem with the Democratic Party’s disconnect with working class voters.
Then there is blood on the hands of the DNC and the Clinton Campaign, as well.
SomervilleTom says
I chose the tense of my comment intentionally (emphasis here):
I’m glad that we agree about the supporters of Donald Trump moving forward. Thankfully, there seem to be fewer of them today than there were two years ago.
I blame the voters of MI, WI, and PA who stayed home. I do not call them deplorable. I do characterize them as irresponsible. Any of those voters who was able to vote and chose not to has blood on their hands.
The point of my comment is that whatever the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign did or did not do, the responsibility in those key battleground states falls on the otherwise eligible voters who chose to stay home. Especially the voters who somehow found a way to turn out for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and chose to sit on their hands in 2016.
I enthusiastically support making our current and future campaigns as effective as possible. The post-mortems have already been done many times, and it is long past time to stop bricks and blame at the 2016 campaign and its nominee.
Whatever campaigns and candidates do and do not do, we must ALWAYS remember that in a democratic republic, the ultimate responsibility lies with the electorate.
That is what it means to call ourselves Americans.
Christopher says
I mostly agree with the above comment. My one nitpick would be that voting should always be referred to as a right rather than a privilege.
bob-gardner says
In an evidence based discussion, the appointment of Bolton,along with the appointment of Pompeo,would signify Trump’s intention to go to war with Iran.
That, along with the second part of Flynn’s guilty plea,would raise questions about whether it was Russia that Trump was colluding with.
Christopher says
Honestly, I’m having a hard time imagining someone who holds the views he does as a nice guy.
jconway says
I updated the post to highlight its substance which is the danger this appointment poses which was lost with the focus on Bolton’s one saving grace on LGBT service members. With SecDef Mattis now codifying the Presidential ban on trans service members as official DoD policy, it seems like even that saving grace is moot. One wonders if we will be continuing to debate that issue once the bombs start dropping on Iran and North Korea.