This is not a usual single-issue post. A young conservative friend of mine commented at length on one of my Facebook posts, and an adequate response requires more than I want to squeeze into a Facebook response pane. There’s a lot to unpack, and I’ll apologize in advance for the length of this post, but obviously we’re not dealing with simple issues. Some of this may also be repetitive from previous blog entries; for that I apologize, but there was a need to consolidate a whole lot of disparate content into one response.
I will preface everything by repeating something I have said before, and has been repeated often by many who speak out against Mr. Trump: This is not about Hillary Clinton losing the election. She wasn’t a perfect candidate, not by a long shot, but I supported her because I thought she was the more qualified candidate. In the end she lost the Electoral College, and that’s that; I’m not disputing that reality. And, while I’m philosophically aligned with the Democratic value system, my reaction is not even about a Republican winning and a Democrat losing. Elections have come and gone with each party winning their fair share. Had John Kasich or Mitt Romney (or [insert name here]) won the election I (and others) would not have been happy, but I (and others) would not be reacting so strongly. The issue right now is Mr. Trump himself. It is partly about the kind of person he has shown himself to be (verifiable) and partly that I believe to my very core that he is a threat to democracy as we have come to know it in the United States. For the moment this is an opinion, and only history will be able to judge whether this fear is justified, but I think it is. For me, it is a fear that makes my stomach churn and my heart race.
So, back to my Facebook posts…. I post a lot of political material. The material I post is related to Mr. Trump, his actions, his proposed policies, his staff appointments and cabinet nominations, and information released by his representatives. It’s focused on the man, his administration, what he says and what he does. I do not, and will not, cast personal aspersions at the people who support him. During the campaign, I was called “a special kind of stupid” because I supported Mrs. Clinton. I found that to be both hurtful and provocative, so I resolved not to attack people with whom I disagreed. I realize that other people do get personal – on both sides – and I can’t answer for them. But I won’t attack anyone personally in regard to this issue.
When we talk about the disagreements that have arisen in the aftermath of the election, some issues are zero-sum, although both sides have claimed otherwise:
- Both Trump supporters and Clinton supporters have behaved badly and continue to do so. A simple skimming of the comments below virtually any news report will show that there is plenty of nasty, vile vitriol on both sides. Neither side is innocent.
- There were protests when Obama was elected; there are protests against Trump – zero sum.
- The Republicans stated early in Obama’s tenure that they intended to block everything they could related to his policy initiatives; the Democrats may try to do the same (although they will fail, since they don’t have the necessary majorities). Zero sum.
In the end, we’re not doing anything they haven’t done; they aren’t doing anything we haven’t done. Zero sum. At least with these things.
Anyone who follows me know that I’ve been using #truthmatters a lot in my posts. One of the things we must agree on is that there is, in fact, such thing as truth. We also must agree that truth is a good thing and that it matters. If we can’t agree on those things, further discussion is fruitless. I regularly post articles which point out things that Trump or his representative say, but are verifiably untrue. When I say “verifiably” I mean that there is audio, video, photo, print or social media evidence that proves that what is being said is untrue. I’m not talking about opinions – those would not be verifiable. When I share things that are op-ed, I always try to point that out because I want to be sure that opinion is separated from fact. So, it is important to point out that I really try not to use #truthmatters unless I’m talking about something provable. (I should also point out that conservatives also use #truthmatters. It’s not unique to either party.)
To that end, while I read a broad spectrum of news (my apps include both Fox News and the Huffington Post), I will generally only share items from outlets that are widely considered to be centrist publications with excellent journalistic credentials: BBC, Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post, Brookings, occasionally the LA Times and Chicago Tribune. I no longer watch nightly television news. I don’t cite Rachel Maddow and I don’t cite Sean Hannity.
Now, I understand that there are those who trust no news other than that coming from Fox News or outlets even more conservative. Or, who don’t even trust them, but only what Mr. Trump or his representatives verbally say to be true. If that is the case, we cannot have a discussion because we are coming from perspectives that are irreconcilable. In the same way, I would not expect anyone to engage with me if I were citing only the Huffington Post or Palmer Report. There must be some common agreement of where the public can get solid news and believe in its veracity. Most agree that the publications I mentioned fall into that category, and so I stick with them. In the end, everyone needs to do the analysis and make their decisions about where their news will come from. I believe the ones I use are reliable reporters of verifiable facts.
One of Mr. Trump’s strategies, however, is to undermine the credibility of all press. Period. This is a dangerous thing and it is one of my fundamental fears related to his threat to democracy. Our Founding Fathers understood the need for a free and open press. They believed it so strongly that it was incorporated into the First Amendment to the Constitution. The term “fourth estate” has been used to describe the press since the late 1700’s. While it originated in England, it also became used in the United States to describe the press as a non-political fourth branch of government. So, in addition to our three branches of government – executive, judicial and legislative – the “fourth estate” exists outside of government to ensure non-governmental reporting of news to the public. This is why we have no state news agency – our press is independent. We have no TASS.
As Mr. Trump works to delegitimize the press, he is undermining the public’s ability to rely on a source outside of the White House for their news. This gives him tremendous, and dangerous, power. No, it won’t work for everyone. As I said earlier, everyone must analyze and decide which news outlets they will believe. Mr. Trump’s strategy to undermine trust in all of them, however, is working for a lot of people.
Again, back to the issue at hand: I post a lot of material that is evidence of Mr. Trump and/or his staff telling falsehoods. I do this because I believe truth is important in our government, and because citizens should know when their government is lying to them. Each citizen can decide if that is acceptable or not, but I think they need enough information so that they can make that decision. For me, I believe we need to be able to believe our president in all things, and I do mean all. We need to believe him in small issues so that we can believe him when big issues arise. Right now there is ample evidence (again, factual and verifiable – not my opinion) that I cannot believe him. This frightens me. If he tells me we need to go to war, I want to be able to believe why. (I know, some people will respond that they would have felt that way about Clinton. Point taken. But I will also point out the despite countless hours and dollars poured into the Benghazi investigation, it was quietly dissolved at the end for lack of evidence related to wrongdoing. Ditto for the e-mail server. Again, not an ideal candidate and many would not have trusted here. Had she won perhaps the demonstrations would have been sponsored by conservatives. We’ll never know.)
Just a few more points and I’ll put an end to this missive.
I said earlier that I fear for democracy. The Founding Fathers designed our three branches of government as a separation-of-powers safeguard. The intention was to keep any one branch from being too strong – we are intended to have a system of checks and balances. I believe that we have seen (opinion, again) behavior by Mr. Trump, and responses by legislators, which indicate that Congress might not be up to the task of standing up to Mr. Trump. Using a strategy that I think is pretty brilliant, Mr. Trump has invited many of his former opponents into his administration. They will no longer be in a position to challenge him. Additionally, he has used social media to bully, shame and coerce people and institutions into compliance. If our Republican-majority Congress is not willing to disagree with him, and if he sufficiently undermines the credibility of the press, his power will be unlimited. Given that I also do not believe that he is a person of sound moral and ethical character, this is especially terrifying.
I fear for democracy because of the influence of Russia on our election. That they interfered is no longer questioned by anyone, apparently even Mr. Trump. We don’t know that it changed the outcome, but we do know that this was the intent. We also know that Mr. Trump views Russia and its leader favorably, despite knowing that they interfered with our most sacred political process – a presidential election. He has talked about lifting sanctions. He has talked about wanting to work with Mr. Putin. He clearly wants to be friends with Russia.
Related to this is Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his income tax information, and his unwillingness to divest himself of his business interests. We do not know if he has business interests in Russia; therefore, we do not know if he has a financial stake. We should be concerned about this. We know that Mr. Trump cares about money. As he famously said in The Art of the Deal, “The point is, you can’t be too greedy.” This sends a chill down my spine when I think that the leader of our country might have a financial stake in Russia. What might he betray, what harm might he allow to the United States if it means personal profit for him? I do not believe that this is an unrealistic fear.
In addition to our democracy, I worry about our national security Mr. Trump’s tweets regarding China and Taiwan, his comments about nuclear weapons, his disdain for NATO and the United Nations, and his contempt toward United States intelligence agencies (all verifiable) make me fear both war and isolation. A fragmented and un-allied world led to World War II; we are seeing that fragmentation re-emerge, and he is encouraging it. We should all be afraid of these dissolving of alliances. It does not bode well for world peace.
I know I need to wrap this up. I reiterate that my passionate resistance is because Mr. Trump is who he is and because he does the things he does. This goes way beyond political philosophy. And it’s not just me. What we are seeing in terms of resistance is unprecedented, and it’s because the person in question is unprecedented. If people are resisting, it’s not because Hillary lost the election. It’s because we’re afraid of losing our country. It’s all about him.
Do Not Go Gentle 2016 