Drew Nickell was back on the Radio, on Thursday, 27 February 2020
I was back on the radio today, sitting in on the Nora Firestone Show, on WKQA-AM Freedom 1110, where I discussed corona virus, the state of politics within the Commonwealth of Virginia, the fallacy of electability and how the media is helping, yes helping, Donald Trump to achieve greatness.
This show also appeared as a “Facebook live” broadcast, but because I was broadcasting remotely, the picture quality may appear somewhat diminished. Nevertheless, I hope you will enjoy watching this recording of the live broadcast, on the following link:
Unintended
Consequences: How the Media is Helping Trump to Achieve Greatness
Let
us start with the supposition that no one has ever achieved greatness without
doing so in the face of adversity.
This is certainly true in sports- think of the greatness Johnny Unitas achieved when everything seemed to be going against him- his father dying when he was five while his mother began working two jobs and managing to schedule his older brother, Lenny, to deliver coal from the truck his father once drove, just to keep food on the table. Drafted in the ninth round by hometown Pittsburgh, but never given a chance to call signals in training camp and then summarily cut, the young graduate of Louisville instead played semi-pro ball on fields of cinder and broken glass for $6 per game, that fall. When the Baltimore Colts picked him up on waivers the following winter, no one could have foreseen then, that he would go on to achieve greatness as the best quarterback to ever play the game.
This
is true in science and technology- think of how man conquered the barrier of sustained
flight through the determination and persistence of two bicycle mechanics from
Dayton, Ohio, one Orville and Wilber Wright, brothers who designed one of the first
operational wind tunnels to test their contraption, in preparation for their
historic flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina- all during a time when the prevailing
thought was that, if man were meant to fly, he’d have had wings. Within a dozen
years, the first warplanes appeared in the skies over Belgium. Within thirty
years, rockets started to be developed by the Third Reich- rockets that would
take American men to the surface of the moon, sixty-five years after the Wright
Brothers first achieved a sustained flight of twelve and a half seconds.
Greatness
in the face of adversity has appeared in individuals throughout history.
Think
of the trials and tribulations facing a Genoese sailor, who travelled
throughout Western Europe, in search of a monarch who would fund an exploratory
voyage westward, across the Atlantic Ocean, in an attempt to find a shorter
route to India- having no idea that an entire hemisphere of unknown continents
and uncharted lands constituted a world far larger, than anyone had ever thought,
up to that point. When Spain’s regents, Ferdinand and Isabella, finally agreed
to bankroll Columbus’s voyages, they began a stampede of future colonial aspirants
throughout Europe- Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Britain and later Russia,
who sought to lay claim to various parts of the New World, desiring the riches
and powers it afforded.
Think of the greatness of Mohandas Gandhi who, in the face of warring factions within his own country and a determined British Empire, achieved the very founding of an independent statehood for India- now the world’s largest representative democracy. His modus operandi of non-violent resistance, often in the face of deadly opposition and desires for vengeance, would go on to inspire political movements in South Africa and in the Americas, movements to achieve racial justice, institutional change and societal transformation.
Think
of the highly unlikely but ultimate victory of General George Washington who
managed to take a band of farmers, frontiersmen and unskilled laborers, and transform
them into a fighting force that would defeat the greatest army the world had
ever known, up until that point in time. He would go on to become the nation’s
first president, all while having to abide a warring cabinet who often schemed
behind his back, all in pursuit of personal and partisan interests… something
that another president, Abraham Lincoln, would have to overcome to achieve his own
historical greatness, seventy years later.
While
political opponents, scheming insiders and putative political pundits have
always stood in the way of political greatness, these formidable forces have
largely been overcome by very few, in particularly challenging times. Often
mocked and second-guessed by legions of those who claimed that they knew
better, Washington and Lincoln achieved and attained greatness in spite of the
fact that they often had to “go it alone,” when it seemed that all the world was going
against them.
Conversely,
how could one say Barack Obama achieved greatness during his own presidency, when
he was almost universally adored by the entire mainstream media and by almost
all of the world’s power brokers? Facing absolutely no real opposition from his
political opponents, in both the Republican and Democrat parties, Barack Obama
was able to skate through eight years of a presidency that achieved relatively little
in the grand scheme of things…very little, aside from a so-called Affordable
Care Act which no sane politician would dare to embrace even a decade later,
and an Iran “deal” that ultimately used taxpayer funds to finance terrorism
throughout the world, by an Iranian regime bent on bringing the world towards
an apocalypse. No, given all of the
adulation and adoration heaped on him by the mainstream media, and even
supplication by his political opponents, it was practically impossible, and ultimately
proved unattainable, for President Obama to achieve greatness- aside from the
fact that he also managed to drive the entire country to the very divisions and
discordance we face, today.
Enter
one Donald J. Trump, the flashy and often over-stated real estate tycoon from
the 1970’s who was the irresistible and undeniable “click-bait” for tabloids
and talk shows in the ensuing four decades- who he was dating, what he was
building, and the deals he was making all made him a media sensation, who was almost
universally adored and promoted as a marketing genius, that is until…
…he
decided to run for president.
In
the flash of an instant, the one-time media sensation suddenly became a pariah,
a misogynist, a racist, a homophobe, a xenophobe and an Islamophobe all
because, like so many of his predecessors, he chose to run as a Republican. The
last sixty years of presidential politics have witnessed the very same slander
and libel foisted on every Republican running for president, and yet “the
Donald” was still different. Trump was even undercut by members of his
own party, who resented this “upstart” who threatened to shake a tired, unimaginative
and neo-conservative and globalist Republican Party to the very core of its
foundation. Unlike his predecessors, Trump was the penultimate outsider- but
one who also knew the ins and outs, and the “who had dirt on whom,” from politicians
in both parties who at one time, sought his own financial support. Here was the
man “who knew too much,” elected on a promise to drain the swamp of corruption
that took hold in our nation’s capital during the course of his own lifetime. With
almost universal opposition from Democrats, Republicans, the mainstream media
and bureaucrats throughout government and even in the courts, Trump did the unthinkable
and impossible- he defeated Hillary Clinton in an election thought to be far beyond
his reach.
Worse,
he has persisted in pursuing this agenda while members from within his own
cabinet sought to undercut the new president through treachery, guile and a
determination to see him fail. The opposition to his election and presidency,
which was first evidenced in the boycott of his inauguration, continued as
Democrats attempted to manufacture reasons for his impeachment and removal out
of their sheer hatred for the man. Aided and abetted by a mainstream media who
shares in their hatred of this President, a three-year $40 million investigation
into charges that his campaign was in collusion with Russia, came up with
absolutely no corroborating evidence. Meanwhile, the efforts to impeach and
remove him from office continued in a desperate search to find some reason- any
reason, to warrant the effort. On a flimsy and, yes, flatulent claim that the
President tried to illegally gain assistance from Ukraine to help him in his
re-election efforts, the stink that they themselves created all fell back on
Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff who saw their efforts to impeach and
remove the President, go down in flames…not that their efforts have so abated,
they just need to find some other new reason to proceed.
Say
what you will about President Donald J. Trump, but given all of the forces
allayed against him, all of the treachery that has been heaped upon him by members
of his own party, and even by some members of his own cabinet, no one could
reasonably accuse Trump of having the same adulation afforded to his predecessor(s),
by either Washington insiders or the political press. With that, along with the
machinations of Democrats determined to stand in the way of his success, both
here and around the world, the seeds of greatness have thus been sown on the
fertile fields of Donald Trump, just waiting for an historic, life-changing challenge
that will ultimately make, or break, his presidency.
Whether
this challenge comes from a new and virulent corona virus that might prove to
become the pandemic plague of the twenty-first century, or whether this
challenge comes as the result of a military threat from without, or from domestic
upheaval from within, President Donald J. Trump will be dealt the cards of unseen
and foreboding challenges that will either prove his mettle, or ultimately
prove to be, his own undoing, in the months and in the years ahead…
…and
the potential for President Trump to achieve greatness in the very face of
universal adversity, is being unwittingly and yet inexorably facilitated by a
mainstream media who intends to achieve quite the opposite.
The
News out of Richmond- the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Although
I usually provide commentary on national issues, to the exclusion of state and
local issues, some news taking place in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia warrants
some attention…
First the Good: On February 17th, the Virginia Senate rejected a bill endorsed by Democrat Governor Ralph Northam, that would have placed severe restrictions on so-called “assault” weapons and curtailed the rights of Virginians to keep and bear arms. This was the latest measure proposed by Democrats to strictly curtail Second Amendment rights in the Commonwealth, in a state where Democrats control both houses of the General Assembly as well as all three executive offices- governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. Largely the result of protests taking place in January, the bill ultimately failed, with the help of four Democrat legislators joining a united Republican caucus.
Next
the Bad: On February 11th, both of the Democrat-led Houses of the Virginia
General Assembly passed measures that would authorize cities and
counties the autonomy to “remove, relocate, contextualize, cover or alter” Confederate
monuments in their respective public spaces. Forget about the subtleties in the
language, for it is nothing less than an assault on our history. In Richmond,
the bill would allow local politicos to remove five monuments- those of Confederate
Generals J.E.B. Stuart, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, as
well as Naval Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury and Confederate President
Jefferson Davis- that are the very namesake of Monument Avenue. Once compared
to the Champs Elysée in Paris (World Book Encyclopedia- 1959), Richmond’s
Monument Avenue was, at one time, one of the most beautiful tree-lined
boulevards in America, if not the entire world. Since the late 1980s and early
1990s, however, politicians in Richmond City have systematically and incrementally
taken this recognition down, and now it appears they’ll have the authority to finish
the job. Never mind the fact that, technically, the statues on
Monument Avenue were gifts to the Commonwealth of Virginia (and not city-owned
property), erected during the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth
century…and from monies raised by Confederate widows and other beneficiary
organizations. None of that seems to matter in this
era of revisionist history, academic indoctrination and political correctness.
Now, the Ugly: It never ceases to amaze me
how freedoms so preciously won in terms of treasure and bloodshed can be taken
away with the mere stroke of a pen, by short-sighted nincompoops who seek power
and incumbency by signing away our constitutional rights and historical legacies.
Although the motion to strictly curtail and, in some cases, eliminate our right
to keep and bear arms here in the Old Dominion, ultimately failed this
time around, the one-time medical student in blackface and now Governor Ralph
Northam, has vowed to bring the legislation back in the Assembly’s next term.
Richmond, where Patrick Henry once delivered
his “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, where religious liberty in the new
world was first codified into law, and where television was first broadcast in
the South, has fallen on hard times in these last decades. The federally
employed population overflowing the confines of the Capital Beltway, have
brought their love of big government, with its trappings of largesse and governmental
oversight, to Virginia’s capital and the once reliably red state has thus turned
absolutely blue within the last decade. Once known as a conservative,
pay-as-you-go state which detested both deficits and debt, Virginia has become swollen
with federal dollars (primarily defense-related spending) to the extent of
being the top spender of federal tax dollars on a per capita basis. Along
with this spending has arrived the blue-nosed elite of wealthy opportunists who
think they know better- far better than the “rubes” who have made Virginia home
for generations. They have neither respect nor reverence to abide honors once
afforded by locals to their heroes of the past- honors bestowed by those local
Virginians who fought with, personally knew and later raised funds to erect the
monuments to their fallen comrades in arms. These political opportunists took
advantage of traditionally reticent Richmonders, far too genteel and far too
reserved to put up an honest fight- until it was too late. Once a statue comes
down, after all, it will never be put back up.
All in all, it is very sad that the Old
Dominion- once known as the birthplace of self-governance in the new world and
the “mother of states” has now become the “New Domain” of D.C. insiders who
seek to eliminate the power of the several states to govern themselves in
accordance with the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Remember that rights either surrendered or
taken away can never be retrieved, but by blood…
…and God forbid, that may be where we are
headed, yet again…
Since the
first time we voted as an eighteen-year-old in 1976- just three days after our qualifying
birthday- a host of Republican presidential hopefuls who have gained their
party’s nomination based upon their supposed electability, have gone on
to join the pantheon of Election Day losers.
In that
bicentennial year of 1976, it was President Gerald Ford who staved off a close
challenge from California Governor Ronald Reagan, based largely on his
incumbency, but also on the assumption of party insiders that Reagan was just too
conservative to beat out an up and coming Governor from Georgia named Jimmy
Carter. The moderate and supposedly more electable Gerald Ford then went
down to defeat to a governor no one had heard of, prior to that year. We recall
that voting in our first election caused us to be a few minutes late to our
first period government class, taught by a grouchy old spinster who was
vehemently opposed to the 26th Amendment, ratified six summers
before. Upon finding out just why we were late to class, she rewarded our civic
duty with two weeks detention…but enough of this trek down memory lane.
In the
presidential elections which followed- aside from 1980 when the “unelectable”
Reagan trounced Jimmy Carter’s bid for reelection, and aside from the 2000
election when Texas Governor George W. Bush edged out Vice President Al Gore-
every supposedly electable Republican
presidential nominee lost soundly to their Democrat opponent. Incumbent President
George H.W. Bush in 1992, Kansas Senator Bob Dole in 1996, Arizona Senator John
McCain in 2008, Massachusetts Governor and future Utah Senator Mitt Romney in
2012- all of these “highly electable” Republican nominees rendered us the
presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Then, as we all know, the most unelectable Republican, out of seventeen vying for their party’s nomination, handily defeated the heavily favored Democrat, Hillary Clinton in 2016. So incensed was the mild-mannered, moderate milquetoast Mitt Romney at his own loss, he went on a televised diatribe against Donald Trump accusing the future President of being a charlatan, a counterfeit, a con-artist, and worse. Romney, who couldn’t even stand his ground when Barack Obama and debate moderator Candy Crowley teamed up against him, on his assertion that the Obama administration lied about the causes of the infamous Benghazi raid, went “nasty” on the future nominee of his own party- the only time Romney ever showed some “courage” in his entire career. That is if one were to believe the mainstream media who rejoiced at his supposed takedown of then-candidate Trump. The same mainstream media trotted out the “courage” canard about Romney, yet again this week, when the backstabbing, two-faced, attention-seeking Romney broke with his party to vote for Trump’s conviction on one of the two counts of impeachment against the President.
So, it could
be argued that so-called electable Republicans tend to lose elections,
which is just fine with Democrats and their echo chamber that is the mainstream
media. When a Republican presidential hopeful is labeled “electable,” or is
tagged with the title of “most electable,” you can bet your infernal regions
that such a candidate is:
the
least likely to advance bold solutions to address the issues at hand;
the
least likely to fight back against fallacious and libelous assertions by their
opponents and so-called journalists;
and
therefore…
…the
most likely to go on to be defeated by the Democrat nominee.
Having
endured then, the insufferable presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and
Barack Obama for twenty of the preceding forty years, not to mention a dozen more
years of unfulfilled promises of conservative governance from both Presidents
Bush, father and son, is it any wonder how half of the American electorate
chose a brash and bold and feisty non-politician to finally pick up where his
last four predecessors ultimately fell down on the job?
Donald
Trump’s presidency was not only the inevitable result of eight years of Barack
Obama, but the inevitable result of four decades of frustration, disappointment
and failure to rein in the terrible beast that is the deep-stated,
internationalist/globalist government of Washington, D.C.
Not even
Ronald Reagan, perhaps the best-loved Republican to hold the office, could make
a dent in doing so, primarily because “the Gipper” could not bring himself to
effectively fight back against the mainstream media and D.C. insiders who
despised him for his conservative credentials and midwestern ideals.
The
undeniable truth is that we have known Donald Trump since the 1970s, when the
brash and bold and flashy frequenter of the New York nightclub scene- always
present with a beautiful lady on his arm- graced the pages of tabloids and
newspapers aplenty, with every major talk show clamoring to interview the real
estate tycoon. He never failed to serve up precisely what they were all
looking for- the exciting and noteworthy headlines guaranteed to sell print and
airtime, alike.
As the 1970s
turned into the 1980s, and beyond, it was Trump’s name and image that broadened
its scope from real estate and casinos to apparel and golf courses, all the
while serving up “sizzle,” concerning failed marriages and speculation about who
would become the next “Mrs. Trump.” Never one to turn down a request for an
interview, Donald Trump only exceeded his fortune and fame with accessibility
and moxie, always promoting himself and his enterprises with reckless abandon
and undeniable charm.
When the century turned, the casinos that failed didn’t deter “the Donald,” and he launched yet another career hosting beauty pageants, boxing and wrestling events, football teams and, most successfully, a new “reality” show called The Apprentice, making the phrase “You’re fired” into a national sensation. Hence, the penultimate ability of Donald Trump to take the very simple and understandable and transform it into the latest hot fad for mass consumption. It wasn’t until he launched his campaign for the presidency when all of the “pressies” and politicians seeking his money, suddenly turned on him and recast his image as a horrible and intolerant man seeking to create something short of a return to Jim Crow. In particular, this was and is a detestable lie about a man who was just previously lauded by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for advancing the cause of civil rights and black ascendency.
Trump wasn’t
the first Republican nominee tagged as a racist. Each and every Republican
nominee, going back to Barry Goldwater in 1964, has had that treacherous tag
foisted on them by the media and their Democrat allies because that is
how Democrats have secured the support of African-Americans. Never mind that it
was the party of Lincoln who emancipated the slaves, who secured voting
suffrage for black men fifty-five years before white women, and who
opposed the periodic ebb and flow of the Ku Klux Klan, which was originally the
creation of disaffected and disenfranchised white southern Democrats who
resisted Reconstruction after the American Civil War. The media decided that it
was the Republicans who were the racists, not the Democrats.
The nasty
but undeniable truth about Donald Trump is that he would just as likely have been
elected as a Democrat, as he was elected as a Republican, because the American
people have grown weary of lofty promises and stirring oratory that ultimately
ended in disappointment and failure. Trump wisely chose to run as a Republican,
because he saw an opportunity to seize the mantle of a party that had grown too
blue-nosed, too deferential, too inside-the-beltway, and too unable to fight
back against the “big lie” perpetrated by the mass media and their Democrat
cronies.
While
Democrats today still fail to recognize this, and while all of the
mainstream media also fail to either acknowledge or recognize the sheer
inevitability of one Donald Trump, the President has shown an uncanny ability
to “keep calm and carry on,” (as the British say), the trappings and the trials
and the tribulations of his office. Through phony, very costly and
time-consuming investigations of his alleged Russian collusion, repeated (and,
yes, ongoing) attempts to impeach and bring down his presidency by Democrats in
Congress, President Trump shoulders these burdens with much aplomb, and “soldiers
on” in his quest to save the country he loves…
…and that is what infuriates his enemies most of all, each and every day that he remains President of the United States. By the way, that is also why his re-election is now as certain as it is inevitable.
Drew Nickell was back on the Radio on 6 February 2020
I was back on the radio today, sitting in on the Nora Firestone Show, on WKQA-AM Freedom 1110, where I discussed the corona virus, the impeachment, the President’s State of the Union, political polarization and other current events which have taken place, since the new year began
This show also appeared as a “Facebook live” broadcast, but because I was broadcasting remotely, the picture quality may appear somewhat diminished. Nevertheless, I hope you will enjoy watching the replay of that video, here:
Trump’s Third State of the Union and Acquittal- Setting the Table for November’s Election
Setting
aside for a moment the outlandishly immature and visceral behavior on the part
of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and many of her fellow Democrats in the
House and Senate, during and immediately following President Donald Trump’s
third State of the Union address, the table has been set for November’s election
in a way that remains unnoticed by the mainstream media.
That the President delivered one of the finest State of the Union speeches in the last half century- especially when one considers the political climate of the nation’s legislature in 2020, not to mention the fact that it was the evening before the Senate vote on his own impeachment- is almost beside the point.
This is not to take away the substantive achievements this President enumerated, for they are many and almost miraculous, given the overtly hostile opposition he has faced in all corners of the nation’s capital. From the still-seething members of the Democrat Party who still despise him for defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016, through the bloated and entrenched halls of the permanent deep state, to even members of his very own cabinet who have sought to tame the beast that they see in Donald Trump’s determination to drain the swamp of corruption in Washington, the President has faced strident opposition from all quarters and most all of the mainstream media, too. Yet, in the midst of all of this, Trump has ticked off the checklist of the campaign promises he has made and kept, ever since he launched his campaign in June of 2015.
To
a greater degree than any President in at least three generations, he has kept
his word far more often than not. Even his harshest critics cannot accuse this
President of subterfuge and secrecy when it comes to his true thoughts and
feelings about any issue. When Trump says something, it is a consummate and honest
reflection of what the man truly thinks. Fault him though they might, no one
can accuse Donald Trump of misleading rhetoric. This was reflected in last
night’s State of the Union address, just as he has in his last two SOTU addresses
to joint sessions of Congress. In no misleading and uncertain terms, he has told
the American people where we were prior to his presidency, what he has achieved
in the three years of his being in the White House, and has outlined a vision
of what he seeks to do in the remainder of this term, as well as his next. President
Trump’s is a stunning record of accomplishment in the face of almost universal
opposition has ensured that no Democrat, running or not, has the goods to defeat
him this fall- none, period.
Insanely
jealous of the fact that Donald Trump has achieved far more than he would have
ever achieved, had he prevailed in his own campaign(s) to be President, Senator
Mitt Romney (R-NV) pulled out his demonic dagger and has thus stabbed the
President in the back, by joining with Democrats to vote to convict the
President in the most partisan and divisive impeachment in U.S. history. Romney
is essentially a rat bastard who has been on a teeter-totter of two-faced
dealings with the President, for years. In 2012, Romney sucked up to Trump
seeking contributions to the Mitt’s failed presidential campaign. Then, after
Trump’s campaign launch three years later, Romney delivered a despicable and
slanderous diatribe on national television, excoriating Trump in vicious and
venal attacks on Trump’s character. Once Trump was elected President, Romney slovenly
courted Trump’s selection to be Secretary of State, thinking he could play
Trump for a fool on the international stage. Failing that, he ran for a Senate
seat vowing to take the place of Anti-Trump/NeverTrump Republican Senators John
McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ)- two men who behaved like the Western
Diamondback rattlesnakes so prevalently found in the Grand Canyon State they
both represented. McCain is dead, and Flake is quickly fading away into
irrelevance- just like Romney will do, once Utah voters replace him in 2024. In
fact, there are already calls in Salt Lake City to amend the state’s constitution
allowing the recall of an elected U.S. Senator, because of Romney’s repeated
treachery when it comes to how he has treated the duly elected President of his
own party.
Look
for the national media to praise his “courage” – yeah, right.
“Mittens” didn’t have the courage to challenge Barack Obama and debate-moderator Candy Crowley in 2012, when they teamed up against him on his assertion that the Obama administration lied about the impetus that led to four Americans being slain in Benghazi, that same year. Same for the so-called “courage” of Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) who just had to go out of their way to slam the President, even though they announced their intention to acquit him, along with the remainder of Senate Republicans. Anyone who thought that Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) would oppose his party on impeachment, is naïve enough to think that Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) might have also done so. Jones’ announcement to vote for conviction surprised no one with any brains and ensured his ouster when he comes up his own re-election this fall. Watch for both of them to call for “bipartisanship,” along with other so-called “moderate” Democrats- the same Democrats who still voted to remove the President.
Juxtapose all of this to how inauspiciously and hatefully Democrat legislators behaved on the one night they are supposed to set aside rank partisanship and respect the institutions of our republic. Their intransigence was displayed for the entire country to witness first hand and the leader of their party, Pelosi, iced their corrupt and corrosive cake when she demonstrably tore up the official copy of the president’s address- technically a crime because the law proscribes the destruction of official documents, like a Constitutionally-mandated annual State of the Union.
No
matter.
While
the stupid and petulant House Speaker thought she would help the candidacy of former
Vice-President Joe Biden (D-DE), by dragging out the delivery of impeachment
articles for more than a month, following the rush to impeach the President in
the House, her efforts failed miserably. By doing so, she effectively albeit
unintentionally caused Biden’s overt corruption during his term in office to
come to the forefront for all to see. His entire candidacy has crashed on the
rocks of his own party’s impeachment effort, and Democrat voters know it- hence
his poor performance in the Iowa caucus.
So,
the table has been set for President Donald Trump’s re-election, thanks to his
own performance last night, and throughout his three years as President. Thanks
to the behavior of Democrats during the last three years- not to mention the
churlish and childish behavior displayed before a national audience last night-
they themselves have set the table for their own defeat in this fall’s election.
Republicans will keep the Senate and flip the House, all the while riding on
the coattails of the most highly regarded (in their own party) Republican
President in United States history.
Approaching the End of Impeachment: the Inevitable Polarization
As a
ten-year old desperately seeking some form of escape in 1968, I poured myself
into the 1968 presidential campaign and the interest it sparked in me led to a lifelong
study of national politics. Ever since, the study of national politics has been
an avocation which resulted in numerous editorial columns, letters to newspaper
editors and, in the last decade, a published book Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times, along with some 450 essays on contemporary
political issues which have been posted on Facebook and other social media
sites. I always take great interest in the reactions and in the replies to
these posts, which gives me a greater “feel” for the national electorate in a
way that statistical polls never will. Aside from writing about national
politics, I have also engaged in all levels of verbal political discourse with
those who agree with my own views and with those very much opposed to these
views. Like many of you, the discussion of national politics has unfortunately
resulted in the loss of some friends- personal and otherwise. A half century of
studying the subject, and a decade’s worth of seeing the reaction to what I
have written has taught this 61-year old a few things…and here is what I have
learned:
People first learn their political leanings from
their parents. but these political leanings can radically change as the result
of academic education from primary through university years;
When leaving whatever level of formal education one
attains, entry into the real world of working, drawing paychecks, paying taxes
as well as other elements of adult life can also refine and, in some cases, even
re-define political views;
The sources of information which people utilize to learn about what is going on in the world can very much affect their opinions on given issues, as well as other non-political elements in their daily lives;
People will believe what they are absolutely determined to believe, even in the very face of empirical evidence to the contrary- and will not be swayed away from their own core convictions.
In the first three of these instances, we see that external entities- parents, schools and universities, and what I will call the “stressors” of adult life can and will shape political beliefs. In particular, the education and mass media entities know this…all too well. The baby boomer generation witnessed only the beginning of “outlook-based” education (read indoctrination) that has firmly and inexorably taken hold in the two generations which have followed. This explains the unusual attraction of younger voters to the oldest man currently running for president- Bernie Sanders. Add to this the century-long bias of most of the mass media, which has consistently favored Democrat candidates over Republican candidates, and it is no wonder that there is such an enormous divide between liberal and conservative voters- and this shows in their attitudes about the impeachment of President Trump.
In the last of these instances we see that there are also inherent core beliefs which are the only bulwark against the intrusion of these external entities- and the degree to which they are effective varies from person to person. It could be argued that one’s character and conviction can be measured as to how strongly one’s inherent core beliefs stand against the outside influences seeking to alter them. Consider the reality that many students who enter university with religious convictions, exit the university with agnostic or even atheistic beliefs about God, faith and redemption. By the same token, many students who enter university with conservative political beliefs gain their degrees and exit university with “progressive” (read “socialist”) beliefs. This is what indoctrination looks like.
That is why people today are more polarized and more divided than they have been in the past 160 years, and the presence of social media and bias of mass media does nothing to ameliorate these divisions. In fact, these division are inflamed and encouraged by the mainstream media and by politicians who drive, and are driven by, the political press…that’s the bad news.
The worse news is that we are slowly but surely losing the skills
required in conflict resolution. As children, baby boomers who spent afternoons
playing outdoor games like kickball and tag learned first-hand how to resolve
conflict. Can the same be said of later generations who spent their afternoons playing
video and computer games, where any conflict which arises can ultimately be resolved
by simply selecting a “reset” or “restart” button? Even the abundance of supervised sports and
other activities available today don’t help youngsters in these regards,
because conflicts which arise are resolved by parents, coaches and referees-
not the kids, themselves.
Those who wish to place the point of this polarization on politicians and politicos in the media would be far better served to look within themselves and consider how the effects that these external influences stoke the flames of our own division…for ourselves, for our progeny and for our posterity.
Otherwise, we as a free society are headed into the abyss.
