![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Through the looking glass...
Feb. 28th, 2017 06:44 amI am constantly flabbergasted these days. How in the world did it come to pass that the buffoon currently sitting in the Oval Office, is sitting in the Oval Office?
Honestly, at best I'm embarrassed. How can any other nation actually take us seriously when this is the quality of individual who holds that position. It would be one thing if he had inherited the position (see the Madness of King George), but this man was elected. No matter how much you question the validity of the last election, a significant number of people did actually vote for him. (Yes, he did lose the popular vote by something like 3 million votes, but thanks to the method we use with an electoral college, he did win enough electoral delegates to win.)
Yes, theremay were foreign influences afoot to push the election in his favor, but these could not have worked if there were not already a huge number of people in this country clambering for things Trump promised.
There, I said his name. I started off resisting doing that and couldn't even get past the 3rd paragraph successfully.
In my not so humble personal opinion, Trump thrives on lies and deceptions, now being dubbed alternative facts by people like Kelly Ann Conway, that he can use to sway the less well educated in our greater society. Venues like Breitbart, Drudge, and Fox News dispense this pablum as gospel. They and other similar media outlets are therefore being given favored status by the administration, while, dangerously so, more objective news outlets like, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and CNN are not allowed into his most recent press briefings. WTF??
"Fake News!", Trump proclaims. This is not only dangerous, it should be considered by my fellow citizens as heresy! In support of this concept I offer something that should be known to any American High School-er who has taken a civics class:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." ---------1st Amendment to the US Constitution.
One of the first things on the agenda of almost all authoritarian rulers is to stamp our freedom of the press. Declaring war on so-called fake media and then putting news stalwarts like the NYT, and CNN, et.al. in that group is Trump's attempt to do just that. This cannot be allowed. From her televised bully pulpet, Rachel Maddow has been pushing people for months now if not longer to go out and subscribe to their local news papers so they do not go away due to financial troubles. She's right. The demise of many of the print media across the country is not serving the truth in this country. It is serving the likes of Donald Trump and his ilk.
It is not only our right but our civic duty to speak out and to protest this (see 1st amendment above). If we do not, then we get what we deserve. Inaction in times like these is not a luxury we can afford. So far some of what he has attempted to do has been thwarted by the courts. That can only continue if the American Public stands up and presses OUR elected representatives to do what is right for us.
That's right; they are OUR representatives. Not the NRA, not the Koch Brothers, not Goldman Sach's. They represent us. They have to respond to us, both Democrats and Republican. BUT it also means they have to hear from us, in large numbers and often. It means we have to push our friends, neighbors and relatives to not sit back, but to do what they can. We have to show up at town halls, write and call our representatives and if they do not respond to us, WE HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO BE CERTAIN THEY ARE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY. The deluge Republican members of congress are getting in their home districts around the country will bear fruit, if it continues. If they start seeing their chances for re-election dwindling away, they will respond to that. If districts flip in special elections for seats now vacant because people have moved on into Trump's cabinet, the members who remain will recognize that if they continue on the path they are on, there will be consequences for their political futures.
Honestly, at best I'm embarrassed. How can any other nation actually take us seriously when this is the quality of individual who holds that position. It would be one thing if he had inherited the position (see the Madness of King George), but this man was elected. No matter how much you question the validity of the last election, a significant number of people did actually vote for him. (Yes, he did lose the popular vote by something like 3 million votes, but thanks to the method we use with an electoral college, he did win enough electoral delegates to win.)
Yes, there
There, I said his name. I started off resisting doing that and couldn't even get past the 3rd paragraph successfully.
In my not so humble personal opinion, Trump thrives on lies and deceptions, now being dubbed alternative facts by people like Kelly Ann Conway, that he can use to sway the less well educated in our greater society. Venues like Breitbart, Drudge, and Fox News dispense this pablum as gospel. They and other similar media outlets are therefore being given favored status by the administration, while, dangerously so, more objective news outlets like, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and CNN are not allowed into his most recent press briefings. WTF??
"Fake News!", Trump proclaims. This is not only dangerous, it should be considered by my fellow citizens as heresy! In support of this concept I offer something that should be known to any American High School-er who has taken a civics class:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." ---------1st Amendment to the US Constitution.
One of the first things on the agenda of almost all authoritarian rulers is to stamp our freedom of the press. Declaring war on so-called fake media and then putting news stalwarts like the NYT, and CNN, et.al. in that group is Trump's attempt to do just that. This cannot be allowed. From her televised bully pulpet, Rachel Maddow has been pushing people for months now if not longer to go out and subscribe to their local news papers so they do not go away due to financial troubles. She's right. The demise of many of the print media across the country is not serving the truth in this country. It is serving the likes of Donald Trump and his ilk.
It is not only our right but our civic duty to speak out and to protest this (see 1st amendment above). If we do not, then we get what we deserve. Inaction in times like these is not a luxury we can afford. So far some of what he has attempted to do has been thwarted by the courts. That can only continue if the American Public stands up and presses OUR elected representatives to do what is right for us.
That's right; they are OUR representatives. Not the NRA, not the Koch Brothers, not Goldman Sach's. They represent us. They have to respond to us, both Democrats and Republican. BUT it also means they have to hear from us, in large numbers and often. It means we have to push our friends, neighbors and relatives to not sit back, but to do what they can. We have to show up at town halls, write and call our representatives and if they do not respond to us, WE HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO BE CERTAIN THEY ARE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY. The deluge Republican members of congress are getting in their home districts around the country will bear fruit, if it continues. If they start seeing their chances for re-election dwindling away, they will respond to that. If districts flip in special elections for seats now vacant because people have moved on into Trump's cabinet, the members who remain will recognize that if they continue on the path they are on, there will be consequences for their political futures.
