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I tried and failed to suppress an expression of disgust last night during the evening news. My sis thought I was in pain; I suppose that's how it sounded. She insisted on knowing why I had exclaimed.
I told her, paraphrasing, but I think this is close:
When Nixon went to China, there were detractors, of course. He was opening a dialog with a closed society that we knew had abused and murdered its own people in large numbers. Yet, he was ultimately lauded as a visionary, a statesman willing to reach across differences in place, culture, and history to build bridges. Today, the best thing anyone can say about him was "Only Nixon could have gone to China".
The news just said that the U.S. is in direct talks with North Korea. Is Donald Trump lauded as a bridge-builder, someone willing to take diplomatic risks in order to bring a backwards nation into the light and maybe, just maybe, make the lives of its citizens a little better?
No.
All the reporter said was that Trump was giving legitimacy to a brutal dictator.
That was reported as fact, end of story, with no recognition of any possibility of a positive outcome.
Even people who hated Nixon were willing to wait and see what happened.
Times have changed.
