♫ He said, “Fuck this!” and “Fuck that!”
And this guy’s the diplomat ♫
— The Tragically Hip, “It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night,” In Between Evolution
Famous Prussian Otto von Bismarck formulated the foreign policy principle of Realpolitik, a largely ideology-free pursuit of the nation’s best interest.
Infamous grandson of a Prussian economic refugee to the United States Donald Trump this past week perfected the principle of Scheissepolitik, a purely ideological pursuit of no one’s best interest — with racism colored by xenophobia and Islamophobia standing as the ideology. Fresh off forcing Pakistan into a military marriage of convenience with China, Trump, alternately without the knowledge of senior administration officials and against all solicited advice, alienated and infuriated the populations and governments of the following countries:
- All of Africa
- El Salvador (twice)
- Haiti
- Iran (see JCPOA)
- Mexico
- Nigeria (separately)
- Normay [sic]
- Panama**
- United Kingdom
An easy-to-raise-your-gorge-to summary of Trump’s napalming of foreign relations appears in Slate.
Bur consider Mexico, long the target of Trump’s most hateful and ignorant rhetoric.*** In a barely reported move, the U.S. State Department added the states of Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero and Tamaulipas to its “Do Not Travel” list.
Yes, drug cartel violence continues to hit those places hard. Functional U.S. governments have addressed the problem by cooperating with Mexican officials to minimize risks to tourists and businesspeople. Trump’s people consider cooperación an alien concept.
Now, to cast a wider eye to the quoted song’s title, consider, too, that Trump actually had the opportunity to enjoy a Nashville night this past Monday afternoon. Tasked only with playing easy D and proving his sanity and stability by touting deregulation to attendees of the American Farm Bureau annual meeting, Trump failed to rebound from any of the critical blows dealt by Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury. Trump predictably went off the rails, lying about NAFTA, demanding a standing ovation, and telling listeners they should thank him for his giving them the chance to vote for him. Which, one could conclude, indicates that Trump does travel in his addled narcissist’s brain to Music City USA multiple times each day.
Lay on Politicos, and danged be he, her, or nonbinary who cries “Enough!”
++++
n.b. The internet tells Uvular that this song protests W-era American jingoism and mocks country music fans. Go figure. Really, go: http://www.hipmuseum.com/nashville.html
*The Word 2016 spellchecker recognizes “Scheissepolitik“ as an actual English-language term. Wonders cease.
**The U.S. ambassador resigned, which did not directly berate or derogate any Panamanians but did show that recklessly hurling invective can make it impossible to maintain normal relations with even America’s staunchest allies.
**And where Uvular’s niece serves as a senior consular official at a post outside of the capital.
