April 13, 2017

The President Is Allowed to Change His Mind

It looks like former President Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice will get a reprieve. With all the hullabaloo from President Donald Trump’s military action last week in Syria’s … do we call it Syria’s civil war or a massacre?

It looks like former President Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice will get a reprieve. With all the hullabaloo from President Donald Trump’s military action last week in Syria’s … do we call it Syria’s civil war or a massacre? … it now appears that Rice’s mishandling of surveillance is going to subside from the headlines temporarily. Well, her mishandling of surveillance on the Trump team can wait. What President Trump did last week in public was historic: He changed his mind.

How many presidents change their minds in public? Moreover, how many have changed their minds for the good? Until last week, neocons were snickering at the president because of his irenic statements about using force in foreign policy. They called him an isolationist. Voices on the Left heard his boasts about our unsurpassed military power and feared he was a hawk. What he showed late last week when he ordered a cruise missile attack on the military facilities of the Syrian butcher, Bashar Assad, was that he was a non-ideologue in action. When circumstances change, Trump will change. What he demonstrated last week is that he is not afraid to act.

Unlike former President Barack Obama, he does not draw lines in the sand and then forget about them when he has been caught up in his own bluster. Tyrants who make threats against the United States ought to remember the pictures of before and after the U.S. attack on Assad’s air force. Possibly, the smoking hulks lying in their gutted bunkers were the same attack jets that had dropped canisters of sarin gas on the defenseless citizens of Khan Shaykhun just days before.

The language President Trump used to explain his change of mind was quite eloquent. He said: “Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women, and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. … No child of God should ever suffer such horror.” Yes, he said “no child of God.” The Never Trumpians should think of these words the next time they start jabbering about our playboy president.

Yes, President Trump changed his mind. It should surprise no one who has been scrutinizing him the last couple or years. He is an America First, as they say. He likes beer and baseball and all kinds of competition. Check that first item — he does not drink. He has, however, competed in sports, business and the entertainment industry. He likes to win, but has had his share of losses. A year or so ago, after a life of highly successful business deals, he entered politics and brought with him a fresh approach to the great game of politics. As for his political values, he has demonstrated them in the Cabinet he chose and the initiatives he has pushed in his first days in office. His choice of Judge Neil Gorsuch, who now sits on the Supreme Court where the great Judge Antonin Scalia once sat, demonstrates that he is pretty much a conservative.

For almost 50 years, a counterculture has been growing and spreading across the country. One hears little about it from official Washington and the mainstream media, but the conservative counterculture has been taking root across America. We see it in state government and local school boards and local government. Now we are seeing manifestations of it in the Trump administration. I saw one such manifestation over the weekend in a huge piece about one of chief White House strategist Steve Bannon’s favorite writers, Neil Howe.

Howe has been writing for some 40 years. He began his career as an early managing editor of The American Spectator. In 1987, he wrote a featured piece in the Spectator’s 20th anniversary issue, in which he outlined thoughts that he would eventually refine for the book Bannon admires, “The Fourth Turning,” published in 1997. In Howe’s 1987 magazine piece, he wrote, “Twenty years from now we may be so burdened by demographic and economic liabilities that visions of a better future will seem practically unattainable without onerous and long-term sacrifices in both our public and private lives.” In his 1997 book, he wrote of generational cycles that America has experienced since the American Revolution. We now have entered a cycle of crisis, he writes, that will not end until 2025. Given how prescient Howe was when he laid down his 1987 thoughts, I think it would be wise to take him seriously now.

Bannon has, and I would think the president has, too. We have a population alert to the problems we face. It is the conservative counterculture around the country. Last week’s military action suggests conservatism can be effective without being ideological.

COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.