After the Challenger space shuttle disaster, Ronald Reagan ended an Oval Office address with the consoling thought that its crew had slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. Successors such as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden also shone in the crucial US presidential role of consoler-in-chief.
But that was then, this is now. And that’s why a ‘Guardian’ columnist is speaking favourably of ol’ Ronnie.
How would Donald Trump fare in his first test since returning to the White House?
You just know he's itching to write his foregone conclusion, no matter what, don't you? After all, this is a 'Guardian' column.
In grave, mellow tones, Trump did the things that heads of state are supposed to do, acknowledging an “hour of anguish” for the nation, paying tribute to emergency rescue workers and offering solace that the victims’s journey ended in “the warm embrace of a loving God”.
But...but...
Did he leave it there, channeling the sombre mood, fading with dignity into the background and handing over to experts who know what they are talking about? Are you kidding? This is Trump. He went on, ominously revealing that he had “strong opinions” on the collision (never mind the facts). With aggression creeping into his voice, Trump pivoted to an all-out attack on his Democratic predecessors and blame the accident on policies of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
But if it's too early to lay blame, isn't it also too early to 'reassure' the nation? And after all, didn't NASA incompetence and carelessness cause the deaths of those astronauts?
Do we know that the policy of DEI didn't play a part? After all, the helo wasn't following the flight plan it was supposed to. The ATC didn't notice this. No-one did anything to prevent the collision.
Trump claimed Obama had pushed “mediocre” standards for air traffic controllers, a job that requires “superior intelligence”, but Trump had raised them during his first term. “When I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before.”
And indeed, there's a class action lawsuit ongoing regarding these wretched Biden era standards that focussed on everything but competence at the job.
Last week Trump signed an executive order restoring his standards. He explained: “We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. It matters intellect, talent – the word talent, you have to be talented, naturally talented genius. You can’t have regular people doing that job.” It’s almost as if you need a master race.
If you want to stop aircraft parts raining from the sky on a regular basis, maybe you do....
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