reflectivepundit

When Democracy Dies in Bright Daylight

By Brigitte L. Nacos

After Donald Trump won the presidency, the Washington Post began to print the warning “Democracy Dies in Darkness” underneath its masthead to highlight the need for journalism that speaks truth to power. After contributing to Mr. Trump’s stunning presidential nomination and election victory the Post and a number of other news organizations reclaimed belatedly their role as watchdog of government. Now, however, the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is no longer the right one to describe what we are witnessing on a daily basis.

Last century, the most authoritarian, dictatorial, and fascist leaders utilized the legitimate political process to win the most powerful office in the state. Once in the saddle they carried out immediately what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung—putting every public and private sector under the complete control of the leader, his hand-picked clique, his party. Think of Mussolini and Hitler.

Today’s autocrats, today’s fascist leaders consolidate state power not immediately like their predecessors but step by step over time. A good example is Hungary’s President Victor Orban who has openly proclaimed the end of liberal democracy and the advent of the “illiberal state” or illiberal democracy in his country modeled after Putin’s Russia and Erdogan’s Turkey. So far, there has been a purge of the civil service, curbs on the judiciary’s independence, intimidation of the press, establishment of election rules tilted in favor of parties that support him, and the vilification of foreigners.

Sounds familiar? Indeed! The U.S. president, too, has attacked Washington’s civil servants, declared war against the law enforcement apparatus and its leaders, fired highly placed officials in the Department of Justice and FBI,  called for their removal of more people across departments, presides over an administration with dangerous gaps in knowledgeable personnel. Just think of the dismantling of the Department of States’ Foreign Service professionals. And last but not least, think of President Trump’s attacks on the legitimacy and credibility of the news media.

Just like the current autocrats in Hungary and Poland and elsewhere, the narcissist in the White House speaks openly and frequently about his disregard for democratic rules of the game.

Of the people in all branches of government and all its institutions, Mr. Trump expects and demands loyalty to him alone—not to the constitution, not the law.  

Those are traits of dictatorial, fascist rulers.

Why the Liar King in the White House Owes Thanks to the News Media

By Brigitte L. Nacos

None of his predecessors has peddled lies (and actually repeated them when proven false) as frequently as President Donald Trump. Part of the steady flow of lies (according to one count 103 in his first 10 months in office versus 18 during President Obama’s full 8 years in the White House) are first circulated via his Twitter account.

Some originate in the president’s head, others are borrowed from his propagandists at FOX NEWS and other Trump media, and still others are simply retweets of typically outrageous social media sound bites and video clips.  

While Trump has more than 45 million followers, the mainstream media that he attacks day-in and day-out spreads and magnifies his tweet production.

Indeed, you do not have to read the president’s actual tweets in order to know the content of all or most of them—simply following one or more mainstream news sites will do.

As much as propaganda is the oxygen of populists, especially of the authoritarian variety, tweets provide the oxygen for President Trump. Not so much by being posted at his Twitter account but far more by being reported, analyzed, critiqued and rehashed by literally all major and not so major news organizations.

Whenever the president tweets, the news media report and thereby magnify what Mr. Trump spits out.  

Imagine for a moment that the still free press would stop to report his tweets. To be sure, there would loyal followers accessing Trump’s account but certainly not all that signed up during the last several years.

Otherwise, Trump’s tweets would be like the tree in the forest that falls without the press being there. It would be as if it did not happen.

A non-event!   

I know that this kind of media self-censorship will not happen.

Thus, the Liar King owes thanks to the news media for providing a mighty bullhorn for his tweeted propaganda.

The News about Sexual Assault and the Elephant in the Room: President Trump

By Brigitte L. Nacos

For weeks now the shocking news of sexual assault and misconduct by prominent males has been the leading story in news and social media. Women, so the narrative has it, finally dare to speak out publicly and going in droves on record with sickening revelations of unwanted sexual encounters of varying degrees.

As the defiant wife of Roy Moore, Alabama’s GOP candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, noted the other day, nobody talks about Russia anymore, thanks to the fake news of her husband’s alleged sexual misbehavior with very young girls—one merely 14-year old.

She was right. And for that nobody can be more thankful than Donald Trump.

To begin with, Special Prosecutor Mueller’s investigation is closing in on the Trump campaign’s and White House’s inner circles, including family members. It must be a relief to see “the Russia thing” on the backburner of media, elite, and public agenda.

The daily reports about women’s accusations against more prominent men also overshadow by far news about the full content and most unjust consequences of the planned congressional tax reform. It is therefore not surprising that public opinion changed of late from overwhelming rejection to a plurality in favor of tax legislation that is designed to benefit the most wealthy individuals and corporation at the expense of middle and lower classes.

And just in time for Thanksgiving, President Trump returned Mr. Moore’s favor by endorsing him and not precluding his campaigning for the accused. Asked about Moore, Trump told reporters,

“He says it didn’t happen. You have to listen to him, also.”

“I do have to say, 40 years is a long time. He’s run eight races, and this has never come up. So, 40 years is a long time.”

I wonder why anyone can be surprised that Trump defends Moore. After all, Moore is now in the same boat as Trump was during last year’s campaign, when more than a dozen women accused him of the sexual misbehavior. Today, a report in the Washington Post describes the shocking revelations of 13 of these women. Trump threatened to sue them but never did.   

Like Trump then, Moore now denies any wrong-doing and attacks the victims accusing them of lying, of being tools of political opponents.  

In spite of all the talk about female victims of sexual harassment and attack finally being heard and finally being believed, the elephant in the room is the occupant of the Oval Office. He certainly does not believe women accusing him and Moore or probably any other Republican.

“The Russian Thing” and the Threat of War

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Beleaguered President Donald Trump wants nothing more than make “the Russian thing” go way.

He spent political capital by firing Acting Attorney General Sally Yates und FBI Director James Comey for not buckling under his pressure tactics; he lost moral authority by bullying Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others for the same reasons.

Trump and his supporting cast do not merely spin reality, they outright lie.

And yet “the Russian thing” becomes more threatening by the day--for President Trump and for members of his family and his supporting cast.

Even Mr. Trump must now fear the truth in the German proverb: Lies have short legs…

Judging from some Republicans’ warnings, Trump would be ill advised to follow his urge to fire AG Sessions to clear the way for removing Special Prosecutor and former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

That’s why there is reason to worry about Trump’s next possible steps to remove “the Russian thing” from media and public attention.

One sure way to put “the Russian thing” on the back burner would be a major foreign policy crisis—especially one involving military conflict. As we know all too well, in such crises both newsrooms and the public tend to rally around the flag and around the president.

That’s why Senator Lindsey Graham’s revelation that Mr. Trump contemplates military actions against North Korea is so worrisome. According to Newsweek, Graham said, "There will be a war with North Korea over their missile program if they continue to try to hit America with an ICBM. [Trump] has told me that. I believe him, and if I were China, I would believe him too."

Of course, North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities are major threats to many countries’ national security—including ours. Trump told Graham, “If thousands die, they’re going to die over there. They’re not going to die here.”

First, then, this president makes clear that he does not care about foreign victims of war and second, he seems unaware that tens of thousands of U.S. troops are deployed near the border between the two Koreas.

With the diplomatic capabilities of the Department of State dangerously curtailed, key positions in the department and in missions overseas not filled, the prospects for skillful diplomacy are slim. Add to that an inexperienced Secretary of State who seems to be dodged by Trump’s son-in-law and others in the White House.

Limiting One’s News Consumption Can be Liberating

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Taking off from following the unreal reality show presented by President Donald Trump day-in and day-out  is a very healthy exercise.

I know first-hand. And I recommend it.

Instead of following every turn and twist in the never ending flow of far from normal Trump tweets, White House infighting and chaos, and the do-nothing congress, I decided a few weeks ago to limit my news consumption to shorter time periods early and late in the day.

To be sure, even limited exposure to news kept me abreast of the White House circus and its effects at home and abroad.

But relief from being troubled all day long about the latest news dispatches is exhilarating, relaxing, and productive.

Whether hitting a golf ball and swimming or researching and writing—everything is so much more pleasurable and focused.

Since politics, media, public opinion are among my primary research and teaching interests this limited news experience will be short lived.

With August in sight, I will resume news checks during the day—but not as regular as before my partial time off.

And I will post again.

As the badge on the side bar site shows, reflectivepundit.com was mentioned among the Top 100 Political Science Blogs

most of which are supported by organizations, publishers, etc. and not by a singly individual as this site is. 

In Trump’s Reality Show Even the Generals Surrender

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Not enough that GOP leaders and foot soldiers in Congress, elected offices around the country, and so-called experts in think tanks continue to defend the indefensible in the Trump campaign, transition operation, and White House. What many observers described as the adults around Trump, cool-headed generals, have surrendered as well.

John Kelly, the Secretary of Homeland Security and H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser, went public this weekend with nonsensical excuses, even endorsements of Jared Kushner’s reported efforts during the transition period to use secret Russian communication means to communicate with Moscow’s decision makers. Since nothing happens in the Kremlin without Vladimir Putin, one has to assume that the communication the political novice Kushner had in mind was with his father-in-law’s most admired dictator Putin.

Come to think of, Kelly’s statement shouldn’t have surprised. Since taking over at the DHS the retired marine general has echoed or trumped Trump’s crazy ideas beginning with the need for The Wall to separating children from their parents in the most cruel enforcement policy against undocumented immigrants.

As for General McMaster, his impeccable credentials in the military took a hit earlier this month, when he refuted a Washington Post story that President Trump had revealed highly classified intelligence during his meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russia’s  Ambassador Kislyak by countering points that the Post had not made. Now add to this the General’s defense of a backchannel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin that Kushner tried to establish.

And then there is James Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, who spoke out in support of his boss’s shocking behavior at NATO headquarters in Brussels that threatens the seven decades old transatlantic defense arrangement between the U.S. and European allies. As Mattis explained, previous presidents, too, complained about European countries’ insufficient financial contributions to NATO. What the General conveniently omitted is the real reason for the rift in the alliance, namely, Trump’s refusal to endorse NATO’s mutual defense agreement as stated in Article 5. Coming on the heels of Trump’s campaign statement that NATO is obsolete, Secretary Mattis, who once commanded NATO’s Supreme Allied Command for Transformation, should know better than depicting Trump’s dangerous  reality show in Europe as merely business as usual.

Putin and his team are rejoicing. They wanted nothing more than a split in the transatlantic defense alliance. And now they got it.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is right. Europe can no longer count on the America of Donald Trump as a dependable NATO ally.

As it turns out, the generals are not the voices of reason, not the adults in White House and administration.

“Wag the Dog” and Clinton and Trump’s Missile Strikes

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In 1998, two weeks after terrorists drove car bombs into U.S. embassy compounds in Kenya and Tanzania causing hundreds of deaths, the U.S. military targeted Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and what was described as a “chemical weapons related facility” in Sudan with 79 Tomahawk missiles. The strikes were launched three days after President Clinton had publicly admitted an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Opinion leaders, especially the president’s adversaries in Congress, claimed that Clinton had ordered what the White House labeled counterterrorist strikes in order to draw attention away from his sex scandal. Not only were the critics amply covered by the news media, reporters, too, expressed skepticism about the president’s motives.

 Characteristic for the media’s stance was an exchange during a press conference at the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense William Cohen was asked by one reporter whether he was familiar with the Wag the Dog movie in which an American president cooks up an imaginary war for the purpose of deflecting interest away from his sexual encounter with a teenage girl. “Some Americans are going to say this [the missile strikes] bears a striking resemblance to Wag the Dog,” one reporter said. “How do you respond?” Cohen replied that “the only motivation driving this action today was our absolute obligation to protect the American people from terrorist activities.”

Strangely, after President Trump ordered last Thursday a cruise missile attack on a Syrian airfield controlled by President Assad’s military in response to a chemical attack that killed at least 80 people, neither Washington’s political elite nor media pundits and correspondents questioned Trump’s motive—even though he and his foreign policy advisers changed their posture vis-à-vis Syria’s autocratic ruler within days from no- interference-in-Syria’s-domestic-politics to a categorical no-peace-with-Assad at a time of an all-time low presidential approval rating for Trump.  

It is indeed astounding how 59 inconsequential missile strikes led immediately to a robust pro-president rally among the usual TV talking heads among Trump supporters and skeptics applauding the “decisive” presidential move and declaring that through this decision Donald Trump had truly become the President!

America at a Crossroads: Democracy or Authoritarianism?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The true character of authoritarian rulers reveals itself well before they come to power. Even those who compete in the legitimate electoral process whip up the masses by the most ugly demagoguery and explosive attacks on the enemies responsible for all the ills of the nation.

Note, what Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels wrote five years before the Nazis took over Germany’s government:

“International high finance has taken command of the sovereign rights of the German people and is now making itself at home in our former realms of power. They now own our currency and control by far the greatest part of German production, our transportation system, and as a result of their military and diplomatic capacities, Germany’s borders.

The press is almost entirely in their hands; they thus control public opinion and determine the parliament and government.

Our life is in danger. Any means is appropriate to stop the enemy.”

Once in power, the Nazis wasted no time to move swiftly against the enemy of the German people.

Now note what then GOP candidate Donald Trump told enthusiastic Floridians on October 11 last year sounded as if it was taken from the Nazi Party’s playbook:

This election will determine whether we are a free nation or whether we have only the illusion of democracy, but are in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system, and our system is rigged…

Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers…

The establishment and their media enablers will control over this nation through means that are very well known

This is our moment of reckoning as a society and as a civilization itself…

Since in the White House, President Trump and his ideological brain Stephen Bannon plus a like-minded supporting cast have wasted no time to move against the “enemies of the American people”—the non-compliant news media, the “Nazi-style” U.S. intelligence community, Mexicans and other Hispanics, Muslims, Islam...

There is no doubt that Trump and his circle include everyone who does not support their dangerous mission in their enemy list. That’s the most likely reason why even those Republicans are running for cover who do not have any illusions about Mr. Trump’s destructive agenda, his campaign’s more than suspicious interactions with Russian officials, his admiration for Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian rulers, and, most of all, his disregards for our democratic institutions and processes.

Even the voices of Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham seem to have fallen silent of late.

But the voices of President Trump and most influential side-kick Bannon are louder and shriller and more hateful than ever.

The First 10 Days: Who Pulls Strings in the Trump White House?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The first ten days of the Trump presidency gave enough reasons for alarm. Not merely because of President DJT’s continued bias in favor of alternative facts.

Clueless in matters of democratic governance and the truism that details matter in the implementation of executive orders and laws the president and his motley crew acted according to a reckless blueprint in unprecedented haste and thoughtlessness.

The ideological scheme guiding the new administration is the work of Steve Bannon, the former boss of Breitbart, one of the more influential among the far-right nationalist, nativist, and conspiracy theory promoting online organs.

During last year’s campaign, when Trump emerged as a serious presidential contender, some neo-Nazi voices expressed support for the reality show star with the caveat that as president Trump would only be a temporary front-man for the real national-socialist revolution under a bona fide leader of the cause.

For now, Trump’s chief strategist Bannon is foremost among those pulling the strings in the White House as he was in the decisive stretch of the presidential campaign.

He was the one who wrote the inauguration speech along with fellow hardliner and White House advisor Stephen Miller.

Bannon was—and is--the strongest advocate of Trump’s controversial executive order against Muslims that was enacted Friday night before relevant government agencies were informed of its full content and meaning. Not surprisingly, Bannon and Miller overruled Department of Homeland Security officials who did not want to include green card holders in the travel ban.

That the ban excludes Muslim majority countries whose citizens actually committed terrorism within America’s borders and/or have acute problems with terrorism today seems to suggest that the grey eminence in the White House does take his boss’s business interests into consideration, namely, in Turkey, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Those countries, along with others, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, are not part of the ban. That much for principles in fighting terrorism at home…

I actually agree with President Trump that terrorists are evil. I disagree that we must be equally as evil—or more so—in order to defeat terrorism.  

Most troublesome among the dubious decisions in the opening days of Trump’s governance were changes in the operations of the National Security Council which is led by the conspiracy theorist and Islamophobia-in-chief Michael Flynn. While Steve Bannon will be a regular at Council meetings, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will no longer attend all meetings but merely those falling into their responsibilities and expertise. What a scary state of affairs: Leading intelligence and military officials are no longer regulars leaving lots of room to maneuver for Flynn, formerly a paid contributor to Vladimir Putin’s RT propaganda network, and Bannon, like his boss an admirer of Putin and authoritarian rulers in general.

What's next?

P.S. According to Politico, Senator John McCain said today, “I am worried about the National Security Council. Who are the members of it and who are the permanent members? The appointment of Mr. Bannon is something which is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history." 

Unfortunately, McCain praised Security Advisor Flynn although he is very critical of his pro-Russian stance.

George Orwell’s 1984 and the Trump White House: Newspeak and Doublethink

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In George Orwell’s 1984 the all-present slogans of Oceana’s Ministry of Truth are

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

In secret, the novel’s protagonist in Big Brother’s hellish dictatorship dissents such Newspeak and Doublethink designed to “make it increasingly difficult to express ideas that contradict the official line—and, in time, even to conceive such ideas.”

Thus, this entry in the protagonist’s diary:  

 “Freedom is the freedom that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”

In the current White House and among President Trump’s supporters inside and outside of congress, including his fans at FOX News and similar Trumpian propaganda outlets—two plus two does not necessarily add up to four. Instead, the result could be five or three or any other number. After all, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway explained the lies of her boss and his press secretary concerning the audience size during the inauguration ceremony as “alternative facts.”

When truth and facts do not matter to those in power, when lies and alternative facts become the normal and inform decision making (such as the president’s announcement of an investigation into 3-5 million illegitimate votes for Hillary Clinton), we are reminded of  Orwellian Doublethink and Newspeak.

During the GOP primary campaign and the general election race Mr. Trump presented far more “alternative facts” than actual facts.The fact-checkers at Politifact evaluated 70% of his assertion as false or mostly false.

As president he has far more means to insist that “alternative facts” are facts knowing that Rupert Murdoch’s media and the online propaganda machine of the far-right will double up.

Far more troublesome is that GOP leaders either run for cover or embrace White House Newspeak and Doublethink themselves. Obviously, Trump intimidates and tames them. They fear his wrath.

Take Paul Ryan. When asked by Greta Van Systeran of MSNBC about the financing of Trump Wall along the Mexican border, the House Speaker said this,

“Well, first off, we’re going to pay for it and front the money up … There are a lot of different ways of getting Mexico to contribute to doing this and there different ways to defining how exactly they pay for it. The point is, he has a promise he made to the American people, which is to secure our border, a wall is a big part of that. We agree with that goal, and we will be working with him to finance construction of the physical barrier, including the wall on the southern border.”

Mexico merely contributing? Defining different ways how exactly to pay for it? That does not sound at all like the chants at every Trump campaign: “Who will pay?” “Mexico!”

As for corporate leaders, they endure Trump’s Newspeak and whip because the president has already promised them lots of carrots.

When two plus two is no longer four, it is time to worry.