Journalist Lynn Sherr wrote a fine evaluation of the destructive force of Trump on Bill Moyers' website. Here's my response:
Who can disagree with Lynn Sherr's "Chaos: the New Normal" where she nails Trump as an agent of chaos in its most destructive form? It just might be the millionth pious liberal condemnation of our unlikely President, which I'm beginning to find fatiguing.
I can't help thinking that Sherr and our perceptive commentators in the NY Times and other liberal mouthpieces are attacking the disease without inquiring into its causes.
And the most insidious causes, those that are concealed by liberal complacency (if not sanctimony) include the failure of our mainstream and even progressive media to face up to the hard truths of our time: that big banks and corporate interests control both political parties; that the Democrats, like the Republicans, have abandoned not just the working class, but the middle class and the poor as well; that the judicial system no longer works fairly; that there are still serious questions about the genesis of the 9/11 attacks and its subsequent rationale for 2 wars, horrendous destruction in the Middle East, the National Security State, and huge expenditure of our resources on military and security projects rather than institutions that would civilize us and facilitate normal life in this country so that people could realize their potential: namely, education, health care, environmental health, physical health (rather tha coddling the various noxious food industries), infrastructure, and, dare I say it, even the arts; and that our electoral process has been thoroughly corrupted (by "flipping," "stripping," crosscheck, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws), so that it no longer reflects the will of the People. And then there is America's largely destructive relation to the rest of the world, starting with Israel/Palestine, but that's another story.
And the most insidious causes, those that are concealed by liberal complacency (if not sanctimony) include the failure of our mainstream and even progressive media to face up to the hard truths of our time: that big banks and corporate interests control both political parties; that the Democrats, like the Republicans, have abandoned not just the working class, but the middle class and the poor as well; that the judicial system no longer works fairly; that there are still serious questions about the genesis of the 9/11 attacks and its subsequent rationale for 2 wars, horrendous destruction in the Middle East, the National Security State, and huge expenditure of our resources on military and security projects rather than institutions that would civilize us and facilitate normal life in this country so that people could realize their potential: namely, education, health care, environmental health, physical health (rather tha coddling the various noxious food industries), infrastructure, and, dare I say it, even the arts; and that our electoral process has been thoroughly corrupted (by "flipping," "stripping," crosscheck, gerrymandering, and voter ID laws), so that it no longer reflects the will of the People. And then there is America's largely destructive relation to the rest of the world, starting with Israel/Palestine, but that's another story.
Too many people have lost faith in the government that is supposed to belong to them, but underinformed and misled, they take out their anger & frustration by electing a destructive demagogue.
And it's not as if this information has been hidden! Prophetic voices, like those of Chris Hedges, the lately departed Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, Eric Larsen, Mark Crispin Miller, Jonathan Simon, Greg Palast, Thomas Frank, Jane Mayer, among others—none of whose words would be permitted on the op-ed pages of the New York Times (unless severely censored)—such voices have spoken out, published books, articles both online and occasionally in print.
Hedges, in "The Death of the Liberal Class" (2011), wrote about the five traditional institutions that have been weakened or compromised to the point of ineffectiveness: the universities, the labor unions, the liberal churches, the Democratic party, and the press. Of these, I place the greatest blame on the press, now lacking the courage, independence and integrity that they once had (we believe), who now merely pretend to give us an integral, unbiased picture of events, while ignoring or denying the most critical, pivotal, consequential truths of our time.
The result is widespread false consciousness, which, when combined with the inchoate misgivings of a majority of our countrymen who sense that much is wrong, expresses its loss of faith and gut displeasure by electing a "wrecker" (though his election was fraudulent, and not just through the fault of the Russians—see above), who will destroy significant parcels of our civilization, increasing among the 99%, levels of misery, disease, frustration, ignorance, and above all, debt.
