"A warrior is always engaged in a life-or-death struggle for Peace." – Morihei Ueshiba
In my first column on Trump-as-warrior, I concluded that he is "egotistical, over the top at times, and less soft and sentimental than some would like, but I think he would do pretty well in a closed conference room with Putin or Kim. They would respect him but not necessarily like him. These are the ways of warrior males who have ruled the world from the beginning of time."
In a subsequent column, I emphasized his often brash and intimidating masculine style and contrasted it with the legions of male eunuchs and gender-uncertain girly-men who walk in lock step with the Democratic "Mommy Party." America came so close to becoming a gigantic harem led by Hillary the Great. With her joyous rule, America would be one big safe zone where all would be happy and fulfilled – that is, until nasty foreign meanies with nukes spoiled the party. Can we even imagine Hillary in a closed-door conference going head-to-head with Putin or Kim?
Every band, tribe, or nation must have a complement of warriors to protect from hostile incursions that inevitably come – whether it be from the Huns, Goths, Vandals, Nazis, or, more recently, ISIS barbarians on the world scene or antifa on our soil. We Americans are so spoiled, overconfident, feminized and dedicated to the highest Quality of Life and domestic tranquility that national defense is a mere abstraction that only conservatives think about. This kind of thinking is a true worldwide catastrophe in the making.
The warrior is a truly different kind of being who does dangerous, highly independent and outrageous things a common soldier would never do. A warrior may break from discipline, even disobey orders, and fight in his own often violent and brutal way. But potential enemies have them on their side, and our side must have them, too – for obvious reasons.
A defining characteristic of the warrior is a disrespect for most everything except other warriors more or less at their level of class and competence. These other warriors may be personal combatants (like Joe Louis and Max Schmeling) or those of a belligerent foreign country, but there is still a grudging respect tempered with some concern as to whether "he can possibly take me or not."
A closed-door meeting with a true and proven member of the warrior class like Vladimir Putin is no place for a snippy and defensive Hillary, a weak and ingratiating Obama, girly-boys and girly-girls in the media, or for posturing, faux conservative, deep state Republicans who never saw a fight they could not lightly step away from. The way Republicans let downright crazy Democrats interrupt and shout obscenities during the Strzok hearing was cowardly and inexcusable, but at least one warrior male – Rep. Louie Gohmert – got a few good punches in.
Pudgy rocket-man Kim Jong-un is not a member of the warrior class, but an hereditary head of state who did nothing to earn his power and position other than be the son of the former Supreme Leader Kim ll-sung. Kim is merely a warrior wannabe who I believe is both intimidated and fascinated (and perhaps manageable) by both Putin and Trump. This is a guy who worships Dennis Rodman, and that puts him in a category quite below world-class warrior.
Now it seems that almost everyone – Democrat and Republican alike – are excoriating Trump for not starting a World War III nuclear holocaust over Russian incursions into the 2016 election, which, according to Mueller himself, had no substantive effect on the OUTCOME.
I am very disappointed at so-called conservatives – on Fox and elsewhere – who say Trump failed in some way by not following the snippy, whiney and girlish walk-out-of-the-room-in-a-huff strategy of the Democrats. Too bad these wise and courageous critics were not at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin – they could have started World War III before World War II was even finished!
As a college professor, I observed many years ago that conservatives favor outcomes over process and liberals process over outcomes. Conservatives want to know "what have you accomplished and achieved in your life?" whereas liberals ask "what are your goals and how hard are you working to achieve them?" Liberal Margaret Paul shows us how to focus on process rather than outcome.
Outcomes allow for failure, but all get prizes within a process of striving. In government, conservatives want laws and programs that work, whereas liberals favor programs that appear sensitive to needs and so on. Conservatives say be legal but get the job done, whereas liberals live in a massive system of etiquette called political correctness that finds behavioral and intentional "process errors" everywhere. The possibilities are infinite – conservatives can always be found guilty of something in "process world."
Thus, forget that Trump may be forming the outcome of a personal and workable alliance with the most powerful foreign warrior king in the world – and focus instead on process niceties and sensitivities regarding Mueller's investigation, the FBI and so on. Focus instead on this gotcha moment where Mueller releases his indictments one day before the Helsinki conference, thereby adding an unnecessary parameter of confusion to an already demanding and ponderous affair. Take joy in the fact that our president was "handicapped" this way.
Trump has overcome small minds many times before, and I think he will prevail here as well. It will be perhaps months and even years before we know the full outcome of the Helsinki summit. By then, one thing is for sure – no one will be talking about Robert Mueller's investigation or the Moscow 12.