As I hear, speak, read, and write about, and
watch the current events of the day unfold, it has become increasingly evident over
the past few years that the ideological chasm that divides our country is deep,
wide, and firmly entrenched. For example, if you like #45, or perhaps more
pointedly, if you dislike Hillary Clinton, there is apparently nothing that the
Commander-in-Chief can do or say to cause you to second guess, or regret the
fact you voted for him, and/or that he won.
A number of polls suggest that up to 96% of the people who voted him
have no regrets, and that only 2% do.
A never-ending series of counter-positioned
narratives began emerging as soon as he was inaugurated. The Administration
started spinning immediately. The day after the Inauguration reports surfaced
claiming the crowd gathered on the National Mall was the largest in history. At
his maiden press briefing, Sean Spicer, White House press secretary attacked
the media (a recurring theme), accusing them of deliberately misleading the
public about the size of the new administration’s inauguration crowd. As Mr.
Spicer put it:
“Photographs of the inaugural
proceedings were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular Tweet, to
minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall. That was
the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and
around the globe.”
The press secretary offered scant facts to
disprove the media reports of comparatively low turnout, and most of it was
misleading or inaccurate. The overall contention that the 2017 inaugural drew
the “largest audience” ever is just untrue.
Among Spicer’s flawed assertions were, he
claimed:
·
It was the first time floor
coverings were used to protect the grass on the Mall. It was not. The coverings
were used in 2013.
·
It was the first time usage
of fencing and magnetometers on the Mall for preventing hundreds of thousands
of people from being able to access the mall as quickly as in the past. False.
According to a 2017 Congressional Research Service screening magnetometers, or
metal detectors, have been used in past inaugurations. The claim was further
disputed by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, who tweeted that two
unnamed law enforcement officials told him “Magnetometers were not used in the
areas of the of the Mall that Spicer indicated.
Spicer chastised the press for tweeting out
“inaccurate numbers involving crowd size:”
·
“No one had numbers because
the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall, does not put any
out. We do know a few things. So let’s go through the facts.”
1. We know the platform from where the President was sworn in to 4th
Street holds about 250,000 people
2. From 4th Street to the media tent is about another
220,000.
3. From the media tent to the Washington Monument, another 250,000
people.
·
“All of this space was full
when the President took the oath of office.”
Many news organizations, including PolitiFact, note that it’s difficult to gauge
crowd size. The National Park Service discontinued the practice in the National
Mall after the Million Man March in 1995. If Mr. Spicer’s claims of full spaces
were correct, which photographs contradict, it would put the crowd size at
least 720,000, which is higher than the preliminary estimates reported in the
media, but on par with the 700,000 to 900,000 organizers expected to attend.
#45 touted 1.5 million on January 21 at CIA headquarters.
The catch is that
still would not be the top figure.
Here are the attendance estimates for the 2017 and 7 previous
inaugurations:
Inauguration
|
|
Trump, 2017
|
|
Barack Obama, 2013
|
1 million
|
Obama, 2009
|
1.8 million
|
George W. Bush, 2005
|
400,000
|
Bush, 2001
|
300,000
|
Bill Clinton, 1997
|
250,000
|
Clinton, 1993
|
800,000
|
George H.W. Bush, 1989
|
300,000
|
So this testy indoctrination was the
template for the relationship between the administration, the media, the truth,
and We The People. One might say it is tenuous. At best! My favorite assessment
to date was formulated and expressed by David Broder, in a NYT article on April
10, 2017, in which he wrote about #45:
“It’s not so
much that he isn’t well informed; it’s that he is prodigiously learned in the
sort of knowledge that doesn’t accord with the facts of our current dimension.”
You can interpret that however you
choose. But as I’ve already noted, his fan club could care less. Kellyanne
Conway, Counselor to the President, perhaps put it best when she explained Mr.
Spicer’s amazing assertions, designed I suppose to align with #45’s conclusions
about inaugural crowd size. She introduced the term “alternative facts.” That
pretty much says it all.
So let’s pivot back to that
ideological chasm I mentioned earlier. Before #45, President Barack Obama
served 8 years as President. His tenure was not without its share of drama. One
of numerous Republican stunts he survived was a crusade by Minnesota
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann calling for his impeachment. In one of the more
bizarre episodes of the GOP’s total access, no holds barred approach to
obstructionism during President Obama’s tenure; Ms. Bachmann had the temerity
to spearhead a movement for impeachment while she was actually under
investigation for multiple ethics violations. She was the subject of five
separate ethics probes related to her 2012 Presidential Campaign, including:
·
In Iowa, a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate Bachmann’s alleged improper payments to
a state senator
·
She was under investigation
for improper use of presidential campaign funds to promote her book
·
She was
investigated for the theft of an email list of
a Iowa homeschoolers
·
She was under investigation
for money laundering
·
The Office of Congressional Ethics
also investigated Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign
Forget the absurdity of it all. If
you are reading this, you undoubtedly know two things. First, Barack Obama was
not impeached; second, Michele Bachmann’s tenure in Congress was short lived, ending
in 2015, prior to that of President Obama. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is
credited with the quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends
toward justice.” I’d like to think that arc is also laden with karma. Today is
#45’s 125th day in office. Over the little more than four months he has held
the post, he has distinguished himself in some interesting ways.
·
He was forced to
fire General Michael Flynn for having lied to Vice President Pence, after
insisting upon hiring him despite President Obama advising him not to do so.
·
He fired FBI
Director James Comey after Comey admitted in a Congressional hearing that there
is an ongoing investigation in which he was included..
·
He allegedly
asked the FBI Director to drop the Flynn Investigation
·
He is reported
to have asked Intelligence Chiefs to publicly push back against the FBI probe
·
He appointed his
daughter Ivanka to an official White House post after saying he would not do so
·
Claimed during a
Commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy that he is the most
unfairly treated politician ever
·
Rolled out a
Muslim Ban (or pause, if you prefer) that has been rejected by multiple federal
courts
Harkening back to the Obama years,
the GOP officialdom elevated opposition and obstruction to a high art form.
South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson yelled out “You lie” at President
Obama in a joint session of Congress. Illinois Representative Joe Walsh
threatened President Obama in a tweet after 3 Dallas police officers were
killed. Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann actively campaigned for
President Obama’s impeachment, and of course, in the most famous dis of all,
citizen, and then candidate, Donald Trump led the Birtherism charge,
maintaining that President Obama was not born in America. The candidate did not
concede President Obama was American until mid-September, just a few weeks
before the election.
A week ago, Texas Congressman Al
Green addressed the House of Representatives and called for the impeachment of
#45. Representative Green said he was acting as a matter of conscience, and called
the basis for his actions, “perspicuous.” He added, “No one is above the law,
and that includes the president of the United States of America.”
At a town hall in Houston on
Saturday, Congressman Green shared with his constituents a number of
threatening voicemails he received. ABC News reported that the voicemails were
directed to his office, and included messages like:
·
"You
ain't going to impeach nobody.”
·
“Try
it and we will lynch all of you,"
·
"You'll
be hanging from a tree."
Notwithstanding the threats
communicated in the voicemails, the Congressman told constituents at the town
hall:
“We are not
going to be intimidated. We are not going to allow this to cause us to deviate
from what we believe to be the right thing to do and that is to proceed with
the impeachment of President Trump.”
Let me be perfectly clear. I have
absolutely, positively no expectation that #45 will be impeached. Call me
cynical, but I do not believe a Republican Congress is going to impeach its new
champion. Nevertheless, in the interim, I fully believe there will be a great
deal of GOP angst for the duration of this administration’s tenure, even if
it’s 4 or 8 years. To that end, to
paraphrase Dr. King, “The Long Arc of the MoralUniverse: Is That Karma I’m Seeing?”
I’m done; holla back!
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