Two weeks ago, the New York Times published a damning,anonymous Op-Ed by a Senior Official in the White House. The picture the author painted is a
terrifying one, showing a White House nearly crippled by an incompetent,
amoral, petty president. They confirmed
all the things we feared about Trump, and they showed that those within the
White House are just as afraid. The
author attempted to assuage our fears by explaining how they and others in the
White House were resisting Trump’s worst urges and behavior; that they were
trying to keep him in check for the sake of the country. But I also feel that this essay was an
attempt at bolstering their own conscience.
On the one hand, I think the author was very brave to
publish this essay, as was the New York Times for taking the extraordinary step
of agreeing to keep their identity secret.
Whoever wrote this has every right to worry about their job (and
possibly more than that) as Trump has shown time and again that he is an
incredibly vindictive man. Indeed, within
hours of its publication, Trump tweeted a demand that the New York Times unveil
the author’s identity, claiming that national security is at stake. But under the bravery the author showed is
cowardice, born of the extreme partisanship that permeates every nook and
cranny of this administration.
