On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported another small detail from the Trump administration that adds more pause to the collective pause Americans have already been taking since the morning of November 9th, 2016. This time it concerns Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s directive to the State Department to “redefine its mission.” This means a new mission statement. Good news! We can do away with that bogus “promote democracy” around the world BS we have been peddling for decades.
According to an internal email that went out Friday, which I obtained, the State Department’s Executive Steering Committee convened a meeting of leaders to draft new statements on the department’s purpose, mission and ambition, as part of the overall reorganization of the State Department and USAID. (The draft statements were being circulated for comment Friday and could change before being finalized.)
- The State Department’s draft statement on its purpose is: “We promote the security, prosperity and interests of the American people globally.”
- The State Department’s draft statement on its mission is: “Lead America’s foreign policy through global advocacy, action and assistance to shape a safer, more prosperous world.”
- The State Department’s draft statement on its ambition is: “The American people thrive in a peaceful and interconnected world that is free, resilient and prosperous.”
That sounds like the usual stuff, right? Nope. It’s not normal. Nothing is normal.
“The only significant difference is the deletion of justice and democracy,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy during the George W. Bush administration. “We used to want a just and democratic world, and now apparently we don’t.”
Listen, it’s just words, man. We all know it’s about the oil. But it also isn’t. It’s about what we say to the world and what we tell ourselves. Those two things very infrequently match up and that’s what we battle to make happen. Getting rid of even the concept that we should be a democracy that promotes a just and democratic world is the first step in taking that idea out of the minds of Americans.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
We haven’t finished dedicating that ground yet.