Recent news reveals a slew of professional baseball players who are being held accountable for hateful tweets from their youth; yet our President regularly spouts hate speech and lies to the American people without any (apparent) consequences. Why is our President held to a lower standard of conduct than a relief pitcher?
Trump takes gas-lighting to new heights… he veritably gushes gas every time he opens his mouth. To clarify the term–Gas-lighting is “a form of mental abuse in which information is twisted or spun, selectively omitted to favor the abuser, or false information is presented with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity.”
The Orwellian Present:
Just last week the Twitter-in-Chief told a crowd of veterans: “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” This outrageous statement prompted comparison to George Orwell’s novel, 1984. Written in 1949, the novel describes a Dystopian future, in which big-government (the party) maintains constant surveillance and control over every aspect of everyone’s life.The following excerpt is chilling in its similarity to Trump’s statement: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Trump doesn’t even attempt to be subtle in his manipulation; he is steadfast in his delusion that his own (most current) version of events is the one we SHOULD believe–regardless of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. He simply makes up shit that is convenient at the time; selling his perspective with great bravado and shamelessness, considering that often– the evidence to the contrary includes his own previous statements.
Trumps political career started with a whopper – the assertion that Barrack Obama was not born in the U.S., and his Presidency began with a lie about the size of the crowd as his inauguration–also easily proven to be false. Yet, Trump’s base, egged on by Fox News and Russian trolls; exhibit a blind, deaf and dumb loyalty that appears to be impervious to the very concept of objective truth.
Trump and Fox News
This recent article in Esquire posits that Trump’s worldview has been narrowing during his Administration. He increasingly relies on Fox News as his primary source of information–a self-congratulatory and self-fulfilling approach, since Fox regularly parrots Trump’s own words, rants, musings and policies as ‘news’ back to him. It is a troubling co-dependent relationship– with a mutual interest in discrediting all other news sources.
Truth or Consequences:
A key point from this CNN Video is that the number and breadth of Trump’s lies are increasing, in large part because there have been few negative repercussion for his past lies–there simply are no effective checks and balances on his behavior. How is it that we are not all in the streets with pitchforks right now? How is it that the Republicans can still support Trump with a straight face?
In Richard Nixon’s day — the GOP still had some integrity; Congress members on both sides of the aisle held Tricky Dick accountable for his actions, showing courage that is incompatable with our current crop of spineless, groveling GOP sycophants.
If Trump were a toddler he would be given a time-out to ponder his bad behavior. Hopefully, the Mueller Investigation will end with a much-deserved extended time-out.