Hurrah for Political Chaos!

It is not easy to find out what is going on in Washington these days. That is partly due to Donald Trump’s style - many initiatives and gambits, loudly and provocatively presented. Some of these, like the tariff business, are obviously maneuvering for position; others are serious.


This is wonderful and Trump is doing great service to our supposed government of the people. He is talking directly to the people and raising real issues. While for the last half century the Uniparty presidents and congresspersons have avoided all real issues as they increased federal power and pronounced platitudes about doing good that were believed only by those who were already slaves of the Establishment.


Another and larger reason for the difficulties in understanding is the total dishonesty of the now completely corrupted mainstream press and television. Media have always been biased. It used to be that you allowed for the bias and managed to get the genuine substance of what was happening. That is now impossible for the millions of dolts who still follow the mainstream media. No President has ever been subjected to the daily barrage of negative lies that Trump is experiencing.


In theory, reporters objectively report what a President proposes and has to say. They may add objective report of what critics and opponents have to say in response, and the editorial page may express opinion as to what is going on. That is proper public deliberation for a supposedly free country.


But the current media never report plainly what Trump does and says. The reader first hears of the proposals in a negative context. A few examples of recent online headlines: “Trump Appears to Change Tune”; “Trump Scrambles for Positive Spin”; “Buyer’s Remorse Strikes Trump Voters”; “Judge Declares Trump Action Unconstitutional.”


College Journalism courses are now called Media Arts or some such thing. It is now established that college Journalism majors rank even below Education majors in I.Q. They all aspire to be news anchors on television. I know where of I speak. In my long ago misspent youth I was a newspaper reporter for two years.


In those days reporters were curious, tough, and skeptical. Some had not even been to college. They did not accept the usual pablum from mayors, police chiefs, bureaucrats, judges, self-promoting political wannabes, and business tycoons. To the extent that the owners allowed, they tried to tell it like it was.


More recently I have had to opportunity to see how much the news “profession” has deteriorated. For a period the press was interested in me as (unbelievably) a “Southern nationalist.” I encountered a number of reporters. I never met one from a “respectable” news outlet who knew anything, was capable of independent thought, and able to report anything except in terms of current clichés.


Many friends on my side are expressing disappointment with Trump. He is not exactly the type of leader I admire. But he seems to have at least made a start on the immense, difficult, and necessary task of cleaning up immigration and firing federal bureaucrats. Who else who is high in public life has ever even considered doing such things?


Is it possible that even Trump’s greatest flaw, support of Israeli imperialist genocide, may offer some promise. He may have wrapped Netanyahu so tightly that he can exercise some control over him in the only way it can be done. May we hope?