As we watch Donald Trump destroy democracy and the government through Elon Musk, we must first understand why, and then we must engage in one or more forms. They depend on our ignorance willful or otherwise.
Watching many news programs over the few weeks since Trump’s reentry into the White House was disconcerting. The messages from many hosts, guests, and panels were mostly defeatist.
Democracy in our hands
The media is there to inform not only about the doings of our political leaders but the context of what they are doing relative to history. In a country with a 1st Amendment protecting the freedom of the press, they cannot acquiesce to government intimidation. Yet, we have seen print media (e.g., Washington Post, LA Times) and TV news (e.g., Morning Joe, Jim Acosta ‘firing’) do just that.
We’ve seen Republican non-response and Democratic lazy response to Trump via Musk’s decimation of government agencies. Donald Trump is not only harming the Libs, but he is harming Republicans and MAGA. While I can understand Republican non-response, I am flabbergasted that Democrats are not fighting smarter.
Let’s be clear, when Democrats were in power, Republicans and MAGA used the airwaves incessantly to attack Democrats, albeit with lies and misinformation. A mostly recovered economy was a failed economy. A reduction in border crossing was an increase in border crossings. A declining crime rate was causing crimes to rise. Even as most schools had never seen a transgender person, they were out to get your children. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies that ensure all qualified people have equal access to success in employment were advertised lyingly as lowering qualification standards. Even as Democratic programs lowered the poverty rate and increased people’s finances, Trump and his sycophants went on every media to create an alternate reality, lies, that worked with 49.8 % of Americans.
Democrats did not use the media successfully with brash, not timid truths to refute Republicans and MAGA. They did not scold the media in real-time for allowing lies on their airways as Republicans scolded the media when they tell the truth.
As if that is not bad enough, the mainstream media is shrinking. CNN, MSNBC, and many other print and online media outlets are laying off journalists, support and research staff, and more. Billionaire Steve Wynn is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the 1964 libel law (New York Times vs. Sullivan) in connection with his 2018 defamation lawsuit against The Associated Press and reporter Regina Garcia Cano. In the lawsuit, he said AP published false statements with “actual malice” about accusations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with women. If successful, this would put fear into the mainstream media, preventing them from primarily holding the wealthy accountable.
What is going on? There is a battle on two fronts. The first is to keep many Americans ignorant of what the Trump administration is doing. They do this by neutering the mainstream media and populating the White House, Pentagon, and other news bureaus with their friendly Right-Wing media. The second is to keep Federal Government workers petrified for their jobs by showing the executive’s power to decimate their agencies and their employment and livelihood.
Trump, through Musk, intends to disrupt as many agencies as possible. They want to decimate what they call the administrative state. They plan to make the government small and ineffective, allowing the oligarchs to be paid with our tax dollars to provide services that should be solely the purview of the government. After all, government services are provided more efficiently since they do not have private sector costs (profits, fees, advertising, bonuses, etc.).
How many in the mainstream media have given the above truthful narrative? Why haven’t they? — Timidity because they serve the same masters that will benefit from the chaos.
While all these realities are terrifying, I see them as a catalyst for engagement. The country is still a democracy, and it is ours. But it is all hands on deck.
I speak on these issues on my twice-daily radio program, Politics Done Right. I also write articles and blogs and produce YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok shorts and videos daily to deliver informational messages with the unabashed truth. I’ve written several books to enlighten you on the workings of our economy, people engagement, and much more. I participate in conferences like Netroots Nation, where progressives gather to learn and tweak messaging. Most importantly, I meet, hug, shake hands, and talk to people in the flesh where people can feel we are all in this fight together.
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