The Threat Is Not From Outside, But From Inside
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/trump-iran-protests-mamdani.html
Lydia Polgreen makes the interesting observation in this piece from The New York Times web site on June 26 that President Trump skillfully conflates foreign policy issues with domestic policy issues. None is more obvious than his stance on immigration. Foreign illegals are a threat from outside to the U.S. Iran is a threat to the United States, when it really isn’t quite yet. In doing this political act of legerdemain, Trump brings together his MAGA base with the mainstream Republicans by fusing his rhetoric of international bellicosity with disruptions to domestic tranquility.
She writes:
“But the dark genius of the first months of Trump 2.0 has been collapsing that distinction, turning domestic enemies — pro-Palestine students, unauthorized migrants, elite universities — into threats from abroad.”
I am going to argue that the Executive Leadership Team of MD Anderson is doing the same thing.
In its push for Saturday clinics, the ELT led by Dr. Pisters is arguing that there is a budget shortfall and three Saturday clinics will fix the shortfall. Besides, the patients want the option of a Saturday clinic day, But, there are whole lot of questions that remain.
The ELT is lauding the first Saturday clinic as a success. What did the faculty who worked that day think?
Are these three Saturday clinics the end or is this the way all subsequent budget shortfalls will be handled?
And if budget shortfalls arise from ELT mismanagement, who will be held responsible?
Perhaps the gaze of the ELT ought to be cast inwardly. First, they ought to look at their own exorbitant salaries as a cause for red in the budget. Then they ought to consider the extreme bloat in the MD Anderson staff ranks. Does MD Anderson really need 26,000 employees? Finally, perhaps they need to question the aptitude of the Information Technology team (what is that leader’s salary?) that would allow a power outage to cripple the lab reporting system for days.
MD Anderson may be short on cash, but if it is, why try to fix it on the back of the faculty by working them on Saturday? Instead, perhaps a contraction of the work force starting at the top is the right course of action. And who really believes that MD Anderson is short on cash?
Now in the Polgreen column, she wonders when the Democrats are going to realize the potency of Trump’s trick of making foreign policy domestic policy.
Likewise, when is the faculty of MD Anderson going to just say no to the ELT using them as the solution to decisions guided by the ELT’s incompetence.
I don’t know about you, but I do not like to have to pay for the mistakes of others. I expect to be held responsible for what I do and say, including in this blog and on The New Prescription podcast. Similarly, I expect leadership figures to be held accountable for their decisions.
This very morning (June 26), I listened as the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took issue with reporting that questioned the efficacy of the American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. They took great offense at the press trying to do its job. They sounded like five-year-old children. The high point of the press conference was the Chairman showing a video of how the 30,000-pound bomb works using what appeared to be Hollywood-generated CGI.
Everyone, get a grip. We will know soon enough whether the strikes worked. The press may be too quick to question and the administration too quick to defend.
Let’s just see, but blaming institutional failures of leadership on outside forces is a nice political ploy. It is a typical mechanism by which leaders manipulate those they lead to blame outsiders for their own failings. Hold them accountable as best you can.
