 |
| Trump has one thing in common with Rauner, … |
The
notion of people of the opposition political party being demonized because they
have the unmitigated gall to think differently. How dare they!?!
PERSONALLY,
I ALWAYS have thought the partisan nature of our electoral set-up has the advantage
of preventing either “side” from running amok; from being out-of-control.
 |
| … feeling the need to demonize an opponent |
Literally
for letting them behave as though politics is an “all or nothing” game with the
loser needing to learn to shut up and take it – as in whatever abuse the political
opposition feels like dishing out.
We’re
at a point now in this Age of Trump in which our nation’s chief executive is
determined to demonize everyone in the majority of society who is embarrassed
by his garish behavior.
Take
his behavior Thursday, when he responded to the joint effort by dozens of daily
newspapers across the country to choose as their editorial subject for the day
the notion that the president is literally sitting on his brains every time he goes
off on a tangent about news organizations being the “enemy of the people.”
TRUMP
USED PHRASES such as “collusion” to take shots at the joint action – which usually
is a term that implies some form of criminal conspiracy. As though he thinks
federal prosecutors ought to be working on a joint prosecution of all the
publishers and editorial writers who did work on putting together a joint
statement.
Which
basically amounts to saying that the newspapers so often being dumped on by
Trump aren’t going to take it being smacked about anymore.
 |
| For the governor, it's "Blame Madigan!" |
Far
from being criminal in intent, it feels more like the schoolyard bully gets his
keister kicked in by the very people he has been taunting, then goes about
complaining that the people he has been terrorizing have no business thinking
about fighting back.
Personally,
I’m viewing my own retribution as coming in 2020 – when we as a society have
our chance to considering a collective Trump Dump! If we can’t get ourselves
organized to pick somebody else (there were 3 million more of us who wanted the
concept of “President Hillary,” remember?), then perhaps we deserve what we
get.
YET
IT’S NOT just at the federal level where such nonsense talk takes place.
Take
our very own Illinois, where Gov. Bruce Rauner is trying to turn the political
unpopularity he has into some sort of statement about Illinois House Speaker
Michael Madigan, D-Chicago – whose actual “offense” is that he has refused to
cooperate with Rauner’s partisan desires to undermine the influence of
organized labor within state government.
On
Thursday in Springfield as part of the Democrat Day activities at the Illinois
State Fair, there was a line of questioning amongst some reporter-types about
whether Madigan is a “liability” to Democrats.
The
state legislator who is now executive director of the state Democratic Party says
this election should not be about “individual personalities.” While Kwame Raoul
(the Dem seeking election as Illinois attorney general) merely responded “My
name is Kwame Raoul, Next question?”
PERHAPS
TRUMP WOULD like the kind of press questioning that presumes his partisan political
principles have a basis in truth, just like Rauner got on Thursday. Although I’ve
also seen speculation that the “questions” came from political operatives
trying to spin the line of rhetoric.
 |
| For Trump, it's the content of what is published in all those little boxes |
Or
do we have elected officials openly hostile to the concept that not everybody
in our society agrees with what they think?
The
cliché says that “Everybody has a right to be wrong.” The reality is that a
society where everybody agrees would be not only an un-American concept, it
would be a downright dull place in which to have to live.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment