When I arrive in an Asian country, I am often met at the airport with a sign that says “Mr. Paul”. The fact that in Asia the name is often put first and the name following, for example, the Prime Minister of Japan at home called Abe Shinzo (Mushrambo Abe). Accordingly, the cab driver, who welcomes the invited to the country the Professor is quite forgivable to make a mistake when talking about these things.
However, for the President of the United States, welcoming the leader of one of our most important partners in the sphere of economy and security, this error seems inappropriate. However, that didn’t stop Trump her do — it nezvalova Prime Minister Shinzo.
Apparently, Abe did not mention it in response to President Donald.
Change? Perhaps it would change if we were talking about a single case. But this is not an isolated case. In the last three weeks we see an amazing demonstration of gross ignorance on all fronts. Worse, neither the White house nor the Congress seems not to consider it a problem. They seem to believe that competence or even basic familiarity with the issues — the helpless, and ignorance is strength.
We see it in legal matters. No wonder the jurist Benjamin WITTES (Benjamin Wittes) wrote in his widely known article that the notorious decree on refugees is an example of “malice bounded by incompetence”. In his opinion, the decree looks as though it “didn’t even show a competent lawyer” — that will almost guarantee a loss in court.
We see this in matters of national security, which the President continues to rely on the Advisor, who is not only suspiciously closely associated with the Kremlin, but also how to predpolojit receives strategic information from the ultra-right adherents of conspiracy theories.
We see this in matters of educational policy. Hearing at which the post of Minister of education approved the candidacy of Betsy DeVos (Betsy DeVos), has revealed that she is completely incompetent — even at the elementary level.
We see it in diplomatic matters. Surely no one in the state Department could not be traced to the White house, do not confuse the names of foreign leaders? Apparently, it’s too complicated: before the story of Abe in the official program of the visit of the British Prime Minister Theresa may (Theresa May) her name was printed in error.
In Economics things are quite bad. The head of the Council of economic advisers, responsible for the technical side of economic policy, will be removed from the Cabinet.
However, it does not really matter, as the Council has still not convened. Remember all these arguments about infrastructure plan for a trillion dollars? If Yes, please tell about it the White house, which never put forward any specific proposals.
However, don’t be too hard on our gleventlistener: militant incompetence, in principle, characteristic of his party. For example, the most influential Republican economists is not serious scientists are conservative (and this is not a rare occurrence), a well-known charlatans that clutter in the figures.
Or take the current panic of Republicans in the health sector. It seems that many in the party suddenly was horrified to realize that the abolition of any of the key elements of Obamacare, the means for tens of millions of people losing insurance. Any expert could a few years ago to explain how — and why — was arranged by health care reform. Moreover, many of us have tried to do it. However, the competent analyst no one was interested.
That, in essence, all of the matter. Competent lawyers could explain to Mr. Trump that the ban on the entry of Muslims into the country contrary to the Constitution. Competent scientists could tell him that global warming exists, competent economists that tax cuts do not pay off automatically competent professionals for the elections — there was no million illegal votes in the election. Competent diplomats told would be that the agreement with Iran is not pointless, and Putin for us — not the other. So down with competence!
Here arises the objection: “If they are so stupid, why did they win?” Partly the fact that the dismissive attitude of the experts — sorry, to the “so called experts” — like a fair proportion of the electorate. Intolerance was not the only dark force that determined the outcome of these elections. It greatly helped the anti-intellectualism is hostility to “elites” who believe that opinion on a particular issue must be as a result of his careful study and reflection on him.
Moreover, to conduct the election campaign — not the same thing as to govern the country. This is especially true when you consider that the press in this campaign a lot more attention to alleged scandals involving opponents of Mr. trump than the real political issues together.
Now, however, the winners need to do something real — and suddenly it turned out that the new government has no idea how to act.
This helplessness has its positive side. Incompetence, indeed, partly limits the malice. I mean not only court defeat on the issue of immigration. The ignorance of the Republicans led to salvation for millions of people to the failure of the blitzkrieg against Obamacare. Falling ratings, Mr. trump can slow down our movement to autocracy.
However, the incompetence of the authorities can not scare. We have got the intellectual vacuum at the top, and the country will inevitably face a crisis. Such a situation is dangerous, very dangerous.
