There's a bit of culture shock looking at the relative impunity Trump is enjoying
...rules and norms Democrats have been held to at risk of their careers or livelihoods if they strayed a millimeter are being brushed aside at lightning speed for Donald Trump.
That shouldn't surprise anyone here, but it's still stunning how much bashing Democrats have taken on over the years for even suggestions of impropriety, or, been subject to endless hearings and investigations for unsubstantiated claims about conflicts of interest or influence-peddling.
Contrast that against the imminent inauguration of a billionaire with hundreds of business interests all over the globe, assuming control of the Executive Branch. Trump claims today that he'll remove himself from these business interests, but without a strict blind trust, that is just going to be another one of his brazen lies. If he's going ahead with his plan to put his children in charge of his assets, that's an even deeper deception.
I've heard something at least twice on the news today which is disturbing. The suggestion was made - once as a reflection of Trump's thinking, the other as an outright assertion - that since the voting public ALREADY KNEW of Trump's potential conflicts when they elected him, questions of impropriety rest on their judgment (a minority of total voters), as if ethics and adherence to our nation's laws is only accountable to a national lottery.
Who missed the wall-to-wall coverage of Hillary's emails? Almost all of the prominent discussion of Trump's financial conflicts came up AFTER the election. Now the press is reporting one Trump outrage after the other with the routine of a weather report, as if he's some kind of inviolable monarch.
These are strange and dangerous times. The reason there's so much uncertainty as to whether a Trump presidency will be held accountable is all about the republican majority in Congress and their demonstrated indifference and hypocrisy where their own misconduct and criminality is concerned.
Most of the media has already accepted as a given that Trump won't be subject to the same standard of judgment from republicans that Pres. Obama or Hillary Clinton have endured, and, having relied for decades on republican faux-outrage against Democrats to dominate their political coverage, don't seem to be able to find any moral center of their own where Trump is concerned.
I'm not a pessimist. I wake up every day looking and expecting to make a positive difference. I believe in our democracy, and I believe in our democratic system of government. There is a point, however, where those institutions can turn so dramatically and so destructively against our lives and interests that our government becomes a real and present danger. I think that's where we're heading.
Many in the public and press living in autocracies like the one Trump is deliberately developing our nation's government into, either revolt against them, or gradually settle into accepting whatever they can get out of the corrupt regimes that accommodates their interests or needs. Witness the press today, reduced to responding to tweets instead of demanding full access, full press availability, instead of merely advancing pronouncements from our future president as legitimate political discourse.
Witness the instant impotency of the press when confronting a future White House that doesn't give a shit what they think or say. Hell, if you can't hold the President of the United States accountable... witness.
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Some fine writing there, bigtree ~
Great post. Sobering conclusion.
Well said.
