In his memoir, Travels with Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuscinski tells the story of a Persian potentate intent on making war with a neighboring tribe. The tribe’s queen predicts that the Persian will get his fill of blood if he persists. As it happens the Persians are defeated, and the Queen, overlooking the dead, brutally makes her threat real.
Rep. Tom Reed’s support for Donald Trump, hoping that he would “disrupt government,” reminded me of this story. Tom doubtless hoped disruption would boost his bill collecting business, cripple medicare, social security, and more generally disrupt the social safety net which he abhors. Tom was right in that Trump’s election did bring disruption, did reduce his taxes, promises to further cripple the social safety net, and much more–responsible government, civil peace, international relations, compassionate immigration law, our military, and efforts to combat climate change are examples. Will Tom someday get his fill of disruption and discord? There is no sign of it yet.
