Dan Rather took to Facebook today with an ominous warning about the dangerous and deliberate deterioration of the U.S. Department of State under President Trump and his diplomatically inexperienced and organizationally destructive Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. So eloquently did Rather state his case that it would be shameful not to repost his comments in their entirety.
I try to stay steady. I try to remain calm. But of all the things stuck in my craw these surreal days, the willful and deliberate decimation of the United States Department of State by President Trump and his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a turn of events that is both bewildering and so obviously dangerous that it begs for reason in an age already plagued by a striking lack of reason.
This is an attack on the very health and security of the United States. It undermines our political, cultural, economic, and moral power around the globe. Yes our military forces are important and yes the aircraft carriers and fleets of tanks and airplanes are impressive. And yes the courage and dedication of our fighting men and women are impressive. But so too is the courage and dedication of our diplomatic corp who wield words and the power of persuasion to further our national interests, along with the aspirations of peace and justice. Their budget is but a fraction of our defense budget, but dollar for dollar they do more than almost anyone I can think of to make America what it has been, what it is, and what I believe we hope it to be.
There should be a bipartisan outcry against this undermining of American values. We have had strong diplomats from across the political spectrum. And as the world becomes ever-more complicated and difficult to navigate, we need leadership not empty rhetoric.
Make no mistake, our allies are watching with great unease. And our adversaries are salivating at our shortsightedness, and frankly, stupidity.
Rather’s compelling argument comes at a time when so many aspects of life as we’ve known it are under attack by the Trump administration that it has become difficult to keep track of the latest outrage. Besides allowing the State Department to implode from within, the president has appointed people whose aim it is to dismantle, destroy, and neutralize the very agencies they are assigned to run.
Scott Pruitt is eviscerating the Environmental Protection Agency; Betsy Devos is dumbing down the Department of Education; Jeff Sessions is reversing decades of progress at the Justice Department; Ryan Zinke is removing federal parkland from protection and auctioning off mining rights at the Department of the Interior; Wilbur Ross is covering up his ownership of Russia connected businesses at the Department of Commerce. The list goes on and only goes to prove that this Republican administration is more interested in destroying the federal government than actually running it.
President Bush once made reference to America’s enemies as an “axis of evil”, referring to nations bent on destroying America, its values, and our way of life. Under the Trump administration, it appears as if the new “axis of evil” has actually taken over the country from within and now controls the reins of government command.
Hopefully, the cogent analysis of a veteran news anchor like Dan Rather will be heeded and the country will begin to take action to stop the destruction of what we have built thus far.
