Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Donny, You're Out Of Your Element

The collapse of the North Korea summit is perhaps the most predictable thing that has happened in politics since Trump got inaugurated.  His negotiation style is entirely that of a real estate guy.  Take it or leave it.  The problem, of course, is that unlike a two bedroom apartment, there are no other buyers waiting to potentially buy it if the first buyer falls apart.  If you don't sell that unit, someone else will.

In diplomacy, there is no fallback buyer.  Trump - being stupid, incurious and hidebound - was never going to learn this.  Like so much of his presidency, it a failure born of his own limitations. 

There will be more.

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