The Unintended Consequences of Actions and Policies

Sometimes, important and interesting things come out of Washington, and small things can have major impacts. One of these is President Trump’s proposal to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.

What is fascinating about this proposal – and what is fascinating about government in general – are the unintended consequences of policies and actions. In this case, we can hope there are many.

The neoconservative busybodies in the White House and in Congress wish to make war on Iran (we won’t), and this is especially urgent as they feel they have Venezuela in the bag (they don’t).

The administration’s proposal to decriminalize homosexuality and eliminate the state-directed mistreatment of homosexuals is designed to help demonize Iran and to a lesser extent Russia. This fits in the neoconservative foreign policy agenda well, and also adds to a large body of evidence that the Russian government (which worked well with the Clintons, in terms of relations and uranium sales) has no serious investment in Donald Trump as president.

It also serves a political purpose as the Democratic and Independent 2020 presidential candidates start to identify themselves and critique Trump, specifically for his “intolerance.” One of Trump’s openly gay ambassadors, Richard Grenell, is leading this decriminalization campaign, and I was stunned that wasn’t done under previous presidents or conducted previously as part of a democratic agenda. I imagine the democratic lineup for 2020 is as stunned as I am.

Beyond the intended consequences of making war on Iran and undercutting complaints about Trump in the 2020 campaign, we have the unintended consequences.

The neocon/warmongering wing of the GOP and the Democratic Party are caught between hating on Iran but realizing they need to also hate on Saudi Arabia, stop subsidizing its war on Yemen, and start looking askance at the other “allies” we “like” because they purchase arms and let us do flyovers and port calls.

The Christian conservative politicos are now caught between supporting Trump on most things, and wriggling a bit because in their evolution as a church-state powerhouse, Christian meekness and love is now actual policy, in one narrow area.

There is no pleasing the Trump haters, and yet, what have they really done to promote ending fundamental discrimination of gays around the world? When your strategy is to cultivate identity politics, separation and tension is the tool of choice. It often works politically, but never morally. Some may say it’s like a broken clock, but Trump got it right here.

Lastly, Democrat and Republican politicians may not advocate our own border walls, but most have no restraint when it comes to building other country’s walls, usually in the name of war and conflict. These politicians depend upon the donations of the military industrial sector, the public and monetary advocacy of major lobbies in D.C., and they like to look patriotic. Trump’s effort to interfere with the lawmaking and practices inside other countries around the world fits perfectly into their concept of the U.S. global role. We own the world and can tell it how to live, they believe.

Improving the conditions and preserving the rights of homosexuals around the world is a worthy goal, and in promoting this, the Trump administration has also laid a cobblestone on the road to ending some of our more hateful alliances and activities, specifically leaving Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, and reducing foreign aid and UN alliances with countries that discriminate in this way. It makes his critics and his supporters in this country actually stop and think about what is right and wrong, and shows how politics can pressure us, regardless of party, to go against our own fundamental sense of justice, love and tolerance.

Bravo, Mr. President!

Reprinted with the author’s permission.

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