There is no magic moment when democracies seize up and become their darker alter egos. Death usually comes from a thousand cuts – a lie here, an arrest there, maybe bogus legislation that codifies the nullification of civil protections. It’s left to future historians to perform the autopsy and better pinpoint when freedom died.
Historians in the 22nd century, if Earth is still a going concern, may settle on this week’s duplicitous shuttle diplomacy mission of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia and Turkey as a point-of-no-return moment when our now suddenly faltering republic spit out the bit. Wretchedly impotent and sinisterly cooperative, America’s chief diplomat was more about smiling photo ops than demanding answers as to how a prominent journalist, employed by a US flagship newspaper, ended up hacked to bits after entering the Saudi Embassy in Turkey.
If anybody actually believed Pompeo was dispatched for any other reason than the optics necessary to satisfy our President’s empty promises to seek justice, his embarrassing deference to both of his hosts surely disappointed. Of course, Trump answers only to his wretched core, and their concern about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi and whether it should lead to sanctions against his killers can be measured with an official MAGA golf tee.
Authoritarian regimes are distinguished by their predictability. Understand where the money leads, or how the strong man or junta benefits, and one can be certain on where the government will come down on any question at hand. As Trumpism lurches along, US policy grows more obvious by the day. Our President affords no surprises when confronting the world we used to lead. Figure out the ugliest, most self-serving direction, and it’s a certainty he’s already heading that way, feints and flat out lies aside.
Trump feels far more affinity for reactionary tyrants than thoughtful democrats because they think like he does. By his warped calculus, taking the trouble and ordering Pompeo to go fetch was actually a concession, anything more would be outright weakness. Expect increasingly full-throated protestations of Saudi innocence as the evidence becomes more damning and the Hill more demanding. Regardless, generations of American good faith as a patron of the free press, and an advocate of courageous reporters willing to risk all to uncover truth or criticize tyranny, is evaporating. Forget a wink and a nod, this is shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue.
Audio leaked by Turkey paints a gruesome indictment of the Saudi Government. Agents apparently dispatched by Riyadh laid in wait for the Washington Post reporter and literally dismembered him. It’s hard to imagine any crime more at odds with the values we have been selling, at least until January, 2017. Even if Trump did come out with some rote statement denouncing the murder, who’d take him seriously? But that hypothetical seems less and less likely in the wake of Pompeo’s love fest. Trump appears prepared to pull a Putin and wait for things to blow over. Does anybody really believe the GOP won’t let him get away with that? Nobody wants to become a part of the nihilist-in-chief’s MAGA rally monologues… better to simply let dismembered journalists lie.
The President says he won’t deploy the FBI to investigate because, after all, Khashoggi was only a “resident”, forget the fact that his now fatherless children are citizens, an inconvenient technicality nefarious West Wing Iagos like Stephen Miller are surely looking to abolish. Truth is at odds with everything Trump. The Saudis feted him early on, making clear they would play ball under any rules he decided so long as their seat was near the head of the table. The Administration has been a partner in their merciless campaign in Yemen, and emerging rock star autocrat MBS is said to be Jared Kushner’s bestest Muslim buddy. Any expectation Trump will hold Riyadh to account is fantasy. Again, it’s all just become so predictable.
There is a lot of bipartisan noise for sanctions that sting against Saudi Arabia like canceled weapons agreements, and meaningful economic and political pain. Pompeo’s stupid pet tricks make clear Trump will be having none of it, come what may.
“What have you done for me lately” has always been our President’s mantra; his memory is minuscule and gratitude is a concept he is incapable of embracing. Now the world stands ready to turn his frailties right back on us. Who we are right now, how ugly we’ve become in just less than two years is eclipsing generations of steadfast international leadership and at least the presumption of being an honest broker and voice for shared democratic values. Our brand is being destroyed at a breathtaking pace, replaced by scorn and disdain previously reserved for the regimes whose crimes we now enthusiastically help cover up. Ruinous! BC