【Comment】
Being the US President
at the turning point now, D. Trump has a
better chance to realize his personal ideal, if any; or to be remembered by
history.
No matter what it is,
he has to review his mind, and spirit first.
The Presidency is an office, a
legal existence, no more a person with
flesh.
Trump’s egoism and the
related moves has stepped over the red line of political tradition and value,
which are shared by all. The backfire will be tremendous.
An interesting point
to observe is that will Xi follow Trump when the latter comes to his end?
在歷史轉折點上擔任總統，川普有很好的機會實現理想或歷史留名。無論如何，他可先要檢討自己—畢竟，總統已經不是我的我了。
川普的自我主義，已經踩到政治價值的紅線，這是文化的底線，力量會非常強大。
有趣的觀察是，川普的結局出現之後，會換「包子大」嗎？
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump
Administration NYT 20180905
他的政府中許多高級官員都從內部不懈努力，以挫敗他的部分議程和最糟糕的傾向，而他還沒有完全理解自己所處的這個困境。
我非常清楚這一點。因為我就是其中的一位。
明確地說，我們的抵抗並非那種盛行的來自左派的「抵抗」。我們希望這屆政府能夠成功，並且認為它的許多政策已經讓美國變得更加安全、更加繁榮。
但我們認為，我們的第一責任是對這個國家負責，而總統卻持續以一種危及合眾國健康的方式行事。
這就是為什麼許多川普任命的人士都誓言要竭盡所能，在阻止他受到更多誤導衝動的同時，維護我們的民主體制，直至川普下台。
問題的根源在於總統沒有道德觀念。任何與他共事的人都知道，他不會被指導他決策的清晰可辨的基本原則所束縛。
儘管他是作為共和黨人當選的，但這位總統並沒有表現出多少對保守派長期奉行的理念的認同：自由思想、自由市場和自由人民。最好的情況是，他在按照腳本規劃好的環境裡提到了這些理念。最糟糕的情況是，他直接攻擊這些理念。
除了大肆宣傳媒體是「人民的敵人」這個概念外，川普總統的衝動基本上都是關於反貿易和反民主的。
不要誤會我。有些亮點，是媒體對這個政府幾近無窮無盡的負面報導所沒能捕捉到的：切實有效的放寬監管；歷史性的稅改；一個更加強大的軍隊等等。
儘管總統的領導風格是衝動魯莽、對抗、小氣和低效的，但政府還是取得了上述成功，雖然它們並非因為川普的領導風格而得來的。
從白宮到各個行政部門、機構，高級官員都會私下承認他們日常對這位統帥言論和行為的質疑。許多人都在努力將自己的行動和總統的心血來潮隔離開來。
與他的碰面常常會離題偏軌，他會不斷咆哮，他的衝動往往會導致考慮不周、信息不全，有時還頗為魯莽的決定，而這些決定必須被撤回。
「很難說他是否會在下一分鐘改變主意，」一名高級官員最近向我抱怨，總統在橢圓形辦公室的一次會議上，對一週前作出的重大政策決定改變了態度，這令他火冒三丈。
如果不是白宮內外的無名英雄，那麼這種不穩定的行為會更令人擔憂。他的一些助手被媒體描繪成惡棍。但在私下裡，他們已經竭盡全力，讓錯誤的決策不傳出白宮西翼（美國總統的日常辦公地點——編注），儘管他們顯然並不總是能成功做到。
在這個混亂的時代，這可能只是冷冰冰的安慰，但美國人應該知道，房間裡還是有成年人的。我們對正在發生的事情有清醒的認識。我們在努力做正確的事，即使唐納德·川普不會這樣做。
其結果是總統的統治在雙軌上運行。
以外交政策為例：無論是在公開場合還是私下，川普總統都表現出對專斷者和獨裁者的偏愛，比如俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾·普丁和朝鮮領導人金正恩，並且對於那些將我們與志同道合的盟國聯繫起來的紐帶並沒有表現出多少真正的欣賞。
然而，敏銳的觀察家們已經注意到，政府的其他部門正在另一條軌道上運作，在這條軌道上，他們呼籲對俄羅斯這樣的國家予以干涉和相應的懲罰，並將世界各地的盟友視為同伴，而不是視為競爭對手加以嘲笑。
例如，在俄羅斯一事上，總統不願意驅逐普丁的眾多間諜，作為一名前俄羅斯間諜在英國遭到毒殺的懲罰。幾個星期以來，他一直抱怨高級幕僚讓他陷入與俄羅斯的進一步對抗，他對美國繼續因俄羅斯的惡行採取制裁表示沮喪。但他的國家安全團隊更了解情況——必須採取這樣的行動，使莫斯科承擔責任。
這不是所謂的深層政府在工作。這是穩定政府在工作。
鑒於許多人目睹了這樣的不穩定狀態，內閣中早有人悄悄談起援引第25條修正案，這將啟動一個罷免總統的複雜程序。但沒有人想要引發一場憲法危機。因此，我們將盡我們所能，讓政府走在正確的方向上，直到——不管以哪種方式——一切結束。
更讓人擔心的不是川普在總統任期內所做的事，而是我們作為一個國家，允許他對我們所做的事。我們與他一起淪喪，讓我們的話語被剝去文明的外衣。
參議員約翰·馬侃(John McCain)在他的告別信中說得最好。所有美國人都應該聽聽他的話，擺脫部族主義陷阱，以我們共同的價值觀和對這個偉大國家的熱愛，實現團結的崇高目標。
我們失去了馬侃參議員。但他的榜樣永存——他是恢復公共生活尊嚴和國家對話的代名詞。川普先生可能會害怕這樣可敬的人，但我們應該尊敬他們。
在政府中那些選擇將國家放在首位的人們身上存在著一種安靜的抵抗。但真正的影響是超越政治、超越黨派分歧的普通公民做出的，他們決心拋棄所有標籤，只留下唯一的一個：美國人。
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump
Administration NYT 20180905
I work for the president but like-minded
colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts
of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
=========================================================================
The Times is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author,
a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and
whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously
is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the
essay or our vetting process here.
========================================================================
President Trump is
facing a test to his presidency unlike any
faced by a modern American leader.
It’s not just that the
special counsel looms large. Or that the
country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the
House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.
The dilemma — which he
does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior
officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to
frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is
not the popular “resistance” of the left.
We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its
policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and
the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of
our republic.
That is why many Trump
appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions
while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
The root of the
problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not
moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.
Although
he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals
long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in
scripted settings. At worst, he has
attacked them outright.
In addition to his
mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and
anti-democratic.
Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the
near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture:
effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
But these successes
have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is
impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
From the White House
to executive branch departments and agencies, senior
officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in
chief’s comments and actions. Most
are working to insulate their operations from his whims.
Meetings with him veer
off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his
impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless
decisions that have to be walked back.
“There is literally no telling whether he might change his
mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me
recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president
flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.
The erratic behavior
would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the
White House. Some of his aides have been
cast as villains by the media. But in
private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the
West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.
It may be cold comfort
in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that
there are adults in the room. We
fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump
won’t.
The result is a two-track presidency.
Take foreign policy:
In public and in private, President Trump shows a
preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin
of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays
little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded
nations.
Astute observers have
noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another
track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished
accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than
ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for
instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as
punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff
members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he
expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on
the country for its malign behavior. But
his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold
Moscow accountable.
This
isn’t the work of the so-called deep state.
It’s the work of the steady state.
Given the instability
many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the
25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a
constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in
the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.
The bigger concern is
not what Mr. Trump has done to the
presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our
discourse to be stripped of civility.
Senator John McCain
put it best in his farewell letter. All
Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the
high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
REACTIONS TO THIS
OP-ED
Trump Lashes Out After
Reports of ‘Quiet Resistance’ by StaffSept.
5, 2018
Anonymous Op-Ed in New
York Times Causes a Stir Online and in the White HouseSept. 5, 2018
It Wasn’t Me: Pence,
Pompeo and a Parade of Administration Officials Deny Writing Op-EdSept. 6, 2018
Opinion: ‘Anonymous’
vs. Trump: Resistance From WithinSept. 6,
2018
We may no longer have
Senator McCain. But we will always have
his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national
dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such
honorable men, but we should revere them.
There is a quiet
resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real
difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching
across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one:
Americans.
The writer is a senior
official in the Trump administration.
Follow The New York
Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion).
沒有留言:
張貼留言
請網友務必留下一致且可辨識的稱謂
顧及閱讀舒適性，段與段間請空一行