City on a hill.

So, last night while I was on break at work, I saw this. It's funny, that the first thing that popped into my head was some Bible verses, being that I'm not exactly religious, but that's what happened. I can't say with any certainty what Tucker Carlson believes about anything except that he seems to think being smarmy and obnoxious is generally a good thing. But in any case, I (being a former Christian, former conservative and fairly well-versed in how Republicans being those things for a lot of years related to U.S. foreign policy...it's an understatement to say I was shocked.

This is what I was taught, this right here:

 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

~Matthew 5:43-48

You got that?

As a former conservative Christian, I'm beginning to wonder what happened to basic familiarity with the Word (not to mention a baseline sense of morality) that people would even say shit like "It's not our job to stand up for other people." Oh hell yes, it is.

My second response was to post "Tell that to all the American soldiers who died liberating Europe from the Nazis, or who died in the jungles of Vietnam standing up for those who could not or would not stand up for themselves, you son of a bitch" directly as a reply to the post on Tucker Carlson's Twitter feed.

I grew up hearing the stories of my grandfathers and other veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. I grew up not only aware of and attentive to (because it was on the news every day) the reality of the Cold War and all the international engagements of the postwar liberal democratic order of things that we ourselves had set up...but I had come of age, was politically active and aware and paid attention (because I had to, as they directly affected my job and life at the time) and was there for all the bumps and bruises of the 1990's and particularly the Clinton years when all the dust settled from all the stuff I grew up watching on TV as a kid. 

In other words, you're damned right that America exists to protect the citizens of other nations. Why else did we found, lead, and in the long-term remain a member of NATO or the United Nations? No, we haven't always done a good job, but in general, we step up more often than we don't. We don't always do things the right way, and we are often too quick to use force...but you can't even do that effectively anymore without international engagement.

More to the point, international engagement generally depends on the principle that everybody at least thinks that that Man Behind the Curtain knows what in the hell he's doing.

Trump blows the cover off of that idea on a daily basis. Take for example his reference to countries populated primarily by Black and Brown people as "Shithole" countries. Now, that there's some level of racism at work here ought to be obvious, and the various Republican denials of this are ridiculous, and the fact that the Senate is apparently holding hearings about this (while necessary) is equally ridiculous because it never should have been said in the first place. Needless to say, this is not going over well in Africa, or in Haiti, or in Latin America...but it went over big with Trump's base of ignorant, racist imbeciles...which is presumably why he said it. 

Let us not forget that current Republican policies are absolutely aimed at turning the United States of America into a Third World shit hole, because theoretically that will reduce the tax burden on the rich...though I'd argue that it'd also greatly reduce their power, their personal safety, and very much also the amount of protection they have. It's hard for a third world nation to maintain even a tiny percentage of the advanced military capabilities that the United States Armed Forces has...let alone the education and social support needed to produce people who can become the soldiers that use those capabilities properly, much less effectively.

Leaving aside the fact that the President seems to be openly striving to only be popular with idiots and racists, where the rubber meets the road is that I've personally gotten an earful about this from people that I know who live in other countries.

Not exactly how I want to spend my day, but I'm not going to ignore people or their entirely legitimate feelings and opinions about an issue just because it's inconvenient. Reality by its very nature is inconvenient and if that wasn't the case, then alcohol and drugs wouldn't be so popular, would they?

We all live in a global society, whether we want to or not. The world does not ask if you like it before you are born into it and no amount of ignoring that, or pretending it doesn't exist or small-pondism will ever make that fact go away. You can resent the hell out of all the "Made in China" crap that Wal-Mart sells, but the reason they can sell it and you can afford it is because it's cheaper due to lower labor costs over there. 

The thing is, there will come a day when those Chinese workers stand up and demand better working conditions, higher wages, and that their government live up to the philosophy it claims to follow.

At that point, it'll be better for everybody if we've kept the ball rolling on progress and worked to remedy the inequality and other social problems that plague our own society...because the Chinese, or the Russians or any other actors on the international stage can point to our behavior either to condemn us or to justify their own actions, right or wrong. America electing a boorish, lying, tacky rich racist pig of a President probably is not going to help with that.

We don't stand up for others, or treat other nations or people with respect because it's convenient or popular or profitable at the time. We do it because it's the right thing to do and because (for most of my life anyway) we've followed a policy of enlightened self-interest.

The rest of the world is never going to let us live this crap down, and well they should not.

What happened to us, and to American conservatives in particular, that we have forgotten who we were, in favor of such insular and bitter visions? 

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

~Matthew 5:14-16

Do you know who else used Matthew chapter five and the vision of America as a "City on a hill" as a guiding light? Ronald Wilson Reagan, that's who.

Tucker Carlson ain't fit to hold Reagan's hat while he takes a leak.

The hell with these fucking people, and the hell with their small-minded selfishness.