After reading Gene Lyons’ “Hey MAGA Folks, Can You Define ‘Great’?” I offer a few rebuttal comments.
I just finished reading “Call Sign Chaos” by retired Gen. James Mattis, secretary of defense under former President Donald Trump, and Bing West. A good book, interesting reading. The general topic was LEARNING TO LEAD.
Mattis addressed what he learned from a lot of Vietnam War veterans. He states “living in history builds your own shock absorbers because you’ll learn that there are lots of old solutions to new problems. If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate — you can’t coach and you can’t lead. History lights the often-dark path ahead; even if it’s a dim light, it’s better than none.”
He went on to list more than 60 books he has read, from Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom,” Henry Kissinger’s “Diplomacy” and “World Order,” Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Lesson of History” to Paul Kennedy’s “The Rise and Fall of Great Powers.”
Perhaps if the current president had ever read some of this history he would have acted differently upon assuming the Oval Office. He would NOT have immediately started signing executive orders rescinding all of Trump’s policies. Had President Joe Biden simply plagiarized the successful Trump agenda, there would have followed no gas price price/energy crisis, no border disaster (with its fentanyl crisis), no hyperinflation, no costly and disastrous flight from Afghanistan, maybe not even a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Seems that MAGA is just going back to where we were before Old Joe took over.
Ken Gerg, Emporium
