January 14, 2025

The Politics of Success

As with a California wildfire, job one is always fixing the problem, not finding culprits.

In less than one week, Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, capping the most astonishing political comeback in American history. In a very real sense, it was more than a political comeback — for Trump, it was a renaissance.

As we’ve all observed for years, Trump is a mass producer of provocative sound bites. In my view, the most compelling of these during his 2024 presidential campaign was his response to frequent questions about his plans, should he be reelected, for retribution against his political enemies. For a man who has been the target of concerted efforts to jail him, to bankrupt him, to keep him off the ballot, along with two assassination attempts and endless assertions that he will be the next Adolf Hitler, the idea of retribution is probably quite tempting.

But Trump’s oft-repeated response to that question is refreshingly constructive. He claims no intent to retaliate, instead stating that “the best retribution is success.”

Perfect. In fact, I’d urge Mr. Trump and his advisors to take that concept to the next level. By far, his most effective political strategy on all-important matters should be success in achieving what he has promised. When you get right down to it, he won the election precisely for that reason; his predecessor’s actions and policies had failed dismally, and the electorate expects him to do better, much better. That should be his sole focus.

This is a critically important time for Trump and his upcoming presidency. Many who voted to take the keys away from the Democrats remain uneasy about the man they elected. In general, Trump’s post-election performance has been extraordinary: boundless energy, vision, enthusiasm, proactive interaction with foreign and domestic leaders, and open communication with the public on a level we have not seen for four years. But then, on occasion, the old, boorish Trump makes an appearance.

A current case in point is the horrific fires in and around Los Angeles. The human toll is staggering — a death toll still rising, hundreds of thousands of people evacuated, entire neighborhoods destroyed, and thousands of homes and businesses burned to the ground.

Clearly, local, city, and state authorities were not adequately prepared for a challenge of that magnitude. There’s still much to be learned from this disaster, and there will surely be an in-depth examination of all aspects going forward. Unfortunately, much of the media coverage from the Right has been shrill, critical, and sharply political. At this point, beating back the fires and dealing with the ongoing human crisis is the consuming task of those in charge. Valid or not, now is not the time for throwing rocks — it’s not helpful.

President-elect Trump is wading in with typical gusto, but he is hitting the wrong notes. Nothing is to be gained by Trump’s pointing out obvious failings, declaring California Governor Gavin Newsom to be the “worst governor in the nation,” and certainly not by smearing Newsom with one of his typically sophomoric names.

As an aside, I have strong feelings and great empathy for those on the front line in fire-ravaged California based on personal experience. In March 1979, I was called upon to be part of the emergency response team dealing with the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. The TMI accident was the first of its kind in the world and very severe; our company, the plant owner, had not expected it, and we were unprepared.

Our emergency response actions continued for months — it was an intensely demanding job, all conducted 24/7 against a background din of incessant criticism by anti-nuclear activists and media. In those days, I developed a healthy dislike for know-it-all media commentators who suddenly became nuclear experts. And I still grind my teeth when I recall one particular piece of graffiti that cropped up somewhere in the neighboring town: “TMI = Too Many Idiots.”

When the dust settled, we were left with one destroyed billion-dollar nuclear plant and a nuclear industry derailed for decades. But our plant’s containment and safety systems had worked — the accident had harmed no one, on-site or off — so maybe we idiots didn’t get it all wrong. Today, our nation is still paying the price for hastily backing away from safe, clean nuclear energy, partly because of unfounded public opposition. Knee-jerk reactions, then and now, often are wrong.

On the matter of the Los Angeles wildfires, Trump should take the high road, steer clear of California politics, promise full support to Californians when he takes office, and, in the meantime, inject some much-needed perspective into the disaster the rest of the country has been watching.

For example, the horrific wildfires are a dramatic reminder that the most effective defense against climate change is to find ways to accommodate and adapt to the climate-caused challenges sure to come. Wholesale transition to electric vehicles, in California or across the nation, will produce little if any detectable effect on the earth’s climate in our lifetime.

Yes, clean and sustainable energy production is a worthy goal, and our nation is making significant progress in that direction. But let’s not kid ourselves into expecting that the earth’s climate — which has been changing constantly — will suddenly take a break. On the contrary, there is Mother Nature’s rude reminder of our limitations. Last week, years of painful efforts to minimize our atmospheric carbon footprint were erased in a heartbeat by the massive uncontrolled combustion of buildings and landscapes in California.

The Los Angeles fires also serve as a brutal reminder that water is the prime tool — often the only one — for firefighting. Water management is, therefore, critical in our efforts to address the consequences of climate change and must take priority over otherwise noble goals, such as protecting obscure endangered wildlife species.

On an entirely different note, we’ll never know to what degree DEI hiring practices may have hampered LA’s firefighting efforts. But surely we can now agree that for critical public service positions (and, by the way, including our military), the only hiring criteria that always matters is capability to do the job.

The notion that successful achievement is the key component of political success also applies to other matters of central importance, such as illegal immigration, the economy, energy independence, and building a stronger military in this dangerous world. These are the matters on the minds of the American public. Those who voted for Donald Trump and even those who did not want to see him take on those issues with the commonsense approaches that he has advocated.

Like dealing with out-of-control wildfires, success will not come easily in any of these areas. But that’s why we hired Donald Trump — not to throw shade at the struggling California governor, but to succeed in those critical areas.

Mr. Trump, don’t waste your time with blame. Just fix the problems. As the old saying goes, nothing succeeds like success.

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