One of the excuses our beloved mainstream media offers for their 24-7 negative coverage of President Trump is that they are bound by their oath of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
Yes. And the most comfortable people in America? Those would be urban liberals with nice sinecures in government and education and it would be the politicians that represent them.
So why were President Obama's lies nothing to our liberal friends? The wafted-aloft First Black President is probably the most comfortable man in America. Whatever he says or does is accepted without demur by the entire mainstream media and all the faithful readers of The New York Times and faithful listeners of NPR. If there could be one man in America that a media truly devoted to afflicting the comfortable would afflict, then that man would be President Obama.
The truth is, of course, that nobody observes that old chestnut about comfort and affliction, not in families, not in politics, not in culture, and certainly not in war. We comfort our side and we afflict the other side, and that is all about it.
So if President Obama told a fib or two about Obamacare it was all in a good cause to bring affordable healthcare to every American -- and non American -- in the USA. After all, to hold the president to the truth might have imperiled the passage of his landmark health legislation, and that would never do.
As Winston Churchill said: "In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Since politics is civil war by other means, it makes complete sense that politicians lie all the time to protect the truth, or more exactly, The Narrative. That is why there is also the tag: "you can tell a politician is lying because his lips are moving."
What people hate is not the bodyguard of lies protecting their own truth, but the bodyguard of lies protecting the truth, the Narrative, of the Other Party.
Thus liberal mainstream media figures -- all the way down to the humble makeup-artist on an interview show -- are outraged when a President Trump tells his deplorables what they want to hear at one of his notorious rallies. Of course they are. President Trump is telling his deplorables what they want to hear, and what deplorables want to hear from their president is not what liberal mainstream media figures want to hear. When people hear stuff from a politician that they do not want to hear they usually call it "lies."
The problem of "lies" is particularly acute for liberals right now because for decades they have successfully bullied into silence any politician or cultural figure that dared to dissent from their version of "truth." You know the form: disagree with a liberal and you are a racist, sexist, homophobe.
Until President Trump. The whole point about Donald Trump's campaign and his presidency thus far is that Trump dares to say things that you are not allowed to say. For instance, only yesterday the actress Roseanne Barr was kicked off ABC for making a racist taunt against a public figure, Valerie Jarrett, who was President Obama's consigliere in the White House. And the Disney CEO, Bob Iger, personally phoned Valerie Jarrett to apologize. Hey, tweeted Donald Trump: When am I getting my phone call from Bob Iger when people on ABC insult me?
No kidding. Right now The Rules say that it is intolerable for a white person to make a racist comment about a black person, because slavery, but it is not intolerable for a black person to make a racist comment about whites. And President Trump just violated The Rules.
Now for me, there is no question that President Trump lies. I would say that one of the biggest of his lies is that he has declared an end to Free Trade in favor of Fair Trade. Yet, if you look at his actions, he has seemed to be raising tariffs on China to bring it to the bargaining table to force China to lower its trade barriers against the US. He talked about building a wall, but has not exactly made wall-building the centerpiece of his administration.
If you are a conservative like me you feel yourself belabored by liberal lies all the time: about racism, about the homeless, about climate change, about gays, about education, about entitlements. To me, liberals are always lying about the facts, and also lying about their political goals. Now, for the first time in decades, liberals are getting to experience what it feels like to hear the opposing party tell its truth to its supporters without worrying too much about offending liberals.
So, for me, it is a glorious thing for President Trump to have the cojones to go up against the liberal narrative and live to tell the tale. And I dare say that I am merely one among the millions that feel that way.
This is absolutely basic. If you are a political leader you must be able to speak The Narrative to your supporters, to tell them what they want to hear. To the extent that the opposition party intimidates you into silence, so far are they preventing you from committing politics, and so far are they forcing you to retreat in the Battle of Ideas and enforce their Narrative on your supporters.
The reason that Donald Trump won the nomination of the Republican Party is that he seemed to be a candidate that would not cringe before the liberal verbal-assassination squad. That has been the complaint of the conservative and Republican faithful for decades. Our leaders are always trying to make nice with the liberals when the liberals never hesitate to call us racists and sexists.
Until Trump.
And of course liberals are beside themselves that President Trump would counter Bob Iger's apology to Valerie Jarrett with a wise-guy retort: hey, when am I getting my call! Liberals have never experienced this sort of a challenge to their world view in their lifetimes. It is just not part of the way things are supposed to be, if you are a liberal.
No wonder liberals are in a complete conniption fit over President Trump. He is daring to speak truth to liberal power.
Yes. And the most comfortable people in America? Those would be urban liberals with nice sinecures in government and education and it would be the politicians that represent them.
So why were President Obama's lies nothing to our liberal friends? The wafted-aloft First Black President is probably the most comfortable man in America. Whatever he says or does is accepted without demur by the entire mainstream media and all the faithful readers of The New York Times and faithful listeners of NPR. If there could be one man in America that a media truly devoted to afflicting the comfortable would afflict, then that man would be President Obama.
The truth is, of course, that nobody observes that old chestnut about comfort and affliction, not in families, not in politics, not in culture, and certainly not in war. We comfort our side and we afflict the other side, and that is all about it.
So if President Obama told a fib or two about Obamacare it was all in a good cause to bring affordable healthcare to every American -- and non American -- in the USA. After all, to hold the president to the truth might have imperiled the passage of his landmark health legislation, and that would never do.
As Winston Churchill said: "In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Since politics is civil war by other means, it makes complete sense that politicians lie all the time to protect the truth, or more exactly, The Narrative. That is why there is also the tag: "you can tell a politician is lying because his lips are moving."
What people hate is not the bodyguard of lies protecting their own truth, but the bodyguard of lies protecting the truth, the Narrative, of the Other Party.
Thus liberal mainstream media figures -- all the way down to the humble makeup-artist on an interview show -- are outraged when a President Trump tells his deplorables what they want to hear at one of his notorious rallies. Of course they are. President Trump is telling his deplorables what they want to hear, and what deplorables want to hear from their president is not what liberal mainstream media figures want to hear. When people hear stuff from a politician that they do not want to hear they usually call it "lies."
The problem of "lies" is particularly acute for liberals right now because for decades they have successfully bullied into silence any politician or cultural figure that dared to dissent from their version of "truth." You know the form: disagree with a liberal and you are a racist, sexist, homophobe.
Until President Trump. The whole point about Donald Trump's campaign and his presidency thus far is that Trump dares to say things that you are not allowed to say. For instance, only yesterday the actress Roseanne Barr was kicked off ABC for making a racist taunt against a public figure, Valerie Jarrett, who was President Obama's consigliere in the White House. And the Disney CEO, Bob Iger, personally phoned Valerie Jarrett to apologize. Hey, tweeted Donald Trump: When am I getting my phone call from Bob Iger when people on ABC insult me?
No kidding. Right now The Rules say that it is intolerable for a white person to make a racist comment about a black person, because slavery, but it is not intolerable for a black person to make a racist comment about whites. And President Trump just violated The Rules.
Now for me, there is no question that President Trump lies. I would say that one of the biggest of his lies is that he has declared an end to Free Trade in favor of Fair Trade. Yet, if you look at his actions, he has seemed to be raising tariffs on China to bring it to the bargaining table to force China to lower its trade barriers against the US. He talked about building a wall, but has not exactly made wall-building the centerpiece of his administration.
If you are a conservative like me you feel yourself belabored by liberal lies all the time: about racism, about the homeless, about climate change, about gays, about education, about entitlements. To me, liberals are always lying about the facts, and also lying about their political goals. Now, for the first time in decades, liberals are getting to experience what it feels like to hear the opposing party tell its truth to its supporters without worrying too much about offending liberals.
So, for me, it is a glorious thing for President Trump to have the cojones to go up against the liberal narrative and live to tell the tale. And I dare say that I am merely one among the millions that feel that way.
This is absolutely basic. If you are a political leader you must be able to speak The Narrative to your supporters, to tell them what they want to hear. To the extent that the opposition party intimidates you into silence, so far are they preventing you from committing politics, and so far are they forcing you to retreat in the Battle of Ideas and enforce their Narrative on your supporters.
The reason that Donald Trump won the nomination of the Republican Party is that he seemed to be a candidate that would not cringe before the liberal verbal-assassination squad. That has been the complaint of the conservative and Republican faithful for decades. Our leaders are always trying to make nice with the liberals when the liberals never hesitate to call us racists and sexists.
Until Trump.
And of course liberals are beside themselves that President Trump would counter Bob Iger's apology to Valerie Jarrett with a wise-guy retort: hey, when am I getting my call! Liberals have never experienced this sort of a challenge to their world view in their lifetimes. It is just not part of the way things are supposed to be, if you are a liberal.
No wonder liberals are in a complete conniption fit over President Trump. He is daring to speak truth to liberal power.
Christopher, please keep it up. Your blog deserves to get more attention...But I've noticed you aren't much into self promotion.
ReplyDeleteOr something.