The Virtue of a Proportionate Response

I am a huge Aaron Sorkin fan. I have been for a long time. He writes script like no one else, and he has a patter than sends my little playwright's heart into palpitations.  Nothing gets me going faster than good dialogue. Those patterns are the heart and soul of a character, the thing that makes  a play better than good. If you can't write superb dialogue, then don't write plays. It's just that simple. 

People quote Sorkin even when they don't realize they are quoting Sorkin. His language has become part of the lexicon over the last 30+ years. From the moment A FEW GOOD MEN opened on November 15th, 1989,  we have been quoting Sorkin. Unless YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! 

Whether it's A FEW GOOD MEN, THE WEST WING or STEVE JOBS, I love the way the guy turns a phrase. There are lines that stick with me, that I can quote at will...and have done so any number of times in this blog. THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, however, is the script that I can almost recite verbatim. Lord knows, I've watched the movie often enough. The podium speech about the ACLU is nothing short of brilliant. 

So, knowing his proclivity for liberal politics, I have to admit I was shocked when I heard Feckless Leader's interview with Chuckles the Toad on Sunday morning's MEET THE PRESS. Was my beloved Aaron speech-writing for POTUS? Was it possible? I anxiously awaited a transcript of the interview:

CHUCK TODD: Let me start right in, what happened last night?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

Well, you had a situation that was very bad because the night before, they shot down an unmanned drone. And the unmanned is a very big factor. The fact that there was not a person on it, a U.S. person on it, or anybody. And that had an impact on me. I said, "Well, you know, we got a little problem." And I think they did that on purpose because they understand that they will be hit very hard if that were a plane with a person in it. And I think they knew that there was nobody there. So we had a very, you know, modest but pretty, pretty heavy attack schedule.

CHUCK TODD: And this is a pre-plan that you had, something that if they did something, you had something --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

Yeah, we had it --

CHUCK TODD:-- these were sort of ready-made plans --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

Sure, we have many of them --

CHUCK TODD: -- to use if necessary, right?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

Oh, I have so many targets you wouldn't believe.

CHUCK TODD: Right.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

We have targets all over.

CHUCK TODD: So did you green light something? Or had you said --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

Nothing’s --

CHUCK TODD: "If we do it, I'll do this." What was, what was the order you gave?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

Nothing is green lighted until the very end because --

CHUCK TODD: Ok.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

-- things change, right?

CHUCK TODD: So you never gave a final order?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

No, no, no, no. But we had something ready to go, subject to my approval. And they came in. And they came in about a half an hour before, they said, "So we're about ready to go." I said, "I want a better definition --"

CHUCK TODD: Planes in the air? Were planes in the air?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

No, no. "We're about ready to go." No, but they would have been pretty soon. And things would have happened to a point where you wouldn't turn back or couldn't turn back. So they came and they said, "Sir, we're ready to go. We'd like a decision." I said, "I want to know something before you go. How many people will be killed, in this case Iranians?" I said, "How many people are going to be killed?" "Sir, I'd like get back to you on that," great people these generals. They said, came back, said, "Sir, approximately 150." And I thought about it for a second and I said, "You know what? They shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it. And here we are sitting with 150 dead people that would have taken place probably within a half an hour after I said go ahead." And I didn't like it. I didn't think it was, I didn’t think it was proportionate. Now that doesn't mean --

I am so afraid to imagine what went on behind the scene to get them to script him like this. Take a look at the Aaron Sorkin version from THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT:

CHAIRMAN

(continuing)

...The F-18's are fired up on the

Kimitz and the Kitty Hawk. They're

just waiting for your attack order,

Mr. President.

SHEPHERD

And we're gonna hit Libyan

Intelligence Headquarters?

MAN

The N.S.A. confirmed they're the ones

who planned the bombing.

A.J.

What's the estimate?

GENERAL

We'll level the building.

SHEPHERD

Libyan I.H.Q's in the middle of

downtown Tripoli -- are we gonna hit

anything else?

GENERAL

Only if we miss.

SHEPHERD

Are we gonna miss?

GENERAL

No, sir.

SHEPHERD

How many people work in that building?

CHAIRMAN

We've been all through--

SHEPHERD

How many people work in the damn

building?

DEPUTY

I've got those number here. There

are three shifts, so it--

SHEPHERD

The fewest. What shift puts the

fewest people in the building? The

night shift, right?

DEPUTY

By far. Mostly custodial staff and

a few--

SHEPHERD

What time does the night crew go on?

DEPUTY

They're on now, sir.

SHEPHERD

A.J.?

A.J.

It's immediate, it's decisive, it's

low risk, and it's a proportional

response.

SHEPHERD

Someday somebody's going to have to

explain to me the virtue of a

proportional response.

There's a SILENCE. SHEPHERD gets up and starts to head out

the door.

CHAIRMAN

Mr. President?

SHEPHERD

Attack

Maybe it was on The West Wing:

BARTLET

Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?

FITZWALLACE

It is not all there is.

It isn’t virtuous Mr. President. It’s all there is sir.

BARTLET

Excuse me Leo, but pardon me Mr. President, just what else is there?

LEO

Sir, Admiral Fitzwallace...

BARTLET

 A disproportional response. Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, 

you kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a proportional response, 

we come back (bangs fist on table) with total disaster!

GENERAL

Are you suggesting we carpet-bomb Damascus?

BARTLET

 General, I am suggesting that you and Admiral Fitzwallace and Secretary Hutchinson and the rest of the national security team take the next sixty minutes and put together a U.S. response scenario that doesn't make me think we are just docking somebody's 

damn allowance!

Nah, I don't really think Sorkin is writing for the Gang-That-Can't-Get-Their-Facts-Straight....those guys are just doing what they do best, plagiarizing. They are trying to make a guy who does not have the mental capacity to even memorize the right words sound like he made some sort of earth-saving decision. There is a difference between the two words. As The Grammarist explains:

"Proportionate means in due proportion. The distinction is subtle, but proportionate describes something that is made that way by an active agent, and it often describes quantities that are difficult to measure. Proportional doesn’t necessarily involve an active agent, and it is the preferred term where actual measurements are concerned."

And then today's rationale?  Wanna talk about all those fine Iranians he knows who are great people in New York? The man has no ability to self-edit, much less make sense,  and neither does anyone else associated with him.

Here's the thing: it's pretty common knowledge that Feckless Leader loves drama, and when there isn't any real drama, he creates a crisis he can solve. Do We, the People, possibly look that stupid?

These are all diversions. Whether it's initiating, then canceling the deportation of thousands, levying more sanctions against Iran, or even the half-baked health transparency executive order, this is a smoke-screen. Each one of those items is poised to present an image of a caring POTUS when, in fact, they all demonstrate the highest levels of dysfunction in the west wing. The speech-writers prop him up with a script that's supposed to take the focus off the real issues using bogus crises he has supposedly resolved. Yeah. Right.

It's kinda like buying a really snazzy sports car when you're a total wuss who can't drive a stick. You think you'll look really cool, girls will like you, and  the other boys will be jealous that you have suck a slick street penis. Yeah, this is dick-compensation behavior. That's when your proportional isn't, but you think you can fool everyone into believing it is...

...at least not where children are sleeping on concrete floors,  conditions that that rival third world refugee camps that we claim to deplore. All the flash and boom is supposed to take our attention away from the reality that our air is rapidly becoming un-breathable once again. The amplified MAGA cheers are supposed to assure us he has followers...when in fact they were leaving the stadium during his speech. Smoke and mirrors, mirrors and smoke. Nothing they say is real is real. It's all a sham meant to delude.                          

Start paying better attention to the man behind the curtain, folks. Honestly, we don't know who is running this country, but when they begin using movie scripts as their model, we are in for a dishonest ride. The Manchurian Candidate is a possibility. Or maybe All The King's Men? I can't wait to see what they try out next. You cannot fall for the ruse. If you do and you don't like the outcome, you only have yourself to blame.

Ol' Abe Lincoln understood the dilemma quite well:

If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

People, our butts are already smoldering. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week 

           People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.  

                                                                                      Otto von Bismarck