In these first months I have been trying to make sense of the actions of the incoming U.S. administration. Surely there must be some pattern.
Today I think I finally have it. The key insight came from this latest announcement that the U.S. State Department would be reorganized. The most important changes are (1) eliminate any operations that might help Africa, and (2) cease any operations that might promote democracy, support human rights or assist refugees.
Essentially, the administration has been asking the question “What actually makes America great?” And whenever they identify anything that might even be perceived as making America great, they then systematically work to get rid of it.
So what we are seeing here is apparently an elaborate form of absurdist performance art: The incoming president runs for office on the slogan “Make America Great Again”, then as soon as he comes into office, he does everything he can to destroy anything that might be great about America.
So there you have it. We are witnessing the future of America, and it isn’t great.