Elites and Media Don’t Get It

A vital block of Americans cast off the chains of anti-Americanism, elitism, political correctness, and media dishonesty to drive 70-year-old Donald Trump to triumph in the 2016 presidential election Tuesday night.

With votes still being counted and confirmed, Trump had earned at least 276 electoral votes, six more than necessary, while Clinton was at 218. The popular vote was neck-and-neck, with both candidates earning over 59 million votes each so far.

Trump and his supporters swept aside the narrow-minded concerns of the political and media elites like a purifying white squall across the bloody deck of a slave freighter. Supporters refused to give answer to reporters and pollsters who sought a predetermined outcome. Instead, each took cover in his or her personal privacy, waiting for early voting or election day to pull the lever for Trump.

The Trumpers pulled it mightily again and again. Their votes tore down the so-called “Blue Wall” of the Democrats, the imaginary boundary Democrats believed protected them from defeat in those states.

The result bestowed an astonishing mantle of victory on the shoulders of Trump, the never-say-die candidate and accomplished billionaire who overcame the media’s monstrous partisanship and endless effluent of innuendo: the false or unsubstantiated accusations about his finances, businesses, taxes, campaign and debate statements, marriages, and sexual habits.

It seemed a mountain too high to climb, and the media, particularly national outlets like CNN (oft dubbed the “Clinton News Network”), MSNBC, CNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, network news, etc., doubled up on the shots they took at Trump by turning a blind eye to Hillary Clinton’s reckless, criminal email behavior, the sordid pay-to-play scheme of her Clinton Foundation, her pimping the media for debate questions against Sanders and Trump, and her salacious campaign operation designed to bring out the most sordid unsubstantiated details about Trump and present them even to the eyes and ears of children through their media minions.

Instead of journalistic investigative reporting into any of those aspects of Clinton’s character and practices, the major media rode the bench while Wikileaks and Russian hackers did the job the media should have done.

The media decided it had a more important job to do than communicate facts to voters. Their job was to assuage the “deplorables” with faux sympathy while paying no heed to what they were saying. Instead, the media portrayed voters’ support for Trump as at best a misdirected emotional venting of a barbarous and baleful national pride that led down a slippery slope of xenophobia, racism, and general hatred and national endangerment.

This distillation denied any value to what citizens – those drawn to Trump and his message – held in their hearts and in their minds: the policies of the last 25+ years had deprived them of jobs, income, opportunity, freedom, personal and national pride, and their sense of society and culture while bestowing all kinds of benefits and attentions on special interest groups and illegal immigrants and Middle Eastern refugees with no amity for the American political and religious culture.

Trump advocates were Americans unwelcome in their own country, Americans who could find no succor and respect in their country’s policies, Americans abandoned because they were deemed expendable by the elites and their minions, the collateral damage of today’s ineluctable global, social, economic, and technological evolution hailed as the natural progress of things.

So bad have circumstances become, and does the future look, that one columnist at The Washington Post has proposed the government provide a living wage to all Americans who are no longer needed in the workforce. 

Of course, the elites and their minions seem themselves to be immunized from the tumult of such evolution. 

In short, the ivory tower, elitist, leftist media didn’t get it. They didn’t get it that citizens have not conceded that this evolution is natural. Rather, government policies have artificially induced these conditions. Further, those who made the choice to support Trump have adduced correctly and rightfully that the constitutional mandate that infuses the American government is to make laws and policies that promote the common welfare and defense of American citizens, not foreigners.

The American government was not established to promote globalism, open borders, big corporate tyranny and license, and immigration just for the sake of immigration. The purpose of American government has always been to promote liberty and justice for each and every one of its citizens through the common welfare and defense.

No person would know this by reading the election reporting, especially that perpetrated by the national media outlets. If one reads their journalism, one sees that Trump supporters are ignorant, emotional, and prone to grave biases and prejudices, all of which produced an irrational choice to vote for Trump, a man whose flaws, the media crowed, were too profound and essential to permit him to win the presidency. On top of that, Trump offended the media’s sense of good taste. 

No. While Trump supporters may have entertained distaste for some of Trump’s personal qualities, they greatly preferred his ideas and proposals to Hillary’s. They did not want terrorists to have an easy time entering their country, and Hillary stood for that. They did not want illegal aliens staying in America, and Hillary stood for that. They did want our existing laws enforced. They did want illegals to be held accountable to the law, just like everyone else is. They did not want free trade agreements that robbed them of their jobs and devalued their labor. They did want American companies to build and operate factories in America. They did want to be able to pay their bills and have some left over for fun with their families. They did want their kids to be proud of them. And we all have wanted to see more “Made in America” print on products. 

Furthermore, Hillary’s experience was contrived, and she herself was deeply flawed. Hillary’s handling of Benghazi was both a substantial and a public relations disaster. Americans, including our ambassador, paid for her blunder with their lives. Like Trump, she offended many Americans’ moral sensibilities. Beyond Trump, however, Hillary engaged in criminal email activity but got away with it because of who she was. The media will argue she has never been convicted of anything; but in the court of public opinion, many, if not most, believe she has flouted the law repeatedly over the years. As a member of the elite, she was inoculated from prosecution. The perceived stain of criminality, however, sullies her person.

Good sense, good ideas about policies, and different ideas about what it means to be American and what the purpose of American government is, propelled people to support and vote for Donald Trump. He was the one person, the one candidate, with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders, who heard them and who identified what the problem was: an elite, stuck-in-the-mud establishment used to running the show on its own and shaming those who dissented with labels of political incorrectness.

As of today, that time is over. The fight will continue, but that time is over for now. It is the elites who better get used to the natural order of things, and that means the adoption of a true civic spirit that includes their fellow citizens.

What Democracy?

The tilt is in.

The media ridicules assertions that it is biased, then provides its own proof that it is in the way it reports the news.

Once again, I’ll draw an example from MSNBC and its Morning Joe program.

The show has spotlighted a few of Donald Trumps statements or actions, usually the more sensational ones. It continues to talk about his comments on the Access Hollywood video, either live or on the scrolls and banners at the bottom of the screen. And it continues to comment on Trump’s assertion the election is rigged. Those topics give them criticism they can stream continually without saying anything new.

Yet the Wikileaks revelations detailed in the emails of Clinton or of her campaign or other associates receive a cursory mention and dismissal. Morning Joe will scrutinize, for the purposes of derogation, Trump’s assertion the election is rigged. They will seek and bring on air someone from, say, the state of Indiana to tell us, “Naw, nothing going wrong in the Hoosier state!” But when they see in actual campaign emails or in undercover video footage Democrat or campaign operatives taking notes about how to register illegal aliens so they can vote, you hear not a peep, no indignation, no in-depth examination about the truth or falsity, no journalistic inquisitiveness.

The only news the networks and the major press outlets provide is negative news about Trump. It’s the only news acceptable to them. Does that not raise the alarum that democracy and objectivity are dead?

Then you hear political mercenaries like Elise Jordan blather about Trump’s diversionary tactics, and Mike Barnicle chiming in about Trump’s only campaign narrative of anger, with Jordan predicting a nasty post-election November.

“He seems to really be setting the stage for a nasty November, after his loss, and calling into question the veracity of the American political system; and he’s clearly not planning on being a gracious loser, which I hope that he would come around and understand how important it is to the democratic process, this idea that when you lose you concede with grace.”

Jordan worked for Rand Paul, who lost big and early in the Republican primary. My question to her in regard to losing with grace is: Do you mean losing graciously like the Bushes? Like Mitt Romney (who wasn’t running but acted as if he might)? Like Ted Cruz? Like Marco Rubio? Like John Kasich? Like Rand Paul?

None of them lost graciously. All provided either half-hearted support, no support, or even supported the candidate of the other party instead of their own party’s candidate, who won fair and square!

The actions of the elite Republicans deliberately sabotaged the Republican candidate and aided and abetted the very candidate Republicans have demonized for decades. They have destroyed the Republican Party, or contributed to its destruction. Yet Jordan wants to wax pious and declare that Trump should honor the sabotaged process and, by implication, mend the country and the party, even though it clearly isn’t and doesn’t feel healed.

Had Rand Paul earned the Republican nomination, do you think Jordan would be hollering about Hillary’s and her party’s subversion of the election process?

You bet!

Do you think she would be clamoring for an investigation of the Wikileaks revelations?

You bet!

Do you think she might be calling the process rigged?

You bet!

She would not have appeared on MSNBC, though, because they would not have given her time to explore the mystery of the lack of press coverage. Nope. That would be verboten! The media will not entertain any faithless questioning of its magisterium. Their inquisitors, like Barnicle, Mika Brzezinski, the social engineers at the Post and the Times, will place any dissent in their Iron Maidens and puncture it!

Democracy? Where? What the hell are you bastards talking about? Democracy means listening to the people, not you making the people listen and accept what you say, flooding them with an endless stream of your tunneling carnival sophistry.

The Perils of Decoding “Coded” Language

Mike Barnicle appears frequently on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to offer his political commentary. Barnicle lurks in the shadows of left wingery, though he seems reasonably well educated and experienced. Some websites describe him as an award-winning broadcast and print journalist. He brings some cred to the table.

Barnicle tries his best to appear middle-of-the-road and equanimous. When the going gets tough, however, he quickly reveals his true sentiments.

Tuesday morning the Morning Joe crew played a clip of Trump speaking at one of his rallies. The successful real estate mogul identified once again to the audience his sense that the autocratic party establishments and their media collaborators rig campaigns and elections to suit their desired outcome. Trump named a few locales where he thought such rigging was in process, such as Philadelphia and St. Louis.

Barnicle did some processing of his own. His rusty, coughing mental machinery produced this delightful, if trite, commodity: Trump was employing “coded” language. Crusty Barnicle declared the Republican nominee’s reference to Philly and St. Louis, and one other city I can’t remember, meant The Donald was pointing at one subversive culprit: blacks – a.k.a. African-Americans!

WWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!

By virtue of his implication, Barnicle’s puffy righteousness pronounced Trump a racist, thereby repeating and reaffirming and confirming all of Hillary’s and all of her clamorous media collaborators’ blathering about Trump’s nasty penchant for hate.

Never mind that Trump has continually identified wealthy and powerful elites and special interests and their media lackeys as the culprits, and that 99% of blacks, thanks to the mismanaged Obama economy, cannot be a part of that cabal. For that matter, probably 90% or more of whites, orientals, Indians, gays, women, Hispanics, and any other minority you can contemplate, cannot and are not a part of that special clique either.

Facing that truth would require Barnicle to search his calloused soul. He can’t do that. That would mean he and his bias have been part of the problem. “No! No! It cannot be mmmeeeeeeee!”

Hillary and her media collaborators often resort to labeling to convey a message. She does not have anything substantive to say about Trump, so she just calls him a racist. Why? No particular reason. He does not want to suppress black voters. In fact, he wants more of them to vote for him. She does not name any fact to support her contention. Oh, every now and again she’ll say that something Trump said or did will “equate” to racism. Some KKKer was in his audience of tens of thousands. Or he didn’t out of the blue condemn someone or something.

Of course, Hillary selects carefully what she wants to highlight. Trump does, after all, condemn those who kill Americans and others because of their perverted religious beliefs. Ah! That’s different! That condemnation of evil is bad. Its xenophobic or religiophobic or something.

Hillary is such a scammer! Such a con artist! Such a two-face! So are her media collaborators.

Hillary cannot tell the truth. If she ever does, her narrative that Trump is a divider will fall apart. She can’t allow that to happen, eh?

I don’t know how Barnicle built his reputation. It certainly wasn’t on objectivity. It’s probably one of those situations where all his professional and personal pals got together to laud his partial reporting. It’s funny how Barnicle wants to decode Trump’s hidden meaning when he can’t even figure out the plain meaning in the emails produced by Wikileaks that Hillary’s lackeys at the Department of State wanted a quid pro quo deal with the FBI: we’ll allow more foreign assignments of your agents, if you change the classification of Hillary’s emails.

Not even a raised eyebrow for the obvious.

But Barnicle – oooooooooo! – Barnicle can decipher Trump’s secret messages. Stay tuned. Next time Trump mentions the city “Orlando” by name, you’ll know he’s hating on Mickey and Pluto.

Ah! The Partialisms of the Press

It is far too easy to criticize the media, yet they bring it on themselves. The media’s coverage of events generally lacks substance and accuracy, not completely, but enough. I know, time limits prevent the communication of deeper, more accurate understandings. Then one should consider the avenue of expression compromised, at least somewhat.

Today I will harp on the media’s representation of one of Donald Trump’s comments about Ted Cruz. We have become acculturated to sensitivity, so for many, even conservatives, the utterances of the Donald seem harsh or offensive. Some hearers take umbrage at Trump’s words while others revel in them because, in their view, political correctness has devolved into censorship and stifled honesty, and Trump smashes through that cage with the honesty of expression for which those voters have hungered.

Someone can be honest and still be a jerk. But then someone can be a jerk and still be the most qualified person for the office of president.

We are still learning.

Meanwhile, let’s look at how the media reported one of Trump’s comments about Cruz. Trump told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that Cruz was “a little bit of a maniac” when he castigated Mitch McConnell publicly and on the senate floor over a recent vote to re-authorize the Export/Import Bank. Cruz said McConnell told “a simple lie.”

Cruz’s comments ran athwart of good sense and civility, some critics said, but also a Senate rule which prohibits such public denigration.

Whatever one thinks of Cruz or McConnell, or Trump for that matter, Trump said that Cruz was “a little bit of a maniac.” Yet reporters did not repeat Trump’s statement that way. They said Trump called Cruz “a maniac.” Over and over again they reported it that way, and they are still saying it that way, as I listened to a report earlier this morning from a journalist on MSNBC’s Live with Jose Diaz-Balart.

As a voter who wants to understand Trump’s use of hyperbole in his speeches and quotes, the distinction is important. Despite the media effort to create a fight between Trump and Cruz, neither has been too critical of the other. Cruz was caught saying Trump’s campaign would fail and he (Cruz) would collect his support. That prompted Trump’s “attack” on Cruz, which included a fumbled questioning of whether Cruz was an evangelical and a legitimate remark about Cruz’s temperament, since Cruz, if he became president, would have to work with people like McConnell.

The question becomes why the media reports Trump’s words inaccurately. The answers are similar but different.

Many in the conservative media want Trump and Cruz to consume each other with vitriol so either Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush, establishment candidates, can step forward to fill the void. So the inaccuracy is useful to them.

Many in the liberal media want Trump or Cruz to earn the Republican nomination because, in their opinion, both are more easily smeared and flayed, so by the time they reach the general election, Hillary, most likely, can defeat their crippled candidacies. Repeating inaccuracies and deliberately misrepresenting utterances, however hyperbolic or figurative, helps to cripple Trump and Cruz and advance the cause of their candidate.

So the game is truly afoot, with the media weighing in for its own purposes. It is getting hard to cry “foul”, though. The Republican leadership, establishment, elites, insiders -whatever you want to call them, are losing this election for their party and its members. They neither understand nor accept the deep disenchantment and outcry of their own members.

By alienating Trump and Cruz, the Republican leadership alienates the bulk of their members, or at least a huge bloc of them. If Rubio or Bush get the nomination through dishonest machinations, the party faithful, feeling cheated and betrayed, will not go to the polls or will vote for a third party candidate. Hillary wins.

Alternatively, the Democrats reliance on current sentiment about Trump stands out as gross overconfidence. People may not like the way Trump expresses himself, but plenty of them want a strong leader who will protect them and protect their borders and restore the economy. Hillary’s high negativity, even within her own party, could cost her votes as citizens look at Trump and say he is more likely to protect them and create prosperity. Hillary will have a hard time winning on those grounds.

Novelty props up Hillary – the first female presidential candidate from the two major parties. People speak of her resume, but it is open to criticism and devaluation. In tough economic times, it’s hard to sell more government spending, especially for welfare, when the bulk of the citizenry is not doing all that well. Certainly, the ideologues will stand with her. With uncertainty about the future prevalent, Trump’s chances, in particular, actually look pretty good.

People will complain about the way Trump speaks, but in the end, when it comes time to pull the lever, the voter is not going to pull it for political correctness, but for the person who will give them more opportunity, more freedom, more prosperity, and more safety.

That’s Trump, hands down. Trump may be rough, but he’s real. Hillary comes across as the charlatan who’s been prepping for the job just because she wants it and she wants to make history. Trump is open about his elitism and his billions. Hillary hides it in the dark and pretends to be a middle class person while she bargains surreptitiously for her own enrichment.

Frankly, there is no comparison, and the voters, regardless of party affiliation, sense it and know it. Trump chafes them, and they want to stop him from getting the Republican nomination, if they can, but they are going to vote for him if he gets to the general election, because they know he is the better, more qualified person. They don’t like him, but the reason for that is he is right even as he is insufferable.

Hillary is a shadow, and shadowy, candidate by comparison, an ideologue who wants to shape America into her self-inflated image.  She cannot be trusted. She cannot be relied upon. Ultimately, she is only about herself and her “legacy”.

I know I couldn’t take it: four or more years of Bush or Clinton. God, please, no!

And for all those old-time Republicans Joe Scarborough has been talking about, who allegedly said they will never vote for Trump and for the first time in their political lives they will vote Democrat for Hillary: then you will become the party’s Brutus!

For years you have told your disenchanted members that they had to vote for the candidate you proffered because the alternative was to vote for the greater evil: a Democrat! Now the shoe is on the other foot. Your deafness to all but a few of your party members has been destroying the Republican Party for years. Now a time of change has arrived, and once again you want to force your way down people’s throats. No! No! No! Not this time. Now it’s your turn to be faithful. Now it’s your turn to suck it up and support “the party.” Stop that greater evil from being elected: Hillary!

Ah! How treachery brews in the heart, in the darkened, isolated caverns of the mind!

And it all begins with deliberate inaccuracy!