It’s a rare thing when I can see a direct connection between the folk wisdom of Afghanistan and current events in the US. Today, however, something occurred to me that did just that. An old adage I often heard in Afghanistan seems to fit perfectly into current US events. Let me explain.
The Afghans like to say that no likes to think their yogurt is sour. Everyone wants to think they are just marvelous at whatever they do and the current President is no different.
Discussion rages regarding whether or not President of the United States will officially acknowledge the growing evidence that the Russians, whether by “independent patriots” or a government sanctioned effort, did hack into the election system in some way. What I seldom hear discussed is the obvious reason he will probably never truly weigh in on that topic. ……it would be an admission that his yogurt is sour.
If the President were to admit what US Intelligence Agencies contend, he would also be admitting that his precarious delusions about his great November win are just that: precarious delusions. He would have to admit that his blustering, cut throat New York real estate modus operandum just might not have been what got him to the top. He might have to take a realistic look at this presidency and he would have to admit that he, too, is not immune from pit falls and the disappointing realizations of his limitations.
The President has lived a life of bullying and bravado, moving against antagonists with an almost Stalin-like ferocity. It worked for him so well in the arena of New York real estate, where crustiness is a virtue. It is not so useful within the hallowed halls of the White House.
This propensity to crudeness has also allowed him to have a unique insight into the current fear and paranoia that has taken hold in the country. He has played that negativity like a Stradivarius, and the often fearful, confused and ill-informed segments of the population who have followed him have done so with messianic fervor. They want to believe him because what he says is exactly what they want to hear. He is not leading; he is pandering to his base. Real leaders change bad attitudes, not entrench them.
The tragedy here is that in doing so, he has also attempted to devalue our institutions. His strategy seems to be to plant mistrust in the intelligence community, to engender fear that a “deep state” exists that is as Machiavellian as a spy thriller. In that arena, nothing is sure, and nothing is sacred. Everything he does in that area to gratify his own agenda chips away at the great foundations of the Republic we all cherish. It is beyond dangerous. it is suicidal. It is also something for which we as a nation may have to pay a high price.
Why has he done all of this? Perhaps it is because down deep he knows that his yogurt is sour,
