Great Men, Good Men

Posted on by Fritz Pettyjohn

Most great men are not good men, at least when it comes to politicians. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon were all great men, but none of them were good.

Washington and some other Founding Fathers were both good and great. Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison come to mind. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton were great men, but not good ones. Andrew Jackson was a great man, but not a good one. The same for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The best man in American history, the great man who saved the Union, was of course, Abraham Lincoln.

Donald Trump is on track to be a great man. I take no particular pleasure in saying that, because I don’t like Trump. I never have, and I never will. As men, we are almost complete opposites. He’s not my kind of guy, and I’m sure I’m not his kind of guy either. I don’t think he’s a good man.

But facts are facts, and even before he’s sworn in for his second term, I think he’s on the cusp of greatness. Taming Iran, pacifying the Ukraine, and achieving a world balance of power between the United States, Russia and China are all within his grasp. This isn’t happenstance. On the world stage, Trump knows what he’s doing.

Imagine a world in which all the great powers are at permanent peace with one another. A world in which disputes among the great powers are resolved without resort to the use of force. A world in which the great powers no longer threaten each other with nuclear weapons. This was Reagan’s dream, but it was unfulfilled.

Today it’s not just a dream. It could be a reality before Trump leaves office.

How, then, could you deny that Trump would properly be considered a great man?

Occupy Mars

Posted on by Fritz Pettyjohn

From Trump’s second inaugural, if Musk could write it:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on Mars, and returning him safely to the earth.”

John F. Kennedy, in an address to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, said the exact same thing, substituting the moon for Mars.

I think that this, above all, explains Elon Musk’s attraction to Trump. He wants Trump’s support in his quest for Mars. NASA has a budget of $20 billion a year, much of it duplicative of what SpaceX is doing. Some of this money is being spent unnecessarily. Musk wants that money.

Musk has a prettygood idea of the massive amount of money the mission to Mars will cost. He may become the world’s first trillionaire, but he doesn’t want to bear this burden alone. I think he hopes some of the money he and Vivek Ramaswamy will save with DOGE can be directed to the Mars program.

If all goes to plan, President Trump will see the SpaceX Starship launch from Texas today. It will be a sight Trump will never forget. This is the rocket Musk plans on sending to Mars. Perhaps it will inspire him to dedicate his administration to the glory of going to the red planet.