What I think throws people off about Trump is that he is not engaged in some sort of ideological revolution that results in takeover of government - his is a personal coup. It's only about him personally. Certainly a bunch of right wing nutters around him are hitchhiking with their own agenda, but when Trump attempts a coup, its result for him is just for him. He couldn't care less about anyone or anything else.
Except that it actually is about the larger cause in the sense that he attempted from the beginning to create a system and procedural environment in government that enabled the executive with absolute power. That the executive branch was only himself (for now) seems to be the unfortunate reality given that so many of the republican enablers now smell a lot like the pig they slept with. The press has by their soft peddling of the long, long list of trump transgressions only sprayed perfume around to cover the stench when they should have been shoveling manure out of the sty. Or at the very least pointing it out to the owners of the farm.
Memories of 1998 when 100+ newspapers demanded Bill Clinton's resignation over a stained blue dress and the Four Horsemen who led the Penis Hunt--Tim Russert, Tweety Matthews, Michael Kelly and Maureen Dowd endlessly called for Bill's impeachment.
But now--not a peep from the Corporate Controlled Conservative Press except for the usual crap about "Democrats in Disarray"...
Russert, Matthews and Maureen Dowd were also huge fans of the much more reckless and adulterous JFK. They were appalled by Clinton’s dalliance but were able to overlook JFK’s.
To me a telling fact is that the public overwhelmingly opposed impeachment despite the media’s efforts to make it happen. Fox News was in its early days so it wasn’t a huge factor.
Times have changed, and newspapers are all on terrible financial footing. Losing advertisers or readers, becomes an existential threat.
And we are different. In 1998, and through the W and Obama years, I was able to listen to NPR all day at work. Now I cringe as they give republicans air time to spout disinformation, can't listen to Morning Edition, and have allowed my membership to slip . I don't think the lying increased (see WMD); I think my intolerance did. So in 2016 I stopped reading the NYT, and cancelled my subscription and $$$, based in large part of Michael Schmidt and "her emails." I read here, Daily KOS, watch TRMS, and skim the WaPo.
As much blame placed on Putin,Assange,Comey to Trump's election in 2016,equally if not more should be placed on the media...and it still continues .....but hey,the lack of access to President-ELECT Biden while Don is actively, in plain sight attempting to overthrow our free and fair election and destroy the country is way more important. I sure hope President Biden doesn't own a tan suit.
That trump is mentally ill is beyond dispute, and it explains plenty. Occum's Razor--malignant narcissism.
But listening to the recent recording, just like the earlier Woodward recordings, one must admit that he is not smart. The Axios interview demonstrated this as well. So on one level he isn't really a threat, because his ideas are terrible, he can't plan or analyze, and he is a terrible politician.
The question isn't about trump, or his sycophants. Tomorrow many officials will vote against democracy. I suggest they are positioning themselves for 2024, or 2022, and locking in the base. The question is whether there are some elected officials who don't BELIEVE in democracy, and if so what to do about them when the republican party splits and an autocratic party emerges.
Trump's notion that HE is the executive branch was aided and abetted by guys like Bill Barr who have subscribed to Dick Cheney's neoCON vision of the unitary executive. Barr undoubtedly didn't expect the dream to be carried out by a ham-handed, ignorant, malignant narcissist, but he and the GOP were willing to stand by and disregard the collateral damage that was being done, and the media was dismissing it as Trump being Trump.
Your point is very important. Cheney and Barr have been pushing the unitary executive idea for years at least for Republican presidents. That is why Barr had no problem urging Bush I to pardon all of Bush’s Iran Contra co-conspirators.
Reagan said that Nixon should have burned the tapes so clearly Reagan thought a president has the right to obstruct an investigation by destroying evidence.
Just recently Rachel Maddow’s podcast and book Bagman revealed that Nixon had tried to interfere with the investigation of Agnew’s corruption by pressuring the US attorney who was in charge to drop it. Tapes of Nixon were uncovered discussing how they got George HW Bush to do their dirty work. Luckily for us the men Bush tried to pressure actually believed in the law.
All of these actions and beliefs are anti-democracy and yet the media gave a pass to Cheney, Barr, Reagan and Bush and regarded them as mainstream, principled Republicans. Republican Party leaders haven’t believed in democracy since Nixon.
The WaPo’s Margaret Sullivan posted this article yesterday:
“We must stop calling Trump’s enablers ‘conservative.’ They are the radical right.”
She is right. The only criticism I have is that she ignored the fact that so many Republicans have been on the radical right for a long time. The Tea Party was hardly moderate. In the 90s Republicans attempted a coup against Clinton with their multiple investigations of fake scandals. Newt Gingrich was clearly a radical yet he was treated with great respect by the media even though he had been removed as Speaker for ethical problems. During Obama’s first year the Newt was a guest on Meet the Press more than anyone else; actual Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was not on even once.
For decades our media hasn’t taken Republican extremism serious and we are paying a huge price for that.
Thank you. I have even waiting for someone to report properly on the danger this man posed to American democracy, but the continued both-sides journalism white washed him with language like “unconventional” and now cliffhanger language like “last ditch effort”.
Have I told the story of the top DC reporter who had to cover a silly story? Really. At the paper where said reporter started out in general assignment, there was a local human interest story and he didn't want to do it. It got him on the front page every day, but it involved a dog. He asked to be taken off of the story because other reporters would bark when he came in the room, and he felt embarrassed.
And that is what motivates the lazy occupants of the DC political media brothel: How their buddies feel about them and whether it affects everything but whether they are considered good reporters. Because if, as Allen Drury once put it, they stand tall in Georgetown, they're all right.
Looks like the the press is taking the coup seriously now. It has taken armed protestors in the US Capitol building to get them there. I am waiting for one of them to say the obvious — this is blatant domestic terrorism.
The press (fifth column) is complicit as are the neoliberal establishment Democrats.
The Democratic neoliberal establishment base continues to tell me and other progressives that the coup is just a joke. And then they go back to attacking progressives as the Real Enemy.
Is it possible that the press is just stupid? Are they journalists in name only? It would be like having an expert writer in the sciences cover and report on the Superbowl. He/She would likely miss a lot of the subtleties of the game. Perhaps a lot of journalist are simply not political junkies, just good writers who really have no idea what they are writing about. I doubt this is true but it is an angle that might explain some of what is going on with this complete dereliction of their duty. It's simply mind boggling that a COUP, there I said it in capital letters, is happening in plain site and it's not the front page story every day in every newspaper across the country with the second headline being Covid-19. I'm sure it all boils down to losing complete access to the White House from a president that hates the media's guts to begin with.
I think NYU’s Jay Rosen is right that a lot of what the political press does is try to appear “savvy”, as observers of what they see as the childish, dirty business of politics:
“ So let me explain what I mean by that term. In politics, our journalists believe, it is better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere, thoughtful or humane. Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.)
Savviness is that quality of being shrewd, practical, hyper-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political. And what is the truest mark of savviness? Winning, of course! Or knowing who the winners are. “
Rosen criticizes the obsession with the inside game pointing out that “politics as a game played by the insiders positions us [the public]as connoisseurs of our own bamboozlement.”
I agree with you this a generation of about me. Journalist are no different it's about me and how much air time or what their written word is. Their employers only see the dollar amout in journalism everything has come down to ME.
More upsetting is the lack of national response to thousands and thousands of Covid deaths everyday. If Biden can't turn around the failed vaccine rollout we may face 1/2 million deaths. 500,000 Americans. The moral bankruptcy is appalling.
No what is upsetting is that the people who walk around telling you about their rights not to wear a mask or going to parties, or church services. These are the people who do not care of the covid deaths they are morally bankrupt. Yes Biden has a big job in front of him but let's not blame him before he takes office. Let's look at the people who will stand in his way to get things done, let's put blame where it belongs on the people who said this was nothing but the flu. I say let's give Biden a chance before calling in moral bankruptcy. He's up against almost ever repug in being the new president.
What I think throws people off about Trump is that he is not engaged in some sort of ideological revolution that results in takeover of government - his is a personal coup. It's only about him personally. Certainly a bunch of right wing nutters around him are hitchhiking with their own agenda, but when Trump attempts a coup, its result for him is just for him. He couldn't care less about anyone or anything else.
that’s a good point, none of this is in the name of a large cause/movement.
Except that it actually is about the larger cause in the sense that he attempted from the beginning to create a system and procedural environment in government that enabled the executive with absolute power. That the executive branch was only himself (for now) seems to be the unfortunate reality given that so many of the republican enablers now smell a lot like the pig they slept with. The press has by their soft peddling of the long, long list of trump transgressions only sprayed perfume around to cover the stench when they should have been shoveling manure out of the sty. Or at the very least pointing it out to the owners of the farm.
I am a new subscriber.....this article describes everything I have been screaming at my laptop screen for 4 years.
Thank you. F*#k the NYT, in particular..........WaPo has not been as awful. The bulk of the national media has been abhorent.
Glad to have you onboard!
Umair Haque has a blistering attack on the failure to grasp what is happening and how to respond to it. It is not just Trump that is the problem.
“ This is Why Trump Keeps Doubling Down on His Coup
You Don’t Heal a Nation By Forgetting About Fascism. You Heal a Nation by Punishing Fascism Swiftly and Severely.”
Haque makes some points about Fascism that are sobering to read, things that can only be realized by someone who has lived under it.
https://eand.co/this-is-why-trump-keeps-doubling-down-on-his-coup-7c90b117d3bd
Thanks for posting
This link was greatly appreciated. A worthy read.
Memories of 1998 when 100+ newspapers demanded Bill Clinton's resignation over a stained blue dress and the Four Horsemen who led the Penis Hunt--Tim Russert, Tweety Matthews, Michael Kelly and Maureen Dowd endlessly called for Bill's impeachment.
But now--not a peep from the Corporate Controlled Conservative Press except for the usual crap about "Democrats in Disarray"...
Russert, Matthews and Maureen Dowd were also huge fans of the much more reckless and adulterous JFK. They were appalled by Clinton’s dalliance but were able to overlook JFK’s.
To me a telling fact is that the public overwhelmingly opposed impeachment despite the media’s efforts to make it happen. Fox News was in its early days so it wasn’t a huge factor.
Times have changed, and newspapers are all on terrible financial footing. Losing advertisers or readers, becomes an existential threat.
And we are different. In 1998, and through the W and Obama years, I was able to listen to NPR all day at work. Now I cringe as they give republicans air time to spout disinformation, can't listen to Morning Edition, and have allowed my membership to slip . I don't think the lying increased (see WMD); I think my intolerance did. So in 2016 I stopped reading the NYT, and cancelled my subscription and $$$, based in large part of Michael Schmidt and "her emails." I read here, Daily KOS, watch TRMS, and skim the WaPo.
As much blame placed on Putin,Assange,Comey to Trump's election in 2016,equally if not more should be placed on the media...and it still continues .....but hey,the lack of access to President-ELECT Biden while Don is actively, in plain sight attempting to overthrow our free and fair election and destroy the country is way more important. I sure hope President Biden doesn't own a tan suit.
Thank you Eric for your hard work and analysis.
That trump is mentally ill is beyond dispute, and it explains plenty. Occum's Razor--malignant narcissism.
But listening to the recent recording, just like the earlier Woodward recordings, one must admit that he is not smart. The Axios interview demonstrated this as well. So on one level he isn't really a threat, because his ideas are terrible, he can't plan or analyze, and he is a terrible politician.
The question isn't about trump, or his sycophants. Tomorrow many officials will vote against democracy. I suggest they are positioning themselves for 2024, or 2022, and locking in the base. The question is whether there are some elected officials who don't BELIEVE in democracy, and if so what to do about them when the republican party splits and an autocratic party emerges.
GOP unraveling there’s no question. and there’s nobody in charge. Frightening times indeed. Between GA today and Senate electorates tm.....
Trump's notion that HE is the executive branch was aided and abetted by guys like Bill Barr who have subscribed to Dick Cheney's neoCON vision of the unitary executive. Barr undoubtedly didn't expect the dream to be carried out by a ham-handed, ignorant, malignant narcissist, but he and the GOP were willing to stand by and disregard the collateral damage that was being done, and the media was dismissing it as Trump being Trump.
in the end the Trump mob turned on Barr. there can only be one Dear Leader
Your point is very important. Cheney and Barr have been pushing the unitary executive idea for years at least for Republican presidents. That is why Barr had no problem urging Bush I to pardon all of Bush’s Iran Contra co-conspirators.
Reagan said that Nixon should have burned the tapes so clearly Reagan thought a president has the right to obstruct an investigation by destroying evidence.
Just recently Rachel Maddow’s podcast and book Bagman revealed that Nixon had tried to interfere with the investigation of Agnew’s corruption by pressuring the US attorney who was in charge to drop it. Tapes of Nixon were uncovered discussing how they got George HW Bush to do their dirty work. Luckily for us the men Bush tried to pressure actually believed in the law.
All of these actions and beliefs are anti-democracy and yet the media gave a pass to Cheney, Barr, Reagan and Bush and regarded them as mainstream, principled Republicans. Republican Party leaders haven’t believed in democracy since Nixon.
The WaPo’s Margaret Sullivan posted this article yesterday:
“We must stop calling Trump’s enablers ‘conservative.’ They are the radical right.”
She is right. The only criticism I have is that she ignored the fact that so many Republicans have been on the radical right for a long time. The Tea Party was hardly moderate. In the 90s Republicans attempted a coup against Clinton with their multiple investigations of fake scandals. Newt Gingrich was clearly a radical yet he was treated with great respect by the media even though he had been removed as Speaker for ethical problems. During Obama’s first year the Newt was a guest on Meet the Press more than anyone else; actual Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was not on even once.
For decades our media hasn’t taken Republican extremism serious and we are paying a huge price for that.
Excellent.
Thank you. I have even waiting for someone to report properly on the danger this man posed to American democracy, but the continued both-sides journalism white washed him with language like “unconventional” and now cliffhanger language like “last ditch effort”.
Sadly yes, press treating Trump’s coup as a strategy/process story
Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC just called it a coup attempt. First time I’ve heard it.
Jennifer Rubin has been on fire since Trump's first coup in 2016:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/03/its-impeachable-its-likely-illegal-its-coup/. Trump is of course dangerous, but Rethuglican/media perfidy will continue long after he's gone. We need to acknowledge that there are forces who want to destroy democracy and they have allies in the media.
Have I told the story of the top DC reporter who had to cover a silly story? Really. At the paper where said reporter started out in general assignment, there was a local human interest story and he didn't want to do it. It got him on the front page every day, but it involved a dog. He asked to be taken off of the story because other reporters would bark when he came in the room, and he felt embarrassed.
And that is what motivates the lazy occupants of the DC political media brothel: How their buddies feel about them and whether it affects everything but whether they are considered good reporters. Because if, as Allen Drury once put it, they stand tall in Georgetown, they're all right.
Looks like the the press is taking the coup seriously now. It has taken armed protestors in the US Capitol building to get them there. I am waiting for one of them to say the obvious — this is blatant domestic terrorism.
The press (fifth column) is complicit as are the neoliberal establishment Democrats.
The Democratic neoliberal establishment base continues to tell me and other progressives that the coup is just a joke. And then they go back to attacking progressives as the Real Enemy.
Is it possible that the press is just stupid? Are they journalists in name only? It would be like having an expert writer in the sciences cover and report on the Superbowl. He/She would likely miss a lot of the subtleties of the game. Perhaps a lot of journalist are simply not political junkies, just good writers who really have no idea what they are writing about. I doubt this is true but it is an angle that might explain some of what is going on with this complete dereliction of their duty. It's simply mind boggling that a COUP, there I said it in capital letters, is happening in plain site and it's not the front page story every day in every newspaper across the country with the second headline being Covid-19. I'm sure it all boils down to losing complete access to the White House from a president that hates the media's guts to begin with.
In a weird way it would be a relief if journalists just weren’t smart enough to see the big picture etc. But they are
I think NYU’s Jay Rosen is right that a lot of what the political press does is try to appear “savvy”, as observers of what they see as the childish, dirty business of politics:
“ So let me explain what I mean by that term. In politics, our journalists believe, it is better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts. It’s better to be savvy than it is to be just, good, fair, decent, strictly lawful, civilized, sincere, thoughtful or humane. Savviness is what journalists admire in others. Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be. (And to be unsavvy is far worse than being wrong.)
Savviness is that quality of being shrewd, practical, hyper-informed, perceptive, ironic, “with it,” and unsentimental in all things political. And what is the truest mark of savviness? Winning, of course! Or knowing who the winners are. “
Rosen criticizes the obsession with the inside game pointing out that “politics as a game played by the insiders positions us [the public]as connoisseurs of our own bamboozlement.”
https://pressthink.org/2011/08/why-political-coverage-is-broken/#p11
This isn’t the result of stupidity but of the wrong motives. Journalists should serve the public, not the political class.
I agree with you this a generation of about me. Journalist are no different it's about me and how much air time or what their written word is. Their employers only see the dollar amout in journalism everything has come down to ME.
More upsetting is the lack of national response to thousands and thousands of Covid deaths everyday. If Biden can't turn around the failed vaccine rollout we may face 1/2 million deaths. 500,000 Americans. The moral bankruptcy is appalling.
No what is upsetting is that the people who walk around telling you about their rights not to wear a mask or going to parties, or church services. These are the people who do not care of the covid deaths they are morally bankrupt. Yes Biden has a big job in front of him but let's not blame him before he takes office. Let's look at the people who will stand in his way to get things done, let's put blame where it belongs on the people who said this was nothing but the flu. I say let's give Biden a chance before calling in moral bankruptcy. He's up against almost ever repug in being the new president.