Donald Trump’s recent semi-hemi-demi blood and soil speech, delivered during his visit to Poland, has provoked an hilarious outpouring of “thought” on the part of the Right, everyone from the National Review’s David French to Noah Millman at the American Conservative, to name two writers whom I frequently read without extensive sniggering.
I’m not going to provide any more links, because I refuse to link to people I won’t read. French rather sportingly provides an overview of the “debate”, while Millman very largely goes off on a tangent, beating up on the Atlantic’s Peter Beinart for not being more “respectful”, I would say, of the whole “West” thing.1
Well, let Trump defend “the West”, not to mention “God”–even though I thought God’s jurisdiction was pretty much global. But I will chuckle at Trump’s touching tribute to Poland:
“For two centuries, Poland suffered constant and brutal attacks.
"But while Poland could be invaded and occupied and its borders even erased from the map, it could never be erased from history or from your hearts. In those dark days, you have lost your land, but you never lost your pride.
"So it is with true admiration I can say today, that from the farms and villages of your countryside, to the cathedrals and squares of your great cities, Poland lives, Poland prospers and Poland prevails.”
Yeah, but who invaded and oppressed Poland for two centuries? Wasn’t it “the West”? As for “God”, what was he doing when Protestant Prussia, Catholic Austria, and Orthodox Russia split the country into thirds?2 Understandably, Trump devotes much of his speech to the horrors Poland endured during World War II, delivered by both Germany and Russia. Does Trump talk much about the Katyn Forest massacre3 much with his good buddy Vladimir Putin? Does it bother Trump much that “bad” Germany is infinitely more aware, and ashamed, of its crimes against Poland than “good” Russia?
Liberal critics have understandably directed much of their wrath on Trump’s declaration that “the West” is under assault once more, though it should have some comfort to him that boundaries of “the West” have moved considerably eastwards since the Cold War. Trump’s nonsense about whether the West would have the “will to survive” was Trump at his most repulsive. The West is not in danger. And even if we were, wouldn’t Trump’s good buddies the Saudis take care of things for us? Isn’t that why we made that sweet $100 billion deal with them?
Yes, Trump was ugly, mean, deceitful, duplicitous in Poland. In other words, he was Donald. And yet so many of the right are anxious to defend him, as though he were some sort of idiot savant, or useful idiot, or, well, you know, a big stick with which to beat their enemies and gain themselves a little ink. Don’t they know that the greatest danger to the West, and its greatest disgrace, is Donald Trump?
Afterwords
If any previous president had sent the least of Donald’s repulsive tweets, there would be howls of outrage and disbelief across the poltiical spectrum. But the Right is becoming so tarred with Trump’s corruption that they are no longer able to see it, or at least no longer able to distinguish it from their own.
- I hasten to point out that Millman does not endorse Trump, finding his speech “awful” (awful as usual). But folks on the “Right” seem to find it difficult to pass up a chance to say “something” about “the West”. Resist the temptation, folks on the Right! You’ll be glad you did! ↩︎
- I would expect that life in “Austrian Poland” (aka “Galacia”) wasn’t as awful as life in either Prussian or Russian Poland, where the Catholic Church was under constant seige, but that’s only a guess. ↩︎
- After the Soviet Union claimed its “share” of Poland in 1940 the Soviets murdered about 22,000 Polish reserve officers, burying many of the bodies in mass graves in the Katyn Forest. ↩︎
