Foreign Policy by Looney Tunes

I owe a great debt to David Ignatius for his recent op-ed in the Washington Post in which he quoted a former CIA officer who described Trump as Wile E. Coyote to Kim Jong Un's roadrunner. In other words, Trump, who cannot stop crowing about his super-genius in agreeing to meet directly with North Korea's supreme leader, is about to get suckered. In other words, we're all about to get suckered...again.

All of which is to say, this cartoon idea didn't just fall into my lap; it practically inked itself.

Lord knows that previous administrations, which claimed to balance America's democratic values with America's national  interests, certainly did unspeakable harm to both. But here's the difference: whatever one might think of the rightness of their actions, it's safe to say that none of them ever knowingly tried to denigrate and work against both at the same time. Now that's something Trump can hang his hat on; in the destruction of our global standing and our foreign policy, he's a real overachiever.

At this point, I really don't know if I can muster any more outrage at the Republican Party, which has stood by and done absolutely nothing as Trump goes on his merry way. Clearly, the national security of the United States means nothing to them when they can use the next 10 months before the next Congress takes office to continue to confirm judicial appointments of right-wing Neanderthals, wage jihad against common sense regulations and enrich their plutocratic masters at the expense of the poor, working and middle classes. I'm sure they're not losing even a wink of sleep at night as they and the orange menace realize their savage vision of a nation guided by self-seeking insularity, white supremacy and social Darwinism.