TRUMP’S HOSTAGE VIDEO
TRUMP’S HOSTAGE VIDEO: WHAT TO DO
Under pressure and mass resignations from Trump’s cabinet and staff, the would-be dictator was prevailed to make a hostage video, reciting someone else’s words off a teleprompter that anyone, including his fans. watching the performance, understood as insincere. Comparing that with his earlier incitement and post-Capitol invasion bouquet — -”we love you” — — is all one needs to assess his culpability.
What if security inside the building had been unable to protect the lawmakers inside successfully? What would have happened to Pelosi, AOC, Sanders, Omar, and many other Dems, and perhaps Romney and a few other GOP, had the mob been able to find them? Asked for their autographs?
Given the mentality of the assemblage of Qanonites, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and others led to believe that Biden and the Dems had staged a coup, there is a strong likelihood assault or death would have occurred to some, or many, lawmakers.
While eventually condemning the violence, Tucker Carlson described it as a protest that got out of hand. Others on the right claimed that ANTIFA had infiltrated a peaceful protest.
What should be done at this point? Besides prosecuting those invaders who can be identified and firing police officials who deliberately avoided preparing for the insurrection or were seen welcoming the invaders, Trump has to be held accountable.
It is clear that Pence, though angry at Trump, has no desire to do anything to remove him via the 25th Amendment. Nor does his cabinet, many of whom seem to be resigning simply to avoid having such pressure put on them.
Pelosi may get a bare majority of the House to impeach Trump, but there will be no Senate trial. This means Trump can only face criminal charges for inciting a riot, and perhaps worse, only after leaving office. My sense is Biden does not want that — and will invoke Ford’s pardon of Nixon as precedent. Ford did that to “heal the nation,” but the majority of Americans needed no healing. They voted Ford out of office at the earliest opportunity because most wanted Nixon prosecuted.
In the current situation, healing is needed but is impossible. During Watergate, the mass media was not bifurcated as it is now. There was no alternate reality on Fox, Breitbart, right-wing radio, and the internet.
Trump will be a martyr to tens of millions even if he leaves office in the normal way as the loser of an election does. Prosecuting him won’t make anything much worse than it already is. It will be interesting to see if polls on his job approval show any decline in the aftermath of his failed coup. If they do, it won’t be by enough to make a difference.
There will be no healing because his fans are not sick or wounded. They are dangerous, but, for the most part, they do not have any mental illness. They have been fed a steady stream of lies for more than a quarter of a century on Fox, various publications, talk radio, and the internet. These lies were readily accepted because they built upon a long national history of racism and xenophobia.
Many naively believe, or want to think, economic insecurity is at the root of the Trump base. But, the most sophisticated research has shown that bigotry per se is the driving force which enhances and sometimes even produces economic anxiety — “They will replace us.”
It is also vital to recognize that it’s not the Trump base, allegedly only non-college whites — who support some form of fascism. Many who do are college-educated, and, of course, the media that arouse the base are owned and operated by the wealthy and highly-paid propagandists. The Murdoch family permits Hannity and Carlson to poison minds. The Mercer family owns Breitbart. Sinclair, owned by the Smith family, operates all those right-wing radio outlets.
Trump should be prosecuted, but another practical step that would be somewhat helpful is if the Fairness Doctrine could be re-instituted. Its removal, during the Reagan Administration, made right-wing talk radio and Fox possible. The underlying bigotry and propensity for believing deranged theories would not disappear, but their wide and unchallenged dissemination would be reduced.
That would leave the internet, and I am not sure what can be done about that. The Fairness Doctrine already exists — everything goes. But at least one thing can be done to offset that: search engines can stop providing only information that reinforces pre-existing biases. True believers should have to work a little harder, at least, to get their fixes.