Nearly All Leaders Have Nearly Always Been Awful

Just a periodic reminder that, until very recently, leaders were all corrupt, power mad narcissists perpetually pushing boundaries and resisting constraints. The precious few who occasionally considered the good of the people were stand-outs. Edge cases!

Yet civilization advanced from screeching gangs bashing the skulls of neighboring tribes to moon landings, iphones and lasagna under the leadership of those very same maddening shitheads.

We've lately been spoiled by a run of honorable presidents. George W Bush, who I considered an ogre at the time, seems, in retrospect, an honorable man who genuinely did his (deluded) best. Thing is, we've come to feel entitled to honorable leaders, even though we bitterly curse every one of them — exactly like how we always spit at departing years on December 31 as the world^* grows unimaginably wealthy and comfortable.

*Yes, the world, not just the First World. Prevalence of extreme poverty fell from nearly 40% to below 10% in 25 years.

Before this aberrant recent run of honorable presidents, leaders even of relatively free, bright, successful societies were nearly all sneering, corrupt, racist, sexist, profoundly shallow secretary-fondling tyrants. If their societies didn't fall into complete tyranny, it wasn't for lack of trying.

And, historically speaking, Donald Trump is far from the worst. Just as he's made George W Bush seem honorable by comparison, a few years spent under the likes of Idi Amin, Pol Pot, or the Assad or Kim families would leave us recalling Trump in a considerably warmer light.

I've despised Donald Trump since the 1980s. I believe he's a cancer on the country and a blight on the presidency. I'm not defending a damned thing he does. But one characteristic of this ditzy aristocracy we've transformed into is a tendency for all negative results - every emotional pinprick - to raise a DEFCON 1 response. A feeble wannabe authoritarian not yet in office not only makes us contemplate the very Worst that could happen, but to deem it a foregone conclusion. Sheer apocalypse seems inevitable from this doddering 78 year old fool and his posse of weirdos, skells, and grifters.

It's helpful to adopt a larger perspective, and to question one's news food supply. Remember how the Right screamed bloody murder at literally everything Clinton, Obama, and Biden ever did or said, even eminently sensible and bipartisan things? Even things the Right had pushed for? Perhaps we ought not allow ourselves to be steered, spurred, and spun into that same mode.

For example, consider this: Biden preserved most of Trump's tariffs. Yes, the ones the Dems went nuts over in his first term. The media never mentions this. And in the 2024 campaign, the Left continued to scream bloody murder about the latest tariff proposals. They insisted it was all based on fundamental ignorance of what tariffs even are.

Biden kept them! Ponder that, and consider whether we're being played by an outrage machine. Me, I keep cold water handy for periodic self-face-slapping. I aspire to oppose the bad stuff, but not reflexively reject every utterance. Even a broken clock is right twice per day!