May 16, 2023

Bill Barr is inserting himself into politics again.  And he’s doing it in the best way to get fawning media coverage — sniping at his former boss, President Donald J. Trump.  Barr issued a statement about Trump:

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He does not have the ability for strategic thinking and linear thinking or setting priorities or how to get things done in the system. He will deliver chaos, and if anything lead to a backlash that will set his policies much further back than they otherwise would be.

The doctor’s diagnosis is that Trump lacks the temperament or wisdom to deliver on his promises.  Okay, fine.  But before we accept his advice, let’s assess his expertise on the subject.

Is Barr saying that another Trump presidency would somehow be different from the last?  In his last term in office, Trump provided

  • Middle East peace progress via the Abraham Accords,
  • energy independence,
  • secure borders,
  • economic prosperity,
  • enhanced national security — confronting threats and strengthening NATO, and
  • exposing that the D.C. swamp was working against the wishes of the self-governed — perhaps his greatest accomplishment.

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Is Barr saying Trump doesn’t have the discipline to deliver any of that — again?  Or is Barr simply in dread of the “chaos” that he perceived during the first Trump administration?

But what Bill Barr mistakes for “chaos” was actually “disruption” — something entirely different.

“Chaos” is disorder and confusion.  It is allowing anarchy to rule.  As applied to America, chaos would be the breakdown of our social order — allowing everyone to operate outside any legal boundaries.  It would be government functionaries each pursuing his personal agenda rather than the mission assigned them by the citizenry.

“Disruption” is something quite different.  It is the imposition of turmoil to arrest the advancement of something.  It can be used for destruction or correction.  Turmoil could be used to disrupt progress toward racial harmony, or to disrupt the corruption of a self-serving administrative state.

To someone without strategic vision, “disruption” may look like “chaos.”  Patients in cancer treatment appear to be suffering from biological chaos.  The nausea, loss of hair, loss of weight, and susceptibility to infection make it appear that the body is losing to the natural ravages of entropy.  But that’s not what’s happening at all.  The patient’s body is in turmoil while the advancement of the cancer is disrupted.  The patient is trading short-term hardship for long-term health.

Donald Trump is a disruptor.  He inflamed tempers more than any president in modern history, because he didn’t adhere to the D.C. swamp orthodoxy.  He made progress internationally, economically, and constitutionally by doing things differently.  He is the George Patton of presidents.  His methods are aggressive, and sometimes harsh.  But he made progress on all of the fronts noted above.