Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson speaks in Washington on March 27, 2015.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press
Rex Tillerson is a godsend and not because he will be a great Secretary of State. We don't yet know enough about the Exxon Mobil chief executive's aptitude for geopolitics to arrive at that conclusion – although there are some good omens.
He is a gift from heaven to the U.S. (and Canadian) chattering classes who for more than a year have been deprived of a decent baddie to complain about. Unlike Donald Trump, who has driven a coach and horses through every political truth recognized by an Ivy League liberal studies graduate, Mr. Tillerson provides an easy-to-understand caricature: He is an old-school Republican, he runs a very big oil company, he has conservative values and he is a Texan.
It's been absolute hell for liberals for ages. Mr. Trump has defied every prediction, undermined every assumption and made a mockery of every opponent. How do you fight a right-wing, xenophobic New York billionaire whose core voter support is solidly blue-collar, rust belt and often Hispanic? It just isn't fair.
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More in sadness than in triumph, the Donald has finally weakened and he has thrown a bone to the seed-munching literati of the East and West coasts. In a gracious gesture, Mr. Trump has offered up Mr. Tillerson, a man who in public is as smooth as a Brooks Brothers suit, to the hyenas of left-wing hackery. After surviving for so long in an ideological vacuum, the policy beasts hurled themselves at Mr. Tillerson, gorging on the fresh meat: Is he a non-denial denialist? asked The New Yorker magazine, questioning the sincerity of Mr. Tillerson's acceptance of climate-change science. The New York Times complains that the Exxon chief is too pally with President Vladimir Putin, too obsessed with doing oil deals rather than promoting U.S. foreign policy.
Once upon a time, the Left complained that oil companies were stuffed with CIA agents masquerading as PRs and corporate strategists; now, it seems that Big Oil's mortal sin is that it doesn't do Washington's bidding, that it runs its own show, trying to do right by the shareholders.
We can't have it both ways: Big business is either in cahoots with government or operating a rogue state for private profit. The truth is it does neither thing. I have once or twice encountered U.S. oil company executives who grudgingly admitted their last job may have been in Langley, Va., but we should not be so surprised that intelligence agencies find globe-trotting multinationals to be useful platforms from which to gather information. The only question is whether Mr. Tillerson's experience schmoozing, wheeling and dealing in Moscow, Baghdad and Caracas is helpful or detrimental to running U.S. foreign policy.
It's difficult to see how the oil man's hinterland isn't at least useful experience. Traditionally, diplomats have come out of posh schools and prestigious universities, after which they are immersed in the paper-clip world of reports, official communiqués and bibulous ambassadorial receptions. Could it be that the oil man's experience of down and dirty transactions with dubious counterparts in less-than-democratic countries will make better training than a life in public service?
The established route to foreign service brought us John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, hardly the most successful U.S. secretaries of state whose big idea, pushing Ukraine and Georgia to seek NATO membership, was a colossal blunder. The territory of Ukraine has for almost its entire history been occupied by foreign powers, including Poland, the Ottoman Empire and, of course, Russia and the Soviet Union, but the facts of history and real life is no barrier to a foreign-policy position paper, supported by self-righteous principle. Instead of glorious independence, Ukraine is now threatened with a Russian salami slicer.
We don't know what Mr. Tillerson thinks about Ukraine, Syria, China or Brexit. We do know what he thinks about climate change: The risks are "serious and warrant thoughtful action" and he is in favour of a carbon tax. Having spent almost his entire life inside the world's biggest multinational, he must be in favour of free trade and against mindless isolationism. That will be reassuring to U.S. allies, notably Canada and its exporting industries, including oil and gas. It will be a useful and powerful voice to oppose any inclination by the president-elect to turn his election pandering into protectionist law.
So, there are reasons to be hopeful. Those who put about the notion that Mr. Tillerson is too close to Mr. Putin (he accepted an honour from the Russian President) fail to understand that it is the job of an oil company to gain the confidence of foreign leaders and foreign tyrants. In other words, he did his job well and he watched as other foreign investors saw their assets confiscated. Elsewhere, Mr. Tillerson did less well: Exxon suffered a big loss when Hugo Chavez, the late Venezuelan leader, nationalized the oil industry.
Mr. Tillerson is an unlikely poodle of despots, in Russia or anywhere else. The other question is whether he will be Mr. Trump's lapdog or his guide dog for the blind. There is a good chance he could be the latter.
Carl Mortished is a Canadian financial journalist based in London.
Carl Mortished