The mainstream media, dubbed an ‘enemy of the people’ by Donald Trump, struggles to come to grips with an Administration that promotes falsehoods as ‘alternative facts,’ there is a plea from some conservative quarters to give the new administration a break. It’s difficult to do in the face of some of the things that have flowed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
When State Department Foreign Service employees signed a Dissent Channel message disagreeing with Trump’s Muslim visa ban and proposing alternatives that would better achieve his oft-stated security goals, and the message was leaked, Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, rather than decrying the leak of an internal document, basically said the employees should ‘get with the program or get out.’ On the other hand, when documents were leaked showing that Trump’s national security advisor, retired general Michael Flynn, lied when he said he’d not discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador and was forced to resign, Trump maintained that Flynn had done nothing wrong and the leak should be investigated.
When the media exposes another ‘alternate fact’ coming from him or one of his minions, they’re labeled ‘fake’ and ‘enemies of the people.’ When he decided to replace Spicer at a press conference, he spent most of the time ranting at the ‘fake’ press for its unflattering coverage of him and his administration.
Oh, and before I forget, much to the discomfort of many senior GOP elected officials, Trump continues to float the lie that the only reason he lost the popular vote by some 3 million votes is because there were 3 million illegal votes cast. The only support he’s received in this blatant falsehood, again, is from his minions. And now, rather than focusing on getting his administration’s act together and governing, he seems to be going back on the campaign trail, which appears to be his comfort zone.
I could go on and on, but it’s just too depressing. Some of my friends and former colleagues (a very few, I might add) tell me that I’m being too hard on the man, and that he’ll come to his senses soon and things will be normal again. I wish I could believe them, but my 50+ years of dealing with people in cultures all over the world, from kings to cannibals, have led me to conclude that absent a truly cataclysmic event, people seldom change their basic nature. Nearly two months into the Trump Administration and I have yet to see signs of change.
I am forced, sadly, to conclude that waiting for things to return to normal is like pushing a rope up a hill. It appears that abnormal is the new normal.
When State Department Foreign Service employees signed a Dissent Channel message disagreeing with Trump’s Muslim visa ban and proposing alternatives that would better achieve his oft-stated security goals, and the message was leaked, Trump’s spokesman, Sean Spicer, rather than decrying the leak of an internal document, basically said the employees should ‘get with the program or get out.’ On the other hand, when documents were leaked showing that Trump’s national security advisor, retired general Michael Flynn, lied when he said he’d not discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador and was forced to resign, Trump maintained that Flynn had done nothing wrong and the leak should be investigated.
When the media exposes another ‘alternate fact’ coming from him or one of his minions, they’re labeled ‘fake’ and ‘enemies of the people.’ When he decided to replace Spicer at a press conference, he spent most of the time ranting at the ‘fake’ press for its unflattering coverage of him and his administration.
Oh, and before I forget, much to the discomfort of many senior GOP elected officials, Trump continues to float the lie that the only reason he lost the popular vote by some 3 million votes is because there were 3 million illegal votes cast. The only support he’s received in this blatant falsehood, again, is from his minions. And now, rather than focusing on getting his administration’s act together and governing, he seems to be going back on the campaign trail, which appears to be his comfort zone.
I could go on and on, but it’s just too depressing. Some of my friends and former colleagues (a very few, I might add) tell me that I’m being too hard on the man, and that he’ll come to his senses soon and things will be normal again. I wish I could believe them, but my 50+ years of dealing with people in cultures all over the world, from kings to cannibals, have led me to conclude that absent a truly cataclysmic event, people seldom change their basic nature. Nearly two months into the Trump Administration and I have yet to see signs of change.
I am forced, sadly, to conclude that waiting for things to return to normal is like pushing a rope up a hill. It appears that abnormal is the new normal.
