Quote (fender @ Oct 18 2019 02:49pm)
i'm honestly not quite sure if you're being serious there. the first part i actually agree with for the most part. while it seemed like mattis was one of the very few who dared to speak up from time to time (tillerson and kelly being the others), they clearly did not criticise him sufficiently while in office. the part about calling the draft dodger, who just took a massive stinking dump on your entire career of service, by his name and not 'president trump', however, is laughable. the pearl clutching and calls for 'civility' by, or on behalf of this administration are hilariously hypocritical considering the stuff they say and do on a near daily basis...
At the end of the day the American people elected the orange buffoon. It's the job of people in the administration to try to steer him in the right direction, and try to contain the damage. Criticizing your boss openly doesn't accomplish those things, because you'll just get fired. And even universally respected figures like Mattis and McRaven(seal commander during Bin Laden mission) who speak out against Trump immediately lose all credibility with his supporters, because it's a cult.
It's a little less defensible now that he's out of government to not criticize Trump directly, even though I like the idea in principle. But if you're going to go around on every news show to promote your book and refuse to criticize the president directly, don't make critical jokes either. Yes, Trump is going to talk shit because he's objectively a terrible and vindictive person. Responding with insults just lowers Mattis.