There are grumbling among the ‘right’ about Trump’s demotion of Bannon and intervention in Syria.
Lion: This is bad news for Trumpism. This could be the beginning of a bunch of establishment Republican types taking over the administration steering wheel.
Vox: No one actually gives a damn about Syrian children, except that they not be permitted to reside in the West. It’s unfortunate that the God-Emperor appears – appears – be falling increasingly under the sway of the Washington wormtongues whispering about being presidential in his ears.
Neocons Beat War Drums For Intervention In Syria
[1]
Vox Day again: Blunder or complete debacle?
Regardless, it’s important to keep in mind that the God-Emperor always makes mistakes. He always bumbles around like a bull in a china shop in any new or complicated situation. But usually, he learns from them. Usually, when one horn of his A/B testing fails, he abandons that strategy.
NY Times: Trump’s Far-Right Supporters Turn on Him Over Syria Strike
Some of President Trump’s most ardent campaign supporters were among his most vocal opponents on Thursday after he ordered the missile strike against Syria, charging him with breaking his promise to keep the United States out of another conflict in the Middle East.
Hmm…not too surprised, as I predicted neocon interests would hijack the administration. From the post Trump and Neocons:
Neoconservatism and neoliberalism succeed because they are amorphous, adaptable, and can latch onto or hijack any preexisting ideology or movement. Most governments, given enough time, will resemble something similar to neoconservatism or neoliberalism…
Let’s go back to Trump’s February speech to Congress, which everyone on the right lauded but missed the part about Trump’s pledge for increased defense spending (I didn’t, because I read the transcript).
Trump is a man of his word…he promised after winning and during the campaign more defense spending (although it’s understandable if a lot of people missed that part). Where is the money going to go? To neocon defense interests, obviously.
But to play devil’s advocate a bit, there is another side to this Syria story, which is that Trump can’t just be totally indifferent to Assad gassing his own people [2], because that, too, would make Trump look bad. Trump has to do something. These strikes may be more of a symbolic gesture, with no further escalation planned, similar to Clinton’s 1998 air attack on Iraq and the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
But even if Trump falters, he emboldens ‘our’ cause and narrative, which is bigger than him, and that is the real value of Trump.
Consider the Daily Mail…just viewing the front page once is enough to lose all faith in humanity. There are constant stories about death and terrorism. But the Daily Mail is a uk newspaper, and the comments in those stories express the fears and frustrations of a people who are on the front lines of literal culture war between Europeans and Muslims, and whose leadership is too powerless and or inept to do anything about this invasion. And that’s why so many people are turning to the alt-right. That’s why 4chan, pol, frog twitter, and alternative right-wing media are gaining so much momentum, because politicians have given up and no longer represent the will of the people.
Related: The Trump Disillusionment?
[1] But neocons are consequentialist to a fault, which is how they justify interventionism. The rationale being, although Syria’s problems don’t directly and immediately affect America, making the world safer benefits American interests in the long-term, even if policing the world costs lives and money.
[2] Although Ron Paul calls it a false flag