Skip to main content

Lost time at the Photo Op for Fat Boys




This summit -or photo op for Fat Boys- is a waste if we are going to simply expect Trump to go in and sit down and ‘charm’ the delegation or to use the old Harold Hill “Think Method” to try and stun them with our brilliance. Trump is a buffoon and a madman with a big stick, thanks to the 38%. The question now is how far will he go and how far will we let him go?



The one thing the GOP is good at is fake outrage. And they would have had plenty of ingredients to stir them up as we keep speculating ‘what if” this was OBAMA doing these things. What if....Obama had trashed our allies!? What if....Obama had dismissed the press as fake news and an ongoing FBI investigation plus Special counsel looking into his campaign and possible obstruction of justice as a ‘witch hunt?’ What if...Obama had – and the list goes on. The answer is he wouldn’t be able to get away with it, and the next question is where is the outrage? Where are the people storming the Bastille? Why don’t the Democrats form a “Truth Squad” and have press conferences DAILY to highlight their outrage. Why does the GOP simply stand by and smile like old-fashioned Southern Debutantes as Trump simply squashes any vestige of an agenda?



The list goes on. The GOP would have been better at this. Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Donald Trump would know how to attack an opponent. They don’t always allow truth to stand in the way of the message. They understood the medium becomes the message. And the message is a simple one. Us against them and make America great. God Bless America and full steam ahead. Globalization is bad and America alone is good. I alone can fix it and no one can stop me. These are not subtle messages and they aren’t even well thought out. But as Bill Clinton once said, “Strong and wrong beat weak and right every time.”



We don’t need to know how Trump is doing it.  We don’t have any time left to sit and wax philosophical as to what might have been.We need to counter the argument he is making and the other side-be it Democrat or Republican or Independent or simply American- needs to come up with a rapid response NOW. Trump light or MeToo, we need to be in the mix. And there isn’t a moment to lose. Benjamin Franklin was right: “Lost time is never found again.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hillary and the Man in the Arena

From the standpoint of one who voted for and endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, there seems to be a question hanging in the air. How could someone who opposed the Clintonian dynasty support Hillary’s bid for the Presidency? Isn’t it a bit hypocritical? Or at least inconsistent with the view previously taken? This is true for many supporters of Obama. Some on the left cannot support her bid for President.They see many of her acknowledged flaws and conclude she cannot be a viable option. My view comes from watching her over the course of the past eight years, four as the Secretary of State within this Administration. And having watched the two debate in 2008- Obama vs. Hillary- there can be little question that the divide that separates them on most issues is a small one. Theirs is a centrist left view of the world. On Foreign Policy, I daresay that Hillary would never have worked for Obama had she held wildly opposing views from his own world view. But the...

The Fifth Risk: A Chillingly Prophetic Narrative for our Time

  For those who have never read this book, ,”The Fifth Risk” is a chillingly prophetic narrative that perfectly embodies the reasoning and set of circumstances that have led us to this point in the pandemic. Not only is there no plan for getting us out of the Pandemic-at least from the Trump Administration- there is instead a decisive narrative which Lewis lays out that allows you to understand why there is a pattern to the idea of simply ‘dropping off the cliff.’   The plan from the beginning, long before the Trump Administration even began to take power, was to break down the walls of governance that had surrounded the Washington agencies for decades prior. Of course, many of Trump’s supporters argue: That is the point! Steve Bannon proudly declared that government would be ‘de-constructed.’ And even those who ended up disagreeing with Trump heavily, such as John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, did help implement the policies that were laid out in the beginning of Trump’s tenur...

One problem in American Democracy: The Media

In school, there was a class called P.A.D. It stood for Problems in American Democracy,   and this was supposed to be a newer version of the old Civics classes given to high school students. There are several problems to be sure in our 21st century version of democracy. One major problem is the media. The problem lies with the role of the media in elections and also in the role of the free press in questioning our leaders and elected officials. With history as a guide, we see the problems that arose in the lead-up to the Iraq war. History has been repeating itself with this 2016 election. If you recall the excitement after 9/11, when the media couldn't hide their delight in becoming"embeds" in the military invasion of Iraq, this was problematic at the time. I remember watching the BBC to get some type of rational coverage and perhaps some questioning over why we were invading this country. But if the networks see a ratings boom, they don't question the whys or ...