Chris Cillizza of CNN has a well-reasoned conniption fit over Trump’s latest attempt to build a bubble of iron around his followers:
If you blinked, you might have missed it.
At a speech in Kansas City to the VFW annual convention on Tuesday, President Donald Trump — amid one of his trademark anti-media rants — said this (emphasis mine):
“Stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. … What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
I know I keep saying this, BUT: That is an absolutely remarkable thing for any elected leader to say — especially when that leader is the most powerful person in the country. And I know I keep saying this too, BUT: That the President not only thinks like that but feels emboldened enough to utter it to a crowd of people — with cameras broadcasting it around the country — is downright scary.
Go back and read that full quote above. What Trump is saying is this: I (and those who support me) are the only ones telling you the truth. Anything you hear from anyone who is not me is not to be believed.
I more or less agree with Cillizza, so I shan’t repeat what he said. Rather, I’ll just note that Trump’s appeal is decidedly un-American as well as being American.
Why? Because Americans have a long history of believing themselves to be tough-minded, skeptical mongrels, all the while going to church (or other) where most of them believe in a supernatural creature for which there is no evidence – just the scary thoughts of societal chaos and black death.
If you run across a Trumpist who’s trumpeting that Trump is the only Truth, ask them who cut off their All-American balls. No, I’m serious, if not diplomatic. Ask them where they lost their American attitude of skepticism and tough-mindedness, of getting all the information, not just what this self-interested politician (it’s worth emphasizing, eh?) who replaced the swamp with a much, much worse swamp. It’s the big question: have they been sucked in by the King of Con-men, and make them prove that they haven’t.
They may not be convinced, but it’s at least a start.
