"When Gen. Michael Hayden visited a secret intelligence facility in the United States a decade ago while he was CIA director, the staff gave him a T-shirt emblazoned with the words 'Admit Nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter Accusations.'"
"That motto is much-beloved by covert operators," adds David Ignatius, who further adds that with Trump in the Oval Office, "Maybe it’s becoming our national slogan."
The subtext of Ignatius's lament is that the United States, in the hands of the despicable Trump, resembles, more and more each day, the old Evil Empire. For it too reveled in admitting nothing, frolicked in denying everything, and giddily lathered itself in besotted counteraccusations.
Somewhere, the ghosts of Ronald Reagan and his ideological mentor, Barry Goldwater, must be wondering what became of their conservative revolution. Allow me. It's become its erstwhile nemesis — virtually as Soviet in its articulated contortions as the abominable Soviets.
What's more, can anyone of any conscience name even a singular act of decency — domestic or foreign — committed by this White House? Likewise, have its Republican allies in Congress ever worked to benefit, in any way, the average citizen under its presumed aegis? Have not both conspired to gut civilized spending at home, while pouring more into the superfluous machinery of war?
Let us remind ourselves of what brought down the Soviet Union. It was less the arms than a prolonged stupidity race: an internal, amoral corrosion of national worth. And for decades it bumbled along in masquerades of rhetorical hogwash.
You may thank the deity of your choice that Premier Trump, on the other hand, will last only four years — if that long.