An Opinion on This Week's Opinions

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This week the President traveled to Europe to play golf on his course in Scotland, chat up the Queen, aggravate the leadership of NATO and get the press all lathered up over his comments.  Before he came home he stopped by Finland to talk with Vlad about that Russia versus USA thing, again lathering up the press, and most of the professional politicians and political analysts (who really pass along opinions not facts) in the press.

This week opinions on the President range from shrugs by his supporters to the continuing cries for his impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” against the Republic because he didn’t defend the intelligence bureaucracy when a reporter put the question to the President while he was standing next to Vladimir.

I imagine (which is a fancy way of saying I have an opinion), the week came off pretty close to how the President intended.  He was the center of attention, he pissed off the people he wanted, and he remains the center of a fractured opposition that has so many different agendas it can’t focus on a single target.

In World War II when Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) was developed and began directing gunfire they (and there are multiple they) had to come up with ways to defeat it.  For example, they found that throwing out tiny strips of aluminum would cloud the picture on the RADAR scope.  They called this technique “Window,” today we call it chaff. 

I tend to believe 90+% of what comes from the lips or fingers of the President is only semi-spontaneous.  I think 100% it has two purposes.  The first is to keep the spotlight of the world on him, and the second is to scatter so much chaff that nothing really hits home because of the short attention span of the press, his political opposition, and the population.  They go from chaff burst to chaff burst with their outrage, always just missing the real issues that brought him to office in the first place.

While homeland defense, nuclear security, border security and world peace are all admirable things they are also well outside the control of the average citizen.  A viable economy, with available jobs, affordable housing, and disposable cash are really the things that get Presidents elected.  In the words of Bill Clinton as he campaigned against Bush (the elder): (it’s) “the economy, stupid.”  During the 2016 campaign, the DNC (in the form of Hillary Clinton) abandoned the critical states where a stagnant economy was making life miserable choosing to focus on the grand social issues so important to those clustered in the urban Northeast and West coast.  Truth be told, I think Hillary just found it more comfortable hanging with her friends and campaigned based on the flawed opinions of her political analysts.    

Until the press, and more importantly the political opposition, begin to move away from their outrageous opinions and start dealing with the facts of what are important to the average middle-class citizen the grand show of Trump v the World will continue and the President has proven himself to be a master at orchestrating that three-ring circus, but that is just my opinion.

Partial Truth

How easy it is for Hollywood to depict those who don’t agree with them as vile, selfish, angry people.  In a television story there is no need for truth, no need for facts, no need to show both sides.  They can write the script with whatever agenda they want and feed it to the masses.

As we view those shows there are, in the natural course, three audiences.  The first two are simple; those adults who’ve decided what they believe and the show either reinforce those beliefs, or unsettle the viewers with its inaccuracy.  It will be just another in the polarizing events that drive us apart.  The third audience is the one that most troubles me.  The young who are struggling to find their own beliefs, to decide what is right and what is not.

The young who watch these shows walk away with impressions the next show will only deepen.  They will believe that liberals are always concerned with human rights, and conservatives are not.  They will believe the rhetoric that going against the liberal point of view you, as a person, are vile and selfish.

As our nation debates the critical issues of today, I guess it is to be expected that the entertainment industry will take sides.  They always have and being a part of this society they have that right.  If I were for bigger government, and a more intrusive set of regulations I would argue for bias ratings for all shows.  We have content ratings today “G,” “PG,” and such, why not bias ratings while we are at it? 

But I am not for bigger government, and I believe we all have the ability to think for ourselves so we don’t need more FCC guidance as to what we are about to watch, it falls to parents to talk with their children about how we as individuals fit within the local, state, national, and international communities.  If we let television, the Internet, or even our teachers take over than we fail in a critical role as parents.