Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Alt-Right=NeoNazi


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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