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| Idaho town of tragedy (kxly image) |
Politics is always important. We ought to have policy-based discussion and this should be done on a civilized basis. But then you know what happened. The Trump obsession was born. It grew.
Reasonable people among us thought at certain points that the phenomenon had "crossed a line." Rational thought would have told us to discard this flim-flam man.
There were not enough reasonable people among us. The fever did not break. Remember that in our still-new Internet age, competition for eyeballs, for attention, is, well, staggering. So you must realize that people who wish to get in front of the public will find their grist accordingly. You might say Trump became a magnet. And he knew it all along.
Sad to say, our society has been mostly like lemmings in dealing with this. You might say we have acquiesced. Or we have allowed ourselves to be played like a fiddle by Trump and his circle of sycophants. Remember that there are many people out there who simply want to be close to power. If Trump continues to be seen as a viable political presence, within reach of the most powerful office in the world, believe me he'll be surrounded by enthused enablers.
It does not matter that some of his earlier sycophants finally were gripped by reason and conscience - not enough of them, certainly. Jeff Sessions was a key early supporter of Trump from within D.C.'s power structure. Sessions exercised his conscience and "recused" himself, remember? And what happened to him? Absolutely crushed underfoot by Trump. He was insulted on personal terms by Trump.
In the old days a preponderance of the public would at least be aroused to think such behavior was unbecoming of a national leader. We had our basic civil impulses. The "kooks" could be off in their corner. Since 2017 when Trump assumed office, it's like this sea change has occurred. I have become uncomfortable even talking with some of my "conservative" friends about this. They will concede there might be some personal issues with Trump. But "the fever has not broken" with them yet.
Most damaging of all, they have been sort of hypnotized into thinking that compromise is unacceptable. They are led around by Trump's talk about "RINO" Republicans, i.e. Republicans who are capable of having mutual respect with Democrats and working with them occasionally on key issues. I know Arnold Schwarzenegger has been very concerned about this aspect of what's going on.
There's a headline on "Mediaite" this morning: "Trump attacks 'weak RINO Bill Barr' in brutal rant."
If anything, Barr while serving under Trump bent over backwards on behalf of MAGA interests. Remember how he wasn't sure what the word "suggest" meant? Hell, I think the questioner Kamala Harris should have called a recess and then come back to spend the rest of the day focused on the definition of "suggest," complete with overhead displays from various dictionaries.
Trump is an amoral menace to America who looks around to blame others for anything that might seem to be wrong. And yet a person of this character continues to hover over us like a dark cloud. It just doesn't go away. I don't dare even assume that the fever might be breaking. It has been easy to hope for that in the past. Is there just a glimmer of hope that it might be happening now?
Don't bet on it, though it's nice to hope the glass can be half-full.
Yesterday I had occasion to check a discussion on the Fox News show "The 5." Why would I come upon this? I don't have TV these days but I consume cable news from YouTube. The algorithm suggested a snippet from "The 5" because the discussion focused on the Idaho murder topic. I had been searching for background on this.
There was a time when "true crime" was an important part of cable news. Think Natalee Holloway. The Holloway story was another step forward in Greta Van Susteren's career. She got well-known from the O.J. Simpson true crime mega-story. Greta has been on an up-and-down path but she's settled in with Newsmax now. And let's emphasize that she is a break from the standard fare of Newsmax which is MAGA-heavy. It's like Newsmax decided to have a little break in the day, probably at a slow time for getting viewers, 5 p.m. our time.
Greta was actually willing to be confrontational with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin after Youngkin's distasteful joke after the Pelosi assault incident. Greta tried unsuccessfully to get Youngkin to apologize. However, the interview might have upped the pressure on the governor to do so, because within days we learned that Youngkin sent a handwritten apology to Nancy Pelosi. Youngkin got shaken up after he realized the MAGA-heavy influence on him had gotten too heavy.
In war the combatants "de-humanize" the enemy - makes it easier to kill them. Trump has led his political party down a path of thinking much the same way. It is hard getting some people woken up from this. But it can happen, grudgingly, to make people take a new look at their leader who has talked about "grabbing women by the pussy" and who has paid off porn stars/Playboy models to try to keep them quiet after trysts. (They bring him to orgasm I'm sure.)
My "conservative" friends would mostly just laugh at me as I seek to point these things out. The fever isn't breaking all that much. But are there signs?
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| Jeanine Pirro (twitter) |
So I watched a little discussion on the Fox News program "The 5" because there was a segment about the Moscow, Idaho, murders. I was absolutely astonished. Although, I should not have been surprised.
There was Jeanine Pirro of all people, talking like the astute legal mind that she assuredly is. She'd have to be, unless "the bottle" has taken over her life.
It's as if the panelists on this show had "snapped" away from their cult devotion (with MAGA) and could speak like reasonable human beings. There they were dissecting a true crime story on perfectly reasonable terms. What a sigh of relief I could have issued. These people can be agreeable and rational, even "Judge Jeanine," whose extremism with Trump has been such, she has been parodied on "Saturday Night Live."
Of course she's an intelligent person. Now I just hope she can stay that way. What about Rudy Giuliani?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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