Way back in 2015 the 2016 election season kicked off. The Republican field grew to 16 or so candidates, including a billionaire who brought to the game a demeaning and vilifying style the professional politicians had no defense against. He spent far less than what the experts said he must, but one by one the professional politicians fell by the wayside.
On the Democratic side, there was supposed to be no contest, it was, after all, the time for a woman to be crowned. Everyone, but a single communist/socialist was onboard with the plan. He became a fly in the ointment, but the establishment made short work of him and as it was supposed to be she was anointed at the party’s convention.
Unfortunately, for the DNC their future president carried so much baggage she reminded the average person of Humpty Dumpty. She was ensconced on her perch going through the motions until her coronation. Then came that fateful election night.
Hillary Clinton sat on a wall,
Hillary Clinton had a great fall.
All the pundits and all the stars
Couldn’t put Hillary together again.
What we saw in the aftermath was a political class shocked and bewildered over how such a vile thing as the election of Donald Trump could occur. The media and the political opposition have chosen to make it their life’s work to destroy this presidency. We see in the reporting and the analysis that no decision made by the administration can be accepted as reasonable or good for the nation. We have chosen to operate on a purely vindictive and emotional basis where each side tries to outdo the other in its vilification of opposing ideas.
Of course, the personal needs of the President to be the center of attention only magnifies the drama. I will say in his defense this personal need is not so unlike many of his predecessors. The only real difference is we now have an openly hostile press that can use its pulpit to enlarge the narcissistic nature of such politicians.
As we now approach the same point we were at in 2015 it seems just a bit humorous to note Donald Trump will probably secure the party nomination without more than a whimper of opposition (usually the case for an incumbent), and the Democratic Party is looking for someone to unseat him, but their pool of candidates collectively seems little different than the professional politicians he defeated to arrive at his current position.
The one inescapable (and unfortunate) truth I see is the level of vile mudslinging and its negative effects on social discourse can only increase.
Yea us!
2 comments:
John,
As usual, you are so right about the vitriol going on between the Democrats, the Mainstream Media, and the Trump presidency. I think, at its core, what is really underpinning the insanity over all things Trump is his threat posed to Washington’s “political class.” I had a fellow manager in “Company Y” about your age whose sister had been involved in politics her entire life. She never ran for office but had studied Political Science at a big name university, worked on various political think-tanks, political campaigns, and lobbying efforts across a 30+ year career. And it sounded like she had made a handsome living doing so. At family gatherings throughout the years, she was quite bold about telling her brother there is definitely a “political class” in America, it takes credentials and hard work to stay in it and thrive in it, and it was a jealously guarded “profession.” This political class, especially the one residing within a 50 mile radius of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., was shocked, and then incensed on November 8th, 2018, when a crass, pompous, ego-maniacal businessman from New York with no Poli Sci pedigree, no law degree, and no lower posts ever held, ran for and attained the most coveted and most powerful political office on the earth, much without a lot of help from “the class.” To rub salt in the wound, Donald Trump’s shocking victory was over an opponent who had “checked all the boxes” for the political class—prestigious East Coast education, Ivy League law degree, Watergate investigation team in her 20’s, governor’s spouse, member of think tanks and study caucuses too numerous to count, First Lady of the U.S., Senator from New York, Secretary of State. One in “the class” is supposed to be awarded the class crown, and that didn’t happen because a bunch of un-washed, “know-it-none” simpletons had not heeded haughty warnings and expert advice from “the class” and had picked the wrong door, Carol Marol (i.e. Monty Hall’s “Let’s Make A Deal” show). Suddenly, their entire world is threatened. This newly-elected bozo has the audacity, as an executive, to make decisions from his office without the input and paid reports from pundits, their research staffs, their think tanks, etc. All of a sudden, the bubble could really burst! The rows of beautiful homes with great schools in Fairfax County, Prince George’s County, and Bethesda could all become threatened if no one PAYS for the volumes of data and opinions their residents crank out on a daily basis. Hotels, conference centers could go empty if the summaries of the “important” seminars around town they organize, attend, and enjoy are shown to be largely useless! What about their kids? No scholarships to the “golden ticket” schools, no coveted internships to work out on the golf course or racquetball courts with former Ivy League, UVA and Georgetown classmates, no key posts in Civil Service and Senior Executive Service to lobby for. CHAOS!!! What must they do? FIGHT! Fight for their very livelihoods! Government by THE PEOPLE? Are they insane? Have you been to Alabama, Oklahoma, rural Texas or Georgia? No…No…NO. If “we” band together in this town, whether Democrat or Republican, enlist the support of our neighbors who chose the mainstream media path, we can wait this guy out, drive the American citizenry back into boredom and video games, and save the lifestyle that was destined for us and our brilliant children. THIS, in my humble opinion, is the furnace fire that fuels the vitriol for the foreseeable days to come!
Mitch, it is this "elite political class" with all its virtue signaling and speech/thought control was recognized by the average middle-class voter and was, I think, the reason Trump's antagonistic approach was so appealing.
I doubt at the time of the election anyone realized how deeply embedded this political corruption was/is within the federal bureaucracy.
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