In his new book, Changing my mindJulian Barnes wrote: “We always believe that changing our mind is an improvement, bringing a greater reality to our dealings with the world and other people. It ends in vacillation, uncertainty, weakness thinking.
Well, maybe in literature, but not in politics, where changing your mind is like changing your underwear in public. Not a sign of strength, but a reason for shame. There are some Schadenfreude scenes that are more enthusiastic about the political world than a dramatic U-turn, with a perfect handbrake that is fully engaged and the wheels are screeching strong.
Peter Mandelson’s re -review last week by Donald Trump could be said to be a form model. Calling the American president a “bully” and “reckless and a world danger” in 2019, Mandelson conducted a brave ambitious 180 in Fox News by describing his comments as “not judged and wrong ”.
There is no doubt that some will be snorting out of what they see as sycophantic backtracking but “when the facts change”, as John Maynard Keynes said, “I changed my mind. What do you do?” Although the The Great Economist has probably never uttered those words, Mandelson should however comfort them.
Because the facts really changed. Most stated in the development of the empirical since the original criticism is that Mandelson is now the British Ambassador to the United States. The second, but there is no less consequence of the transition to the real-world event, Trump is again the American president, a situation that seems unlikely six years ago.
If the weight of the evidence is a great reason for a return of opinion, then the seriousness of the threat may be a more effective. While the president shows a gift for vendettas to put a Sicilian don to be embarrassed, Mandelson understands that if he wants to remain ambassador a specific diplomatic reassessment is called.
There will be those who think that the claims of the President of the President in Greenland and the Panama Canal lend to the credentials of Mandelson’s historical description of him as a “world danger”, but it is to our man in the height of credit of the Washington said he now recognizes Trump’s “dynamism” and “energy ‘, even though the Danes and Panamanians have not fully appreciated it.
However we should not overstate the ambassador’s ability to swallow his own words, for the true mark of the principle of abandoning earlier and expensive positions is a willingness to stand alone. Mandelson, in contrast, is tight if not a good company.
Many Trump critics have found themselves experiencing a similar diametrical heart change, especially since he was elected president again. Some may also boast of a previous convert for Pauline. After all, the president’s own number of two, vice-president JD Vance, once described his current boss as “understood”, “a bad person”, and wondered if he might be “America’s Hitler “.
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But that was all eight years ago. Ancient history. If Vance could see the mistakes of his ways, and welcomed to jail, there was hope for everyone who now lined up to salute the strongest people with the bravery and fair thinking in the world. Or maybe that’s the theory of working.
This is probably a trend that will be caught, and a person’s change in politics can be seen not as a manifestation of weakness and desperation but rather of maturity and realism. There are certainly many in the world who will celebrate an outbreak of those attributes to the man in the White House. Then we can change our minds.
