Over the holidays, my wife, our grown children and I visited Denmark.
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
We had a lovely time.
I traipsed through the streets, taking in historic and cultural sites. I spent satisfying hours in the national library, the national museum and a museum dedicated to the Danish resistance to Nazism during World War II.
My wife and our daughter took in other sights. They toured castles and churches that predate the birth of the U.S. republic.
And our son and daughter often closed the day by visiting a pub just around the corner from our lodging where, over drinks, they struck up an easy acquaintance with locals about their age.
Everywhere we went, we were greeted not just with kindness and hospitality, but genuine friendliness. Even though we didn’t speak their language and were just learning many of their customs, the Danes we encountered were never anything less than accommodating and helpful.
They liked Americans and wished us well.
I don’t know if that would be the case if we went back now.
A few days ago, the good people of Denmark—including, doubtless, some of the gentle folks who were so kind to my family and me—gathered in the streets of Copenhagen to protest. They wanted to show their overwhelming opposition to the posturing threats of the United States and its president, Donald Trump, that we Americans would seize Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
At almost the same time, the nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—NATO—began moving troops to resist any attempt by the Trump administration to take over Greenland.
Suddenly, the United States had joined Russia and other thug nations as great threats to world peace.
President Trump has said that he began coveting Greenland for national security purposes. He said we needed to beef up our military presence there.
As is so often the case with this president, he offered a fraudulent argument. The terms of our treaties with Greenland and Denmark allow us to build as many bases there as we want or need.
Given that key piece of information, it didn’t come as a surprise that Trump had another motivation. He chose to disrupt life in Scandinavia, he said in a text he sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, for personal reasons.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
In other words, the president of the United States decided to alienate some of the closest allies we have on this earth and disrupt what’s left of the world’s peace because he wanted to have a pity party.
Good lord.
I’m sorry. I know we Americans now are in an era of often irrational hyper-partisanship and that we tend to view every incident through the lens of our increasingly tribal loyalties.
But at what point do we stop pretending that episodes of this sort have a partisan or ideological justification?
What is conservative or liberal about having a temper tantrum and hurling toys around just because we didn’t get the pat on the head we wanted?
At what point are Republicans and conservatives in this country going to decide that they don’t want petulant immaturity to be their brand in this country and around the world?
There are conservative solutions to the problems of this country and this world, just as there are liberal ones. These differing approaches all have differing costs and benefits.
That’s why, in a rational world, grownups get together, weigh those costs and benefits, negotiate and find a way to move forward. Doing so is hard work that demands discipline and concentration, which is why those who do it generally don’t allow time for conniptions and hissy fits.
This president seems to think that stamping his feet and having a good cry are the answer to every setback.
And we Americans wonder why we seem paralyzed before so many of the challenges we face.
The Danes doubtless have seen toddlers have meltdowns before this.
They probably wonder, though, why we put one in charge of our country.