| I have no more idea than anyone else who the senior Trump administration official is who wrote the New York Times op-ed piece revealing the existence a secret resistance group within the Trump administration that is working to keep Donald Trump from ravaging our country. |  |
But I'm pretty sure I know why they wrote it.
Along with most of the rest of the country (I hope most of the rest of the country) I read the op-ed piece,
Along with most of the rest of the country (I hope most of the rest of the country) I read the op-ed piece,
| ...and have been closely following the nuclear fallout. |  |
I've also been following the analyses, commentaries and opinions in an effort to come up with one of my own.
And now I have.
Still, it did take me a couple of days to figure out what I thought about the op-ed piece and its anonymous author, other than the fact that this whole episode scares me.
I find it exceedingly creepy that there's this secret society creeping around the President - the President of the United States, for goodness sake! - all right, two years later I still can't believe this is our President, I just can't, and yet he is, and now here are all these members of his staff - people that he hand-picked himself - who know that he's incompetent, impetuous, ill-informed, adversarial, petty, ineffective, amoral, reckless, anti-democratic ― these are just some of the adjectives this senior administration official uses to describe Donald Trump ― but are too afraid to say anything, so they've formed this secret resistance that goes sneaking around snatching official papers from Donald Trump's desk to keep him out of the loop and from carrying out some disastrous whim.
But creepier yet is Trump's demand in the above tweet that the New York Times must turn the op-ed writer over the government at once.
Turn them over to the government? For writing an opinion piece in the newspaper? This sounds like the language of a dictator.
Donald Trump is obsessed with finding out the identity of the writer - well, we all kind of are - and wants his hapless Attorney General, Jeff Sessions,
And now I have.
Still, it did take me a couple of days to figure out what I thought about the op-ed piece and its anonymous author, other than the fact that this whole episode scares me.
I find it exceedingly creepy that there's this secret society creeping around the President - the President of the United States, for goodness sake! - all right, two years later I still can't believe this is our President, I just can't, and yet he is, and now here are all these members of his staff - people that he hand-picked himself - who know that he's incompetent, impetuous, ill-informed, adversarial, petty, ineffective, amoral, reckless, anti-democratic ― these are just some of the adjectives this senior administration official uses to describe Donald Trump ― but are too afraid to say anything, so they've formed this secret resistance that goes sneaking around snatching official papers from Donald Trump's desk to keep him out of the loop and from carrying out some disastrous whim.
But creepier yet is Trump's demand in the above tweet that the New York Times must turn the op-ed writer over the government at once.
Turn them over to the government? For writing an opinion piece in the newspaper? This sounds like the language of a dictator.
Donald Trump is obsessed with finding out the identity of the writer - well, we all kind of are - and wants his hapless Attorney General, Jeff Sessions,
...to launch an investigation to uncover the identity of the author of the piece.
An undisclosed White House sourced shared that aides to Donald Trump are closing in on the identity of the rogue writer and that the search has narrowed down to a few individuals.
And when the writer is caught, what will happen to him or her? Will they be fired? Or arrested and charged with treason against Donald Trump, as Trump has intimated? Will they be tossed into prison, forced under interrogation to reveal the names of the others in the secret Stop-Trump society who prowl about the Oval Office?
Again, the workings of a dictatorship, not a democracy.
But back to why the secret senior Trump administration anti-Trump rebel who wrote this piece did so: I believe I know the answer to that, and I don't think it's because he or she believes, as they stated in the op-ed piece, that they hope for the Trump Presidency to succeed. I'm not even sure, as some commentators have accused, it's because the writer is too afraid or self-serving to reveal him or herself. However the writer's assertion that he or she wants to stay on board at the White House to keep Trump reined in is probably true.
But here is, I believe, the real reason that the mysterious op-ed author wrote that piece anonymously: I believe his or her true purpose in the writing was to drive Donald Trump crazy. That is to say crazier. That is to say, to make him so unhinged with anger and obsession that he does something that there's no ignoring. Something impeachment-worthy.
Or if not that, at least to drive him a little closer to the edge.
I believe that was the writer's plan.
An undisclosed White House sourced shared that aides to Donald Trump are closing in on the identity of the rogue writer and that the search has narrowed down to a few individuals.
And when the writer is caught, what will happen to him or her? Will they be fired? Or arrested and charged with treason against Donald Trump, as Trump has intimated? Will they be tossed into prison, forced under interrogation to reveal the names of the others in the secret Stop-Trump society who prowl about the Oval Office?
Again, the workings of a dictatorship, not a democracy.
But back to why the secret senior Trump administration anti-Trump rebel who wrote this piece did so: I believe I know the answer to that, and I don't think it's because he or she believes, as they stated in the op-ed piece, that they hope for the Trump Presidency to succeed. I'm not even sure, as some commentators have accused, it's because the writer is too afraid or self-serving to reveal him or herself. However the writer's assertion that he or she wants to stay on board at the White House to keep Trump reined in is probably true.
But here is, I believe, the real reason that the mysterious op-ed author wrote that piece anonymously: I believe his or her true purpose in the writing was to drive Donald Trump crazy. That is to say crazier. That is to say, to make him so unhinged with anger and obsession that he does something that there's no ignoring. Something impeachment-worthy.
Or if not that, at least to drive him a little closer to the edge.
I believe that was the writer's plan.
| So far it appears to be working. And that scares me, too. |  |
References
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html?action=click&module=Ribbon&pgtype=Article
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/05/us/politics/ap-us-trump-new-york-times-the-latest.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/07/politics/white-house-oped-writer-search/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/opinions/the-cowardice-of-sheep-throat-op-ed-kohn/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html?action=click&module=Ribbon&pgtype=Article
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/05/us/politics/ap-us-trump-new-york-times-the-latest.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/07/politics/white-house-oped-writer-search/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/opinions/the-cowardice-of-sheep-throat-op-ed-kohn/index.html
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