The “beginning of the end”… again

I’m feeling totally justified in my decision not to vote for any of the 2020 Dem candidates and assuredly not Trump, who behaves just like the most corrupt Dem smear merchants.

Peggy Noonan wrote an excellent piece, Why They’ll Never Stop Targeting Kavanaugh, in the Wall Street Journal a couple days ago.  She explains several reasons why the attacks on Kavanaugh will never stop and here are a few:

“Because the authority and legitimacy of future rulings that are not pleasing to progressives (most prominently, perhaps, on Roe v. Wade) can be undermined through footnotes that say “the 5-4 decision was joined by a justice credibly accused of sexual assault.”

Because the steady drum of allegations diminishes not only Justice Kavanaugh’s stature but that of the court itself, which will be helpful when Democrats attempt to pack it.

Because the crazier parts of the progressive left increasingly see politics as public theater, with heroes and villains, cheers and hisses from the audience, and costumes, such as outfits from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Because modern politics is, for the lonely and strange on all sides, entertainment and diversion. And one’s people must be entertained.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-theyll-never-stop-targeting-kavanaugh-11568933484?shareToken=st9bfbddd98d02450a9e3771cb2f96a188

The problem with Noonan’s analysis is it’s only half of America’s problem with smear campaigns and outrageous spin attacks.

Trump has become the spewing fire and brimstone spin televangelist for Republicans, embracing the same corrupt spin war as Democrats.  Trump revels in the Dem/media spin attacks against him, because they bolster his “victim” status and form the centerpiece of his tent revival martyr routine.  There is Saint Trump, the most maligned “victim” in America, taking all the hits just for his followers.  Trump tweets and engages in his impromptu pressers, where he unflinchingly faces the White House press corps… perfecting his “one man against the media mob spin optic”.

Trump, the one man reality show, replaced White House press briefings and Trump doesn’t bother with carefully constructed spin narratives or widely circulated talking points like Democrats, instead he delights in surprise shoot-from-the-hip, fact-free spontaneous smear attacks against the media, Democrats, even celebrities who tick him off.  Trump turned the GOP into a raging, seething tent revival scorched earth spin war against the Left that is as vile, corrupt and damaging to our  democratic institutions as anything Democrats, the media or far Left dish out against Trump, Republicans and conservatives.

Trump isn’t alone in the spin sideshows.  Elizabeth Warren has been garnering praise in the mainstream media for her dedication to spending hours working through lines of “fans” and doing “selfie” photos with each and every one…  Here’s a Slate piece gushing over Warren’s dedication:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “selfie line” may be a “political phenomenon,” according to CNN, but it’s also a misnomer, twice over: The photos that supporters end up with aren’t technically selfies—campaign aides snap them—and no one waits in a line, or at least they didn’t Monday evening at Warren’s rally in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. It was more of a blob.

“We were told that that was the line,” a rally attendee named Alanna, a therapist, told me, nodding toward a large crowd of people to the east of the Washington Square Arch. “And then someone told me that wasn’t the line. And then someone told me that was the line. So I’m not sure where the line is. But it feels like just a clump.” (She preferred not to provide her last name for professional reasons.)

Most of the attendees were happy to join the clump regardless. “If she can go through all these people and take selfies, I can wait it out for at least 45 minutes,” said Bri Held, an executive assistant. The wait time turned out to be quite a bit longer than that.

Addressing a crowd of 20,000 earlier in the evening, Warren implied at one point that she might forgo selfie hour, which has quickly become a campaign signature (and which, again, does not involve actual selfies) that night. But she was just kidding. “Some things we just don’t mess with,” she said.

And they truly do not. Warren’s staff estimated that she’s taken 59,000 of the photos thus far. (If all 59,000 people posted them, just imagine the social media impressions.) The campaign is even trying to build on the selfie momentum. On Monday, a campaign surrogate said to the crowd, “I want you all to take a selfie with a new friend you just made.” Selfie-takers were then instructed to tag their pics on social media. Many obliged.”

https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/elizabeth-warren-selfie-line-experience.html

So, Warren’s “selfie” lines aren’t really lines, but “clumps of people” milling about.  Her “selfies” aren’t really “selfie” photos, but campaign staffers taking photos and trying to recruit the clumps of people to post the photos online to amplify online attention.  From campaign bumper stickers to online groupie photos, I guess.

What America really needs is not more Republicans or Democrats.  Trump isn’t the last bulwark protecting America from the Leftist culture war zealots and Democrats aren’t the last bulwark protecting America from Trump, The Authoritarian.

We need more Americans dedicated to American principles rather than acting like slavish groupies clinging to spin kings and queens or culture and political warriors dedicated to partisan causes and personalities.  It’s time to wean ourselves off the celebrity politics and letting popular culture battles trample every bit of common ground we should hold dear.