Takeaways from Trumpism

By Bob Travica

In all likelihood, the U.S. President Donald Trump will be impeached. Between the reality shows “Apprentice” (a.k.a. “You are fired”) and “Russian Connection”, I wrote about (http://cogito-bob.blogspot.com/2017/ ), the latter is going to prevail. The special counsel Muller has been drilling down diligently for months, turning the President’s allies into enemies and inching toward indicting Trump for obstruction of justice.

Part of news media have contributed immensely to the reality “Russian Connection” and spearheaded the impeachment cry. Enter the loss of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Still angry over the loss of presidential elections in 2016, there is no doubt that Democrats will make Trump’s impeachment a top priority once they take over the House.

In result, the lay-off addict that’s occupying the Oval Office has got cornered. In the ironic turn of events, he will be fired.

Resume of Trumpism

There can be little doubt that Trump is not cut to be President as we know it. A hard-handed business boss, he’s got no stomach for the usual political wheeling and dealing and a schmoozing double-talk. He can’t keep his cool and his tongue under control. Trump has assumed the country (and its international extensions) to be his private enterprise that he could run at will. He has ruled by presidential decrees and uttered “you’re fired” to a level insane even for a privately owned business. And yes, he’s made lots of noise, ahem trumpery, via tweeting and in other ways.

Overall, the Trumpian hard-handed governance put at a test the institutions of check-and-balance in the American political system. True, he didn’t bring his horse into the Congress yet, as an emperor in the ancient Rome did. But this is perhaps so just because Trump didn’t really frequent the place.

Joking aside, the end result of two years of Trumpism seem clear. In spite of all the Caesarism and combativeness, Trump’s remake of Reagan’s “Let’s make America great (again)” has yielded just some poultry results. Repatriation of American business and profits remains as elusive as it’s been throughout the globalization era. Consequently, the trend of impoverishing the American lower classes hasn’t been reversed.

The promised reforming of health care (Obama-care) failed. Actually, this is good news for the underprivileged masses who for the first time in history experienced benefits that are normal in developed countries. Also on the domestic political scene, Trumpism stirred up the immigration policies only to create chaos, triggering unpleasant imagery of great walls and iron curtains.

Overall, Trumpism failed to shake up the Washington establishment. Acting on the premise that the federal political institutions were broke and needed fixing, Trump just managed to scratch the system. 

Trump didn’t truly undermine the entrenched echelons of power resting on the extensive intelligence sector, the special interest-stringed news media, and umbilical links between the Congress and corporations. Trump actually irritated and antagonized the key players, and got them united against himself.  The consolidation of shadowy power centers may have long-term political consequences.

No notable results in international politics could be seen either, except that two Koreas are now allowed to talk to each other. The promises of easing tensions with Russia and in the Middle East have not materialized. Other foreign policy acts have been about undoing deals that the previous governments made (NAFTA, Iran nuclear deal).

American establishment has so far reacted to Trump’s administration not as much to what it’s been done but rather to how it’s done. A large part of the establishment rejected Trump’s thriving on absolutism and chaos. And that’s good. Preventing a regression of the American republic toward a monarchy is good not only for the U.S. but for the world as well.

Trump’s resume is apparently gloomy. Are there any other takeaways, any credits he’s earned? I think there are some lying on the flip page of Trump’s liabilities.

To Your Face

Trump is the first President to speak openly his mind. In the past, instances of honesty were rare, including Eisenhower's talk about the military-industrial complex impacting American politics, and W. Bush’s acknowledgment of advantages of autocracy. However, Trump made this practice regular via tweeting and public speech. Trump spits out with no hesitation what other politicians just bear in mind or say just behind the closed door. This could be happening out of mere arrogance. Regardless, his raw thoughts are there for the public to judge. Here are some examples.

Trump says that the U.S. will keep supporting Saudi Arabia regardless of the international standing of the country’s ruler because they buy American weapons. Contrast that with the typical U.S. policy of playing publicly a guardian of human rights while actually supporting even the most oppressive regimes if they act in accord with American interest. This could be the dictator, oil exporter, big buyer, an enemy of America’s enemy, a careless seller of national assets, owner of a geopolitically relevant territory, etc. American governments are not choosy as long as the partner plays their game.

Trump also stopped playing the double game of a peacemaker in the Middle East with regard to relations between Israelis and Palestinians. He openly moved to the Israeli side, moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem (which is supposed to be a shared city), and thus he broke the cycle of hypocrisy entrapping the past U.S. presidents.

Moreover, Trump advised blatantly the NATO allies to contribute more money to the military pact. NATO has been touted as an alliance that serves the interest of all members, each of whom desires it equally with no second thought. However, the U.S. has been heavily footing the NATO bill in money and military resources. Perhaps so because NATO has served primarily a strategy of American global hegemony. Trump’s reasoning is dire straight: put the money where your mouth is! If it fails to chase out more contributions, his approach may show that NATO is not so desperately desired by the allies.

In a word, the Trumpian to-your-face frankness unveiled the ugly face of realpolitik as the driver of American global role. Not a big news for an educated critical thinker. Still, let’s keep in mind that such a person is a rare entity in the country with politically undereducated citizens who are regularly brain-washed.

The mission of past Presidents was to make the folks believe that America has always stuck to the high moral ground, having humanity in mind as the ultimate goal, even when that meant destroying millions of people and entire countries overseas. Trump’s awkward honesty breaks the self-aggrandizing illusion.

Lying Conundrum

Another good consequence of the Trumpism is publicizing that high politics involves lying. This is where a war between the so-called liberal media, on one side, and conservative media and Trump, on the other, have played a key role. A fact-checking order was issued to liberal media as early as in the election run by the opposing presidential candidate. CNN, Washington Post, and The New York Times took on the job quite seriously. They tracked zig-zag trajectories of Trump’s statements and voiced lots of “Aha!”. In contrast, conservative media (Fox News and a number of the radio- and Internet-based outlets) endeavored to counter each point.

Checking and balancing powers is a basic mechanism of democracy. So, it is desirable to question politicians’ statements. However, the media have acted in a confusing way by taking extreme positions. Both on the left and the right spectrum of media, the balancing act of covering different views has given way to partisanship. The opposing media keep accusing each other of “fake news”, while each side is claiming the exclusive right on absolute truth. What's really happening behind this truth-loving quest?

While conservative media uncritically praise Trump, liberal media strive to prove that Trump’s lying is extraordinary as if there exists a typical American politician speaking facts (truth) only. News consumers are supposed to believe that a truth-telling politician is embodied in the interviewees that spray verbal bullets on Trump’s statements and moves. 

Let’s play the media’s game. Fact: Politics is always about lying because a politician deals with antagonistic groups. Let’s assume there are two groups with opposed interests. If a politician promises fulfillment of the group interest to both sides, he must be lying to one of them. But a politician must do exactly that or risk losing the support of the frustrated group.

Politicians lie all the time and take that as part and parcel of the job. Facts and the truth are not the essential part of representing political interest, deal-making, and compromising to shape the legislation. Rather, facts are mixed with semi-facts, lies, ideological and self-interest biases, unwarranted promises, hidden connotations, obscured agendas, and so on. Quite a dramatic contrast to a virginal purity of facts-based politics that the media on both sides serve to the public. However, the anti-Trump media play on American culture.

Tango of Hypocrisy

American Presidents live under a glass bell; the nation and the world watch them keenly. A president is supposed to embody values of the national culture. Take marital fidelity, for example, and recall the former President Bill Clinton who was impeached for an act that in some other countries would be considered merely a juicy story.

Not lying is also an American cultural value. In everyday life, most Americans behave accordingly. However, it is tacitly accepted that certain social areas are not bullet-proof (politics, law, business, management). While public relations (PR, propagandistic) spins are regular in politics, liberal media amplify them since the top officer inside the glass bell should not lie, ahem, openly. Thus, these media perpetuate a drama in which the protagonist they construct is violating the culture.

Former presidents managed to mask their spins and to tango in lock-step with media. Call this a tango of hypocrisy, if you wish. But that’s how culture works, a china store that very much defines any society. There then comes elephant Trump and tweet-sprays the store from the trenches of his office, bedroom, toilet… 

The critics deem Trump's behavior as uncultivated and arrogant while grinning at the donation of lots of anti-Trump ammunition that Trump gives away. However, the opponents judge this as a welcome refreshment within the ossified Washington establishment.

Spinner’s Truth

Journalism is on a slippery slope of truthfulness by the nature of its work. Journalists struggle to construct a journalistic truth, based on evidence they can capture in a speedy and messy journalistic workflow. Coming up with undisputable social facts is hard to do even in more contemplative environments of a historian or social scientist (both admit incompleteness of findings though). However, news media are at the bottom of the truth scale, just a notch above politicians.

Journalists act upon hastily collected evidence from preset, filtered and partially automated sources of informing. Journalists readily cite hunches, rumors and subjective impressions as if these are fully baked facts. Causal connections between co-occurring events are made on the fly, subjective conclusions declared the truth. And yes, career-minded journalists compete for that alluring best story.

Enter institutional factors. Media owners aim at increasing their advertising income and social capital (connections in the economic and political worlds). Agendas drive the source selection and analysis even in the basic coverage of an event’s W’s (who, what, where, when, and why). And any medium is subject to a certain ideology as it’s crystal clear in the current split among American media. This institutional context presses media professionals to fit the given way or hit the highway.

The end result is that the business of informing involves spin doctoring. The worst case of it is when an ambitious journalist purposely embraces a medium’s agenda for story-making (for example, the civil war in Bosnia and the war in Syria). Still, the journalistic establishment tends to accolade such fictionalized journalism with prestigious awards. Paradoxical? Not really. The business of media is reality construction rather than description.

The spinner’s preaching of fact/truth is hardly more credible than the political PR. But it’s certainly more deceiving. Taking a critical look at media is plausibly another useful takeaway from the period of Trumpism.

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Just two American presidents were impeached by the House (Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton) and both were acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon was forced to resign due to a looming impeachment ensuing the Watergate scandal. It remains to be seen which way Donald Trump will go. As investigations on him escalate, the Russian Connection reality may become unnecessary for removing him from the office. Turning the American republic into an autocracy has failed. Still, the country's political system needs fixing. But that’s a topic for another blog.