The Problem With Trumps Admiration of General Patton
If you haven’t seen it, there’s a great piece that was published in the Politico Magazine which lays bare the problems with tRump’s modeling himself after warrior figures like Patton (and Pootie) who end up being horrifically poor at diplomacy and governing.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/trump-general-patton-admiration-214545
Excerpts: His (Patton’s) life isn’t just an example of winning—it’s an object lesson in how hard it is to transfer skills from a ruthless campaign to the complex tasks of real governance.
Twelfth Army Group commander Omar Bradley, who knew Patton well, described him as “colorful but impetuous, full of temper, bluster, inclined to treat the troops and subordinates as morons. He was primarily a showman. The show always seemed to come first.” Patton acted as though he didn’t care what people thought, but he “harbored a burning ambition for personal recognition,” wrote Eisenhower’s son John.
He valued loyalty above all—“A loyal staff is more important than a brilliant one,” he wrote—and his inner advisers rarely contradicted him, which was an obvious disservice. Any sign of weakness sent Patton into a rage. Many of his associates, including Eisenhower, felt that “Old Blood and Guts” showed increasing signs of mental imbalance.
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