Perhaps my cynicism hadn’t fully formed when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 because I was gob-smacked by the news. He hadn’t done a thing at that point except fuel the anti-Obamacare sentiment that led to the election of Scott Brown (R) in Massachusetts. Brown vowed to serve as the Obamacare-busting #41stVote, and deep blue Massachusetts sent him to Washington.
As we learn that President Trump has been nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, I find I may again have to reevaluate my cynicism levels.
Trump’s nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize is a welcome bit of news as we navigate a new reality, a reality that has upended friendships and created an atmosphere of toxic negativity that has seeped into every aspect of our society and culture, a reality unrivaled in its toxicity . . . since Obama’s 2008 election.
A pair of Norwegian lawmakers has nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize after he signed an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.The nomination, reported by Norway’s state broadcaster, NRK, comes a little more than a month after a group of House Republicans sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee formally requesting that the president be nominated for the coveted prize.The Norwegian lawmakers who nominated Trump were Christian Tybring-Gjedde and Per-Willy Amundsen of the country’s right-leaning Progress Party, which advocates for limited immigration and shrinking the size of government.The nomination is for the 2019 prize, because nominations for this year closed in January.Some Republicans have floated Trump’s name for the prize in recent months as he worked toward negotiations with North Korea. Those efforts materialized on Tuesday in a historic face-to-face meeting with Kim.
Even before the Singapore summit, Trump was making headway with North Korea, primarily by engaging China. His success was such that even Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in April of this year that if Trump’s attempts at peace in the Korean peninsula succeeded, he should win the Nobel Peace Prize. Even former President Jimmy Carter recognizes Trump’s achievement and thinks Trump might win the Nobel if peace holds in Korea.
Trump is, as noted in the Washington Examiner, trying something different. Instead of banging his head against the same wall, repeating the same ineffective measures and hoping for a different result, Trump has bucked decades of failed U. S. policy with North Korea.
It remains to be seen whether or not the agreement reached by Trump and North Korea manifests the desired result, but the president has made incredible headway in a relatively short period of time.
Trump’s nomination is rooted in his involvement in an “historic peace process.”
Lawmakers Christian Tybring-Gjedde and Per-Willy Amundsen, both of the conservative Norwegian Progress Party, wrote a nominating letter calling for Trump to be given the award by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to support the “historic” peace process.“What’s happening now is historic,” Amundsen told state broadcaster NRK. “A process is underway to ensure world peace in the future. It’s a fragile process, but we must of course do what we can to help this process bring good results. I think that we can do by sending a clear signal by giving Trump the peace prize.”The nomination letter compares Trump’s actions to those of President Theodore Roosevelt, who they note was given the prize in 1906 for his efforts with Russia and Japan at the end of the Russian-Japanese War.“Both President Roosevelt and President Trump show that government leaders who are not afraid to show that they are willing to use power can be tools for peace,” the letter says.
A lot can happen between now and the Nobel awards next fall, but should Trump’s work with North Korea (and China) succeed, he’ll, at least, have earned it.
My guess, however, is that if anyone wins the Nobel nod over the Korean peninsula, it will be Kim Jong-Un.
But maybe I’m just cynical.
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