We really need to stop being so politically correct about Donald
Trump and his Neo-Nazi henchmen. Referring to the “Alt-Right”, or “alternative
right wing” is covering horseshit with a nice handmade quilt. I read an article about Steve Bannon
recently, in, of all places, the New York Times. The article tried to make nice
with Mr. Bannon’s image. In it, the author was at great pains to inform us that
Mr. Bannon is not an actual racist. He has black friends and colleagues, after
all. I’ll bet some of his best friends
are Black . . . or Jewish . . . or Muslim . . . or Gay.
But that seems to me to miss the only point of
relevance. That point would be, “is the
web site Mr. Bannon managed a racist, or Neo-Nazi site, i.e., does the site
espouse views than can reasonably be described as ne-Nazi, racist, homophobic,
or misogynistic? If the answer is Yes, then it matters little whether Mr.
Bannon’s personal proclivities are of the racist persuasion. It would be like asking whether Hitler was
actually anti-Semitic. See, the answer would not matter, since he oversaw a
regime that killed six million Jews, and other folks they deemed UnGermanic,
and therefore unworthy. What matters is
how folks act, or how they direct actions to be taken. If Steve Bannon runs an
organization that is widely considered to be anti-semitic, racist, et al, then
he is by definition all of those things.
And our Free Press needs to begin calling a spade a spade.
First, we really need to drop use of this term, “Alt-Right”. Because it doesn’t
mean anything. Breitbart is a white supremacist
organization. Which term describes the KKK, and the Neo-Nazis. So, by inviting Mr. Bannon into his cabinet of
advisers, Mr. Trump has opened his doors to Neo-Nazis and the KKK. We know, by
his own personal actions that he is a misogynist, likely a racist, so it comes
as no surprise that he would invite such folks into his cabinet.
By dressing up Mr. Trump in fine clothing, and dandifying
his advisers, the Press is giving up its claim to be speaking “Truth to Power”.
That should be the main aim of a Free Press under our system of Democracy. See,
we need an active Free Press, all the more because our President-Elect
specializes in lying, creating about him Fake News, and encouraging some of our
more energetic enemies—Russia for example—to mess with our “news" and even,
apparently, our elections.
Mr. Trump actively engages in business with nations with
whom we are not on especially good terms politically, e.g., China, Russia, and
The Philippines. Has he gotten around to building a Trump Tower somewhere in
North Korea that we are not yet aware of yet??? It is, in any case, a
phenomenon we have never before seen—a President-Elect using his newfound
political stature to continue building his Brand. He claims he will step down and away from his
businesses, allowing his children to manage the entirety of his mega-chain of
enterprises. But does anyone still
resident on Planet Earth believe that claim?? It seems absurd on its face. One
problem there is that, because we have little experience with such a man as
President-Elect, we have no plausible solutions to this problem. So we might need to simply observe all transactions
that Involve Things Trump and inquire within—can we link a transaction to a
Trump-President meeting or contact? If so, the Free Press needs to call it out
for what it is. His business Brand could arguably suffer as a consequence, but
probably not more than it is already suffering from association with this
mentally deranged man, soon to be President. Have we ever had such a complex situation
before?
We have had deficient presidents surely. Think Ronald Reagan;
think George W. Bush, both bottom of the barrel presidents. But each of those
deficienistas still could lay claim to some understanding of our government and
its workings, even as they proceeded to trash that system. With The Drumpf, we
have a whole new landscape with no experience base. The man seems to have no understanding of
anything associated with our government, or our political system, no understanding
of global political dynamics, and little ability or experience in negotiating
the shoals of diplomacy. He is a novice in all regards. But more, he likely
does not care whether he knows nothing. His interests lie in promoting himself
and his personal interests. Full Stop.
So, now, more than ever, we require a vigilant and
intelligent Free Press. I expect nothing from Fox News, because Fox News is not
a real news organization. It is a PR media outlet whose intent is to promote
the business interests of the far right. They are not of the racist, neo-Nazi
persuasion necessarily. They do not care about such things. Their interests lie
in promoting big business, the oligarchs of the world. So, we should have no
expectations of that source. But at
least for most of the rest we hope for better things than they have so far
demonstrated.
I know that it is tradition that the Press and the
commentariat provide some wiggle room to the incoming folks. Give them a
honeymoon. But, what I have seen since the election goes way beyond. The Free
Press seems to be moving away from watchdogs of democracy and towards lapdogs
of democracy. We need for them to drop this façade of uber-politeness, and
become once again OUR (the people’s) spokesmen. They need to remain firmly on the side of our
Nation’s system of Constitutional government. It is not clear to me they are quite
positioned to be such a spokesman.
Oh and maybe we need to take away Mr. Trump’s Twitter account
from him. It is, at the least, embarrassing to the Nation.
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