"Halt Die Ohren Steif" & Other Reminders

RAGE IS SAD.  The new book by Bob Woodward -- aka "one of the Watergate guys" who documented President Richard Nixon's crimes back in the 1970s -- isn't so much news as it is an alarm.  It immediately reminded me of my father's advice when I left for the Army in 1971: " Halt die Ohren Steif,"  he said, using a German idiom for staying alert and keeping spirits up. You need to see what's coming.

Woodward's written about US Presidents for decades and knows one when he meets one.  Unlike all the others, Donald Trump is not one, he writes, a man who's shown himself to be unfit for the Presidency and dangerous for the country.  This from an ex-Navy man, lifelong Republican, and eminent reporter who had 18 interviews with Mr. Trump, most of which were recorded word for word.  

His book Rage made me sad and mad at the same time.  But mostly sad because it is hard to see how Americans can come together to form a more perfect union when we are led by a person of such deceit and incompetence.  He's not like the guy at the sports bar bragging about this and that trying to show how smart and tough he is.  He's the leader of the United States of America, yet couldn't even get to first base with all the softball questions Woodward threw at him. 

Instead, we hear a man whose principles boil down to blaming others for his mistakes, taking credit for things he did not do, and lying to achieve his aims.  He is charmed when ruthless North Korean dictator Kim refers to him as "Your Excellency" in a series of "love letters", and he is elated with all the perks of a presidency, right down to "doing whatever I want" when he wants.  No checks and balances in his world. 

Rage is Woodward's second book on the Trump Presidency, the first being called Fear.  A thread running through both -- alongside the disturbing picture of a dysfunctional president --  is the reduction of many decisions to money.    Mr. Trump rants that we are being played for suckers in our support of NATO in Europe, and South Korea in Asia, ignoring security aspects, and raves about tax cuts for the richest of Americans that place an even heavier financial burden on our country's debt.  He rails against "cheating" China while his flailing administration has no option but to buy masks and medical supplies from it.   

Now on the eve of a national election, the promises and threats become more urgent.  We are told there's not only a vaccine coming soon against the Covid virus -- which Trump still ashamedly downplays despite nearly 200,000 deaths --  but also a rushed Supreme Court nominee to interpret justice for the next half century.  Not to forget warnings that we are headed for a rigged election and national "insurrection" unless he wins.  

The gambits, threats and propaganda might work. For awhile. 

They did in 1972.  In late October, leaders headlined that "peace is at hand" in Vietnam even though soldiers like me at the Pentagon knew it wasn't.  Two weeks later in November, Nixon won reelection in a landslide.  He lasted until the summer of 1974 when he was forced to resign by his own Republican party.  Peace did not come, the war raged on, not ending until the spring of 1975.  

Weeks later I left the Army, a bit older, a little wiser. I learned my father's words rang true back then, just as they do now.