A Coup of Hypocrisy & Lies
Donald Trump, with his
feral cunning, knew. The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism
and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most
repulsive public figure. And Pence, who has reached this pinnacle by dethroning
his benefactor, is augmenting the public stock of useful knowledge. Because his
is the authentic voice of today’s lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies
this year’s elections: Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing.
By JM Hamilton (5-13-2018)
Who knew the GOP could stack it
so high?
Then again, the Party of Trump gave up any pretense of ethics
& morality a long time ago; and per columnist George Will, at the Post, the
Grand Old Party has turned into the Party of Lackeys (arguably, for the
billionaire/multinational set).
Just when we thought the swamp couldn't grow more fetid, comes
news from the same Washington Post that
Trump has lied, or spread misinformation, 3,001 times in the first 466 days of his Presidency.
Perhaps a record?
As with all things Trump, excess is best... so why not take
falsehood & fabrication to whole new level. Trump said during his
campaign he loved the uneducated and now we know why. If your base
consists of those with little interest in learning, or keeping up on world
events (or sadly, don't have the means or time), than there is no one to discern truth from lies.
And so, the exploited continue to be abused and misled.
Now we know why the GOP has zero appreciation for teachers, higher
education, and want to turn science out of government.
Lies - from elected leaders - are horrible things.
Deception destroys the credibility of our democratic government and
society, and makes a perfidious hash out of the rule of law. Then again,
perhaps Trump is little more than the vanguard of America's fate: A dystopian future where the swamp grows beyond DC's borders and spreads from sea to shining sea.
One thing is for certain, if the Trump Administration is the
equivalent to an EPA Superfund site, than education, the fourth estate, and
sunlight are the cure. If some European countries can afford to freely offer a college education to their citizens,
than surely the richest nation on the planet can do same.
If an avalanche of lies is detrimental to the country, equally
repugnant is the shear hypocrisy with which the minions of the billionaire class parrot the same old defeated & tired arguments, over and over again. All too often the charlatans fail to recognize the moral failing,
or allegations, they cite as applying to others, also applies equally - if not
more so - to them and their party.
Let's examine some examples:
The Communists are coming, the Communists are coming! No
Ed. They're already here, and they put you and your lobbying firm on
retainer. Ed Rogers, (chairman of the lobbying and communications firm BGR Group,
which he founded with former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour), Mr. Swamp, recently wrote a column lamenting the leftward turn
of the Democratic Party, and specifically cites Senator Sanders plan to
guarantee a job for every American. Mr. Rogers says he's worried about
creeping socialism and, gasp, communism; but then fails to recognize
that the biggest swine at the government trough are the very clients he - and
assorted K Street lobbyist - all too often represent. And who
fosters and redistributes government largess to the kleptocracy - well both
political parties do actually - but the GOP has turned communism, for the elite, into an art form.
Nobody redistributes wealth from the middle class &
the poor to the wealthy, like the GOP. Fiscal, monetary,
judiciary, and trade policy capture.... the GOP - and their oligarch overlords
- own the practice, and have weaponized same.
Trump is going win a Nobel for bringing peace to the
Korean peninsula, while unleashing Armageddon in the Middle East by
tearing up the Iran deal? Think again. If we are honest w/ ourselves, we have to give Trump some credit
where credit is due. And one area where Trump may, ultimately, deserve
some credit - the verdict is still out - is on foreign policy. North
Korea appears to be making overture after overture towards peace, perhaps in
response to Trump's unstable/tough guy shtick (then again, perhaps under orders from China, at a time Sino-US trade negotiations are heating
up). Historically, North Korea has, in no few instances, turned to extortion...
often brandishing instability & nukes, in return for payments from the US
to quiet down and behave.
And there's a whole history of N. Korean leaders going Soprano
on US administrations, so don't release the doves just yet.
Simultaneously, our highly transactional POTUS has torn up the
Iran deal - a deal that both Israeli and US generals (by the dozens) acknowledge is good for Middle East stability, if not the world.
However, the deal is not so good for principal GOP constituents & stakeholders, namely the usual suspects: Big Oil, OPEC, the Saudi Terror regime (all of which want Iranian oil offline and out of world markets, so they can cash in); the
military industrial complex (which is always looking for the next war in
the Middle East, to goose quarterly profits); and Trump's Evangelical base
(some of whom are literally praying for Armageddon in the Middle East, because
they believe it will bring about the second coming).
How does one square the hubris and hypocrisy surrounding
the tearing up of a functioning Iran deal, which has forestalled the additional production
of nukes in the Middle East (purely to appease & profit the aforementioned GOP donors),
with the idea that Trump is suddenly going to turn into the Prince of Peace,
when dealing w/ a rogue totalitarian - North Korean - regime? The country
above the 38th parallel is one of the nastiest, and most oppressive,
on the planet, that has time and time again exhibited pathological
and sociopathic tendencies in extremis.
Evangelicals... quick to anger, quick to judge others (slow to understand), unless the sinner resides in the White House and can
stack the Supreme Court, so an Evangelical theocracy - complete w/ puritanical law - can be established w/in the United States. Wait.
Who am I kidding, the US - thanks to fundamentalist Christians -
has been living under Sharia law since the nation's founding. The
hypocrisy surrounding Evangelical church leadership is a sore point for many
Americans. Here's a group of Protestants that take tremendous pride
in their devoutness to Christian scripture and feigned piety.
However, instead of embracing Christ's story of redemption and
salvation, they are quick to go Old Testament - that is to say, fire &
brimstone - on anybody outside, or within, the church that steps out of line,
even in the slightest of degrees.
In short, per Evangelicals, almost everyone is going to hell but them.
So how can any of these folks support a President, who lies
as if it’s an involuntary bodily function, like breathing?
And that's the just the tip of the iceberg or Stormy. To
be sure, there are many Evangelicals, who wouldn't be caught dead voting for
Trump. But there are far too many, particularly among church
leadership, who are completely in bed w/ this president. This Faustian alliance is, likely, to cost them dearly in terms of the loss of credibility, and
demonstrates that even Evangelicals can adopt a Machiavellian strategy (POTUS
Trump) to achieve their ends (a stacked Supreme Court filled w/ right-wing ideologues).
In all fairness, both US political parties have been captured by
the wealthy, so that - as I have often argued, at least on economic &
foreign policy matters - we essentially live in a one party state. Both political parties have made promises, backpedaled, lied,
and engaged in hypocrisy.
To such an extent that some have argued the US has been
taken over in a silent coup.
The people clearly are not in charge of their own government.
Caught in a deluge of cover-ups, talking points, hypocrisy & lies.... we are led to believe
that there is a choice between the two political parties. The choice, however, has already been made for Americans, before they even arrive at the voting booth. The country has moved so far right, that former President Bush
(HW) voted for Hillary Clinton in the last election.
And thanks to Clintonian policies of the 90s, continued mostly under
POTUS Obama, the Democratic Party has moved in lockstep ---- on
mass incarceration, law & order politics, an adventurist foreign policy,
defense spending, the police/surveillance state, and the billionaire/multinational capture of the government & tax law ---- w/ the GOP.
The progressives give many hope. And thanks to a younger
generation - and proof from the oligarchy, and Wall Street banks, that
redistributive policies work exceptionally well (particularly for the uber wealthy) - JMH believes the
Democratic Party has the potential to bring the pendulum back to the
center: economically, geopolitically, morally, and socially. That is to say, produce a mixed economy that
embraces some forms of socialism, for the people instead of the elite, while breaking up cartels and monopolies to
reinvigorate all that is best in capitalism.
If a mix of capitalism & socialism works exceeding well in Canada
and Northern Europe, than surely the US can master same.
(If the Dems fail to reform and take advantage of a blue wave
this November, it’s almost a certainty that the nation’s women & youth will
reach out for an alternative or form a new party.)
But for that to happen, this country needs to recognize that
the antidote for the GOP’s campaign of nescience is education, and engage in extensive investigative coverage of a government that is opaque and
completely captured by a coup of hypocrisy & lies.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018
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