Is Trump a danger -- or just 'incompetent' and a 'buffoon'?

In The Boston Globe last week, distinguished scholar Andrew Bacevich put forth some strong criticism of President Donald Trump's opponents. He said he increasingly has come to believe that "Trump's election has induced a paranoid response, one that, unless curbed, may well pose a greater danger to the country than Trump himself. This paranoid response finds expression in obsessive attention given to just about anything Trump says, along with equally obsessive speculation about what he might do next."

As opposed to a danger to democracy or a threat to constitutional rights, Trump, in Bacevich's view, is just a "clownishly incompetent and willfully ignorant buffoon."

Bacevich's main point is that despite the fact that many of Trump's statements are "nonsense" and that much of what he does has not produced long-term impact beyond a "single news cycle," his opponents act like the sky is falling with every piece of breaking news. He offers a variation of what the President and others have called "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

International alliances are still in place, Bacevich reminds us, and there are real sanctions on Russia. "America First" has not resulted in US troops leaving hot areas such as Syria or Iraq. 

Too many people, he concludes, are consumed with "sensationalistic ephemera" from the White House and are losing sight of key issues such as economic inequality or endless wars abroad. ...