{"id":132305,"date":"2016-12-14T15:44:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T22:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/14\/the-hard-bargain-driving-city-on-a-hill.html"},"modified":"2016-12-15T22:00:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T05:00:54","slug":"the-hard-bargain-driving-city-on-a-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/14\/the-hard-bargain-driving-city-on-a-hill.html","title":{"rendered":"The Hard Bargain-Driving City on a Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

One commonality in Presidents going back — well, to the FDR era, at the very least, is trying to have America be the "shining city on a hill" sort of place. Sure, the US was capitalistic verging into imperialistic in some areas, and often fell short of its ideals, but its goal, its mission statement — and, in fact, honest sentiment (however compromised at times) from its leadership, was that we were doing the stuff we did for all mankind, for principles of liberty and freedom and democracy. We built relationships, made long-term commitments, stood by allies, stuck up for friends. Again, the reality often fell short, sometimes far short, but that was the motif, the brand<\/i> of America.<\/p>\n

Trump — and, by extension, his Secretary of State nominee — put forward a different vision. Yes, they want to make America "great again," but not as the exceptional summit of Western liberal thought and freedom, the "shining city on a hill," but as the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet. Picking a global oil & gas CEO because he's a hard bargainer and will make the best deals marks turning foreign relations into transactions<\/b>, into looking for advantage, for product, without muddying the waters with sentiment or morality, or any sense of long-term commitment to much of anything or anyone.<\/p>\n

There may be much said for that approach, and I have no doubt that Tillerson and Trump will drive some hard bargains and make some big deals. But in the process, they'll be tossing away … well, that brand, that global perception, that idealized reputation, that sense of what America stands for outside itself, all in favor of the geopolitical bottom line. And that sort of thing a business man ought to appreciate the risks of.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n<\/a>
\nThe world’s a market: Tillerson’s appointment reflects Trump’s view of foreign policy | The Economist<\/a><\/span>
\nWill Americans applaud the president-elect’s deal-making approach?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One commonality in Presidents going back — well, to the FDR era, at the very least, is trying to have America be the "shining city on a hill" sort of place. Sure, the US was capitalistic verging into imperialistic in some areas, and often fell short of its ideals, but its goal, its mission statement … Continue reading “The Hard Bargain-Driving City on a Hill”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,10,380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-nationalism-exceptionalism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5421,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/15\/your_tax_dollar.html","url_meta":{"origin":132305,"position":0},"title":"Your tax dollars at work!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Mar-04 8:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"All hail the bold, swift governmental action taken by the City of Aliso Viejo, California, to battle a pervasive chemical hazard in our lives! 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This video short takes you through what Rome would have looked like around 320 CE, when it was at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4104,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/05\/saying_it_all.html","url_meta":{"origin":132305,"position":3},"title":"Saying it all","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Feb-03 12:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The French reaction to Powell's presentation today says it all: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called Powell's evidence \"disturbing,\" but he, too, said it fell short of proving the...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38543,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/22\/police-cameras-and-great-responsibility.html","url_meta":{"origin":132305,"position":4},"title":"Police cameras and great responsibility","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Aug-13 2:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, put full video on police cars to show exactly what's happening during an arrest ... and, presto, \"the number of complaints filed against officers fell by 88 percent compared with the previous 12 months. Use of force by officers fell by almost 60 percent over the same period.\"Um ...\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30476,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/04\/debate-moderation.html","url_meta":{"origin":132305,"position":5},"title":"Debate Moderation","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-12 10:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not as down on Jim Lehrer's performance as some. I think the basic idea of trying to draw out differences and contrasts, and doing so by having broad discussion questions, was a good one.Where Lehrer fell down was in being unwilling or unable to provide much structure to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132323,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132305\/revisions\/132323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}