{"id":16800,"date":"2018-07-25T19:39:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T00:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=16800"},"modified":"2018-07-25T19:39:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T00:39:55","slug":"armoring-the-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/07\/25\/armoring-the-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"Armoring The Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Cillizza of CNN<\/strong><\/em> has a well-reasoned conniption fit<\/a> over Trump’s latest attempt to build a bubble of iron around his followers:<\/p>\n

If you blinked, you might have missed it.<\/p>\n

At a\u00a0speech in Kansas City to the VFW annual convention\u00a0on Tuesday<\/span><\/a>, President Donald Trump — amid one of his trademark anti-media rants — said this (emphasis mine):<\/p>\n

“Stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. …\u00a0What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening<\/strong>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0politician\u00a0<\/b>(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.<\/p>\n

They may not be convinced, but it’s at least a start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0speech in Kansas City to the VFW annual convention\u00a0on Tuesday, President Donald Trump — amid one of his trademark \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16801,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16800\/revisions\/16801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}