You may have heard CNN and others using terms like “propaganda,” “meltdown” and “rant” to describe Donald Trump’s propagandistic ranting meltdowns, also known as press briefings. That’s a welcome development. It took them long enough to get there, and seemed to require direct attacks on them personally, but we’ll take it.
What we should not take, though, is a press corps prepared to issue bold and incisive criticism of a raging sociopath, but when it comes to serious alternatives—actual, systemic change—well, let’s not get carried away. Workers devastated by the loss of their job and their healthcare at once? That’s just terrible. Medicare for all? Mmm, you know, that’s pretty radical, maybe an op-ed. Nurses, farmworkers and meatpackers on the front line? Deeply deserving of attention and sympathy. A livable, enforceable minimum wage that keeps pace with productivity? Well, you know, there are some very smart people who think that’s a bad idea. Restructuring the economy so disasters like Covid-19 don’t further immiserate those already struggling while scoring billionaires still more billions? What are you, a socialist?
Criticism of Trump, no matter how smart or funny, is no substitute for the radical undoing of the systems that made his presidency possible, the levers he was and is able to pull. That work involves listening to the people who are virtually never on the guestlist, and exploring the ideas corporate media find unfit to print.
Great peace! Keep up the fantastic work: Love the site!
There are serious problems with our election and campaign systems. There is even a certain degree of rigging. But at the risk of sounding elitist, none of these problems would matter much if millions of American voters weren’t so woefully uninformed or apathetic.
The problems with our system allow bad candidates to win on the margins. Ironically, even if some of the systemic problems are addressed and fixed, the side that loses will still complain about unfairness and rigging. In the current political climate, losing is necessarily a result of systemic problems.
For example, consider what Trump, and millions of Republicans, would have said if in 2016 a candidate like Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders had won. There would be a widespread belief that fraud and rigging was involved. Indeed, even though Trump won he still insisted that massive fraud was involved.
Millions of Republicans and Trump supporters believe that any criticism coming from the Left (or the Right) is, by definition, fake news. “Undoing the system” that makes a Trump presidency possible would be seen as a kind of backdoor coup.
I don’t know how to make uninformed people a little more informed. You can lead a horse to water. You might even make it drink. But you can’t stop it from spitting the water back in your face.
I’m curious, what do you believe is important, given “the radical undoing of the systems that made his presidency possible, the levers he was and is able to pull. That work involves listening to the people who are virtually never on the guestlist, and exploring the ideas corporate media find unfit to print.” ? I’m open to understanding and need a starting point as this doesn’t yet provide me with an anchor to start the exploration. Thanks
Sondie, my two cents (for starters): Take the money out of political campaigns. I have ideas on how to do this but I don’t want to bog down this discussion with details. Also, I’d like to see public schools get serious about teaching and practicing critical thinking skills and civic participation – not just in one or two classes but throughout a person’s entire education, from First Grade to high school graduation.
I’m guessing you have some ideas too.
MSM journalists expect better quality propaganda from the US Prez.
Thank you for honest, direct and unbought journslism!
Stay at it.
Janine rightly concludes, “Criticism of Trump … is no substitute for the radical undoing of the systems that made his presidency possible…” In mid-2018 Fox News broadcast a progressive roadmap for us.
https://www.facebook.com/ira.dember/posts/10219402520667301
Someone somewhere somehow, please initiate an interchange among high-minded thought-leaders to take on the question of how to shift our worldview from being based on self-interest to where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves. That is the essential inquiry. If we can come up with an answer, every issue that challenges us will be in the best position to be handled, where until then our efforts to fix what ails us are like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. Everything I do is in that pursuit and anything I could do to make that inquiry happen would fulfill the greatest mission I could be on.
I entirely agree with JJ on this. Trump is an easy target that any 5th grader who halfway paid attention in civics class (or whatever its currently called) could quickly recognize as an unqualified loudmouth bullshitter. But even IF he & Pence magically resigned tomorrow, does anyone really believe that things would significantly improve politically? Trump was never doing this as anything but a brand-building PR thing, never expected to win, and was stunned & worried when it happened. He quickly settled into just going along with the conservative Republican policies (crudely executed), with only a couple of exceptions. The US political problems are much more structural and deeply ingrained than just a yahoo like Trump.
Saying that we’re need to radically change the structure is a massive understatement. IMO, one of the greatest problems we face in our electionsis the selection of candidates. We the people don’t choose the candidates. The managers of the 2 parties select who we get to vote for. They present our options, and then convince us that any other choices are folly. And or works. I realize that altering this S.O.P. is darn near impossible, but so was creating a Democratic-Republic. The question; How do we go about this?
The first thing is that the powers of the presidency need to drastically curtailed. Much of that can be done by legislation, since much of the president’s power has been delegated by Congress, and can be taken back. The Emergencies Act is one example. That can be fixed simply by adding a sunset clause, stipulating that no emergency declaration remains in force for more than seven days unless approved by Congress. The War Powers Act is another statute that needs to be rewritten to curtail the power it delegates.
At the Constitutional level, the executive veto is a mistake. The executive should not be participating in the making of legislation or policy; he should simply take his marching orders from the legislative branch, and march; the executive’s job is to execute, and what he executes is the direction given him by the legislative branch.. At a more radical Constitutional level, the Congressional system is less effective than a parliamentary system, where the head of government is required to be a member of the legislative branch.