Morning Fog

The Hostages, Plural

As I suggested yesterday Donald Trump is hostage to the worst elements in his "own" party. But he isn't the only hostage on our political stage these days.

The media! Ahh, the media.  All of them -- liberal, conservative, mainstream, streaming, whatever -- are sadly, hostage to Donald himself. Collectively, they rush to pounce on his every tweet rant, attempting to analyze it, wondering whether it represents his real thinking.  In short, taking the President's nocturnal outbursts far too seriously.  

The downside is that cooperate in Trump's smoke-and-mirrors show by giving it continuing publicity (exactly as he hopes they will do). Further, particularly when they fall all over themselves trying to make something from nonsense like "covfefe," they only reinforce the negative impression, prevalent among so many, that they are biased.  Further, it leads to shallow reporting that feeds stereotypical thinking.

Can our media cure themselves?  I would like to think so.  On the topic of media in a Trump world, for several months now, I've been very impressed by the writing of Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for the Washington Post.  See for example her latest piece, regarding the difference between media "balance" (which Trump and his administration neither deserve nor should expect), and media "fairness" (which Trump should be granted and the public should deserve and expect).   

 

 

The Hostage

It's been a long silence on my part about Our National Embarrassment, Donald Trump. Is it because my mother taught me "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"? Actually she never taught me that - quite the opposite!

But if I were to look for something nice to say about Trump, one might be that his stated policy objectives -- if divorced from the means he wants to use to attain them - are not all total garbage. We could do with fewer government regulations, especially where it comes to tax simplification. The ACA does need some tweaking to make it more viable in the long run, but it need not be purposely sabotaged.  Jobs - well, who doesn't want more jobs? Middle East peace? A real iconoclast like Trump might be just the fellow to make it happen. Name your own national goal that you might wish Trump could achieve, I'm sure you can think of at least one. So it isn't so hard to understand why a strong minority of an electorate desperate for change might vote for him, even continue to support him as he bumbles about.

Sadly, it now seems clear that whatever small promise he represented in that regard has been squandered.  Much of the failure is attributable to his own lack of qualification or preparation for the job, there's no denying it.  But it certainly can't help that he has so evidently become the hostage of the extreme right wing of the Republican Party and has failed to break from them.  On ACA, on the travel ban, on the Supreme Court nomination, on climate change, and on many issues, hard-line know-nothings in the party have ruled the day, making sure that Trump does not step over the line into compromise - or reality,* for that matter.

I feel sure that this is why Trump, in so many current photos, comes across looking disinterested, with a blank stare, as if he'd prefer to be somewhere else. He's tired of the job already, because he learned that it's not as easy as he thought.  He has probably begun to realize that his little caper of running for President won't lead to a rising tide of adulation, but will instead destroy his reputation as a leader, a tycoon, a hard bargainer, a decision-maker... He began as the least-respected Chief Executive ever to occupy the White House; he stands a good chance of leaving it (in four years, if not impeached sooner) at a far lower level.

The solution, Mr. Trump, if you're listening, is to stop being a hostage, to break away and start working with ... GASP ... the opposition.  You could become the guy who ended Washington's dread deadlock.  

 

* P.S. - As a lover of word play, In leaving the Trump topic, I can't help but observe how poetic is the justice of having a liberal-leaning leaker named Reality Winner turn up to challenge the country's leading Fantasy Loser.