Pessimism and Politics can't be Partners

An optimist is someone who believes we are all moving towards a better world. 

A pessimist is someone who thinks we have already arrived. 

If there is one value a politician needs to have coursing through their veins in gallons, it is optimism.

If a politician is a defeatist they have no place in the political field.

They are a porcelain hammer. From the outside they look tough, solid and perhaps pragmatic, but on the inside weak and unwilling to fight and strive for better things and will shatter into a million pieces if tested. 

Of course, I’m leading up to something…

Step forward Alexander, Huang Chieh-cheng who recently said of the planned visit by Speaker of the House of Representatives, third in line to being the leader of the free world if anything happens to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, that her visit to Taiwan “will not directly and substantially help Taiwan's national defense and security." 

It’s hard to overstate the monumental irony that this was said by - wait for it - the KMT’s representative to the United States. 

Imagine for a moment professor pea-brain’s first meeting with important US officials to supposedly push for Taiwan’s better interests in the world. 

Perhaps in terms of closer integration with the world's most powerful nation and maybe at least trying to perhaps persuade them to maybe think about how else they can help to protect this small island of a mere 23 mln people from the giant bully that is China.

But no, he already thinks it's a lost cause. 

“Oh Hi guys, nice to meet you, this will be a short meeting because you know I have already said it won’t make any difference or change anything at all for Taiwan’s security or defense so I’ll just finish my coffee and have another of these lovely biscuits and be on my way, bye bye.”

Mr Alexander, Huang Chieh-cheng, I have two questions… 

1) What is the point of you, even as a minor political figure? 

2) Which KMT airhead appointed you to represent Taiwan in any way, shape or form in the United States if you have such a pathetically weak personality and defeatist attitude in terms of defending your own country?

It’s rare to encounter such stupidity. Not only publicly articulating that he is a politician who is defeated before he starts, insults the United States who already does a huge amount for Taiwan and even has its own laws on the subject, but to then go there as a so-called representative for Taiwan truly beggars belief. 

I guess he is running true to form given he’s said before that Trump was just being “polite” and “harmless” over Taiwan and “will not change the overall situation.” 

Or, “there are not many people in the international community that can help Taiwan.” (Yeah, right, like the world has done nothing for Ukraine...I seem to remember reading something a little different just recently.)

Or, even more absurd, “If the Kuomintang returns to power in 2024, the Communist Party jets will still circumnavigate Taiwan, because it is aimed at the actions of the United States” indicating he thinks US help is actually putting Taiwan in danger. 

If he and his party think this way, a vote for KMT is a vote for a party that actually wants the US to back off from any further help for Taiwan, a move which would result in China having an open goal to take over control of Taiwan.  

Maybe he has accidentally shown the KMT’s true colours and that is what they really want?

However you look at this, this man is as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. He should go and sit in a soft chair by a sunny window somewhere and for a nurse to bring him a cup of milky tea from time to time to keep him happy. 

He should be kept away from mainstream politics, the US, and those who actually want better things for Taiwan and don’t want to just throw up their hands and give in to China. 

I’m all for pragmatism, but this is not what he is advocating.

It even goes beyond pessimism…it’s defeatism. 

This man has no place representing Taiwan abroad with such views. 

As a lifelong journalist, I’ve seen and written about some bad politicians in my time. 

But guys like this still have the ability to make me slap my forehead so hard I end up flat on my back. 

Tinkerty tonk…