The effects of restructuring the government with a crowbar and jackhammer are tumultuous, akin to feeling as if we are trapped riding on a roller coaster with the wheels teetering and about to fly off.
It is far easier to break and destroy something wholesale than to preserve what works strategically, reform what doesn’t, and refine what needs to be fixed.
Based on polls, some people joyfully embrace this upheaval as long overdue and is a good thing. Time, and history, will decide that.
As there seems to be no loyal opposition to this administration, it must fall to the media to offer guidance and caution, and to raise objection.
The media is the only bulwark remaining, even as it comes under assault.
Take into consideration two recent foreign policy ideas: reclaiming the Panama Canal and the resettlement of Gaza.
Our starting point? Remember George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Take the assertion that the U.S. must reclaim its Panama Canal. First, it is not ours. It never was. We built and managed it, but it was not owned.
While beating up Panama is a wonderful political rallying cry affirming North American superiority, remember the Panamanians threw out the United States Army in nationalist anti-imperialist and anti-American riots.
History recorded that. You can look it up.
And we think they are going to welcome us back? In what universe? Maybe some file footage of those pitched battles between Panamanians and the U.S. military would be worth replaying as a reminder of reality?
Two other salient facts ought to be reported. First, the U.S. built, trained, and equipped the Panamanian armed forces (army, navy & air force) with highly sophisticated weapons. What would a war cost in terms of lives and resources – theirs and ours? And what would a war with a nation in the Southern Hemisphere portend for our allies? And enemies?
Second, just imagine the impossible if the U.S. prevailed? How would the United States preserve and protect the hundreds of miles of waterways, roads, access points, and territory? Have we already forgotten how difficult it was to govern our recent military conquests in the Middle East? And our failures?
And then there’s Gaza.
Even apart from the mounting global outrage over this idea, its proposed cost and the unrealistic, Herculean challenge of moving an entire nation – there is history here too to offer guidance. For instance, the Partition of India in 1947 is worth recalling, as was its death roll, estimated at about 2 million lives lost. History recorded that too. You can look it up.
And recent expressions of Pax Americana throughout the world have been met with armed resistance, political upheaval, unrivaled financial losses, and ultimately failure.
And there’s even a suggestion to try this again? That it might work, now?
Look – these ideas seem aimed for headlines in a news cycle. They are trial balloons for an adoring crowd on social media.
The media has a responsibility not just to report today’s news but to offer context and perspective, especially to an audience that seems to be ether too young or disconnected from history to remember it on their own.
Even when these wild ideas seem as if we are playing whack-a-mole.
Mr. Justice Louis D. Brandeis wrote, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
Paraphrasing his 1913 essay, publicity and notoriety stemming from media scrutiny are essential to light and expose flaws, offer alternatives to identifiable faults, bolster the backbone of critics in opposition, and offer navigational corrections through turbulent waters.
The media’s job is not going to be welcomed by many; yet, it is essential for our country and its future.
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