President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Societies built on the idea that perfection is the only acceptable standard for leaders tend to wind up with the worst of the worst in charge in very short order.

 

Look I'm not going to apologize for Gen. Milley's appearance with fatf*ck but I agree let's not pretend everyone should be perfect. What's more important is whether one error is consistent with their true self.

Milley's address here is more important to me than what happened in that appearance. I love how he said he's read Mao, Marx, Lenin, "that doesn't make me a communist." That's a wide view, not a narrow minded view. Completely dismissing people out of hand for an error in judgment leads to narrow minded thinking IMHO. As I experienced recently, taking the time to talk to someone with opposing viewpoints, really taking the time shows that notwithstanding some differences of opinion there are real connections to be made and that may be more rewarding than dismissing them.

 

I love what Milley says here, and he is 100% correct. I would have loved it more if he would have called out Gaetz for being a frat boy punk who has never served.
But, if Milley was an honorable man, he would have thrown himself on his sword the very afternoon of the photo op and shouted from the mountain top exactly why he was doing so.

 

I have no clue what the circumstances were behind that. Was he already at the White House on some other business? I'm sure he had some idea Trump was up to no good, but he's an institutionalist who believes in the chain of command. Giving him a full pass is too much, but you should be somewhat lenient. Also I can't remember the last time an Army chief of staff was relieved.

And who knows what's in the three-star ranks now and if any of them are as batshit as Mike Flynn.

 

I don't know about the ranks, and you are correct; his hand was forced by the chain of command. That doesn't matter. Those stars are dense and carry a lot of weight. Heavy rests the head that wears the crown and all that. From a military perspective, there is no leniency at his rank. Whatever happens is on him. If a recruit pisses his bed on the first day of boot camp, it happened on Milley's watch.
Milley, Mattis, Kelly, none of them are honorable men from a military perspective.

 

Mattis and Kelly served as civilians and thus must be judged by the, shall we say, laxer standards of plain old politics.

 

Nope. There is no such thing as an ex-Marine, or so they say.

 

Bullshit. One mistake disqualifies him from being an honorable man? That is complete and utter bullshit, exactly the type of narrow-minded thinking that we tend to mock from Trumpists.

 

Mao? Socrates? Lenin?

 

Talking to this about tonight with my dad I reflected back when I took “Asian American Studies” in college. I learned about the circumstances and experiences of my grandfathers when they came in early 1900’s from China.

I learned to appreciate what they faced. I didn’t come out off this classes saying “white people suck and they were privileged and let’s ask for reparations!!” My god how about just listening for one second and not jumping to the conclusion they’re attacking you?

 

Missed Aaron Rupar on here.