Kirstjen Nielsen: The Nurse Ratched in Charge of Baby Internment Camps
In the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Nurse Ratched, exasperated at McMurphy's obstreperous behavior, says, "If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way." One imagines this is what DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen wanted to tell President Trump last month when he excoriated her for thirty minutes straight at a meeting of his cabinet for failing to secure the nation's borders. Nielsen reportedly confided to associates that she had never been treated in such a demeaning fashion, and drew up a letter of resignation, which she has thus far not submitted. Were Hollywood to decide to do a remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Donald Trump would be ideally cast to take Jack Nicholson's place as an out-of-control wack-job in a mental institution.
Trump kept up his denunciations of Nielsen before White House staff, placing blame for ongoing illegal immigration into the country squarely on her shoulders as well as on Congress for failing to fund a great wall to keep out what he has termed an infestation of immigrants, overwhelmingly from "shithole countries." He complained he felt "duped" into putting her in charge of DHS. Trump's political allies grumbled that she needed to get fully on board with the Trumpism program. Nielsen has finally given into the pressure, embracing the dark force that she had been heretofore resisting. She launched Nacht und Nebel roundups of undocumented aliens and Lebensborn-style seizures of young kids from their parents, locking them up in chain link holding pens. Some of these children are expected to be placed in foster homes, never to see their parents again. Impressed, President Trump praised her actions, tweeting that she was now doing a "fabulous job."
So, why is Nielsen doing this? Will she do anything to keep her cabinet-level job? Has she sold her soul to Prince of Darkness? In a word, yes.
Kirstjen Nielsen's parents were both doctors. She attended good schools in Florida and went on to receive a top shelf education at Georgetown School of Foreign Service and the University of Virginia School of Law. I, personally, have known many graduates of both schools. They are overwhelmingly enlightened service-minded people, no thugs or enforcers among them. She also served honorably in the George W. Bush administration where she broadened her expertise in homeland security issues. She caught previous DHS Secretary John Kelly's eye, appointing her his chief of staff. When Trump moved Kelly over to the White House to be his chief of staff, the former Marine general took Nielsen with him. Kelly managed later to persuade the president to nominate Nielsen to succeed him at DHS, a sprawling agency with more than 200,000 employees.
Nielsen feels more comfortable in the moderate wing of the GOP. According to Republican operative and Trump booster, Roger Stone, “At Homeland, she actively ensured that no Trump supporters were appointed or hired.” She has a reputation for being rather cold and very business-like with staff, peremptorily canceling meetings if an attendee is late, and developing few close or warm relations with those who work with her. Her lack of personal rapport with President Trump fits this profile. Staff referred to her as, yes, "Nurse Ratched" behind her back. A classic Washington workaholic, Nielsen at times has endangered her health in her devotion to her job. Her demeanor tends toward the unsmiling and severe. She is, at 47, unmarried and childless.
She appeared off kilter, alternately combative and awkwardly upbeat at her press conference this week, unpersuasive in repeating the Trump lie, “The Obama administration, the Bush administration all separated families. They absolutely did.” Later she incurred the ignominy of being jeered at a Mexican (of all things) restaurant.
One wonders to what extent an otherwise moral person will sell their soul for the sake of career. Nielsen has thrown in her lot with the likes of Stephen Miller, Trump's Wannsee-inspired genius behind the "zero tolerance" policy. Even her mentor, General Kelly, reportedly has given up on Trump, anticipating inevitable impeachment. She is now tainted for life with the reputation of being the Nurse Ratched in charge of locking up babies. But it might not be too late to resurrect her honor.
By quitting now.
See also ~
Does Evil Reincarnate Itself? The Case of White House Advisor Stephen Miller