There Is an Entire New Reality Under Construction in Trump's Ideological Precincts
Let's look at where we stand, shall we?
First, Slate brings us the calm, considered reaction of Congressman Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, one of those Jubilation T. Cornpone types that too many news producers consider an entertaining anachronism.
A “big lie” is a political propaganda technique made famous by Germany’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party, but more on that later. For more than two years, socialist Democrats and their fake news allies … have perpetrated the biggest political lie, con, scam, and fraud in American history. Attorney General Barr’s executive summary of Mueller’s report has publicly confirmed what many of us have known for a long time: The accusations of collusion between President Trump and Russia in the 2016 elections are nothing but a big lie. …
The Mueller report vindicates President Trump and his 2016 campaign from the socialist, baseless, reckless, and false big lie charges of Russian collusion. … Socialist Democrats and their fake news media allies were shameless, shameless in their big lie scam that has inspired hatred against President Trump and violence against Americans who support America’s foundational principles. If socialists in the fake news media had any honor, they would cleanse their souls and atone for their sins. … More likely, however, they will double down and propagate even more big lies because doubling down is essential to big lie theory. In that vein, I quote from another socialist who mastered big lie propaganda to a maximum, and deadly, effect...
Who is this big lie master? That quote was in 1925 by a member of Germany’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party-that’s right, Germany’s socialist party-more commonly known as the Nazis. The author was socialist Adolf Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf. Mr. Speaker, America can either learn from history or be doomed to repeat it. When it comes to big lie political propaganda in America, as the Mueller report confirms, America’s socialists and their fake news media allies are experts and have no peers. Regardless, America must reject their big lies or succumb to the danger that lurks, and horrific damage that results.
Second, we have a number of career hacks tugging our forelocks for us without asking. To be fair to Sharyl Attkisson, it is possible that deep state operatives from the Obama cabal took over her keyboard again and put this pernicious nonsense out there under her name. From The Hill:
Apologies to Trump on behalf of those in the U.S. intelligence community, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, which allowed the weaponization of sensitive, intrusive intelligence tools against innocent citizens such as Carter Page, an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign. Apologies also to Page himself, to Jerome Corsi, Donald Trump Jr., and other citizens whose rights were violated or who were unfairly caught up in surveillance or the heated pursuit of charges based on little more than false, unproven opposition research paid for by Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Carter Page: an innocent victim of blind justice. This from someone who spent so much time down the Benghazi rabbit hole she set up housekeeping there. There is a lovely world under construction here.
As for Brooks, well, he's back on the I'll Self-Abnegate For All Ye Sinners beat again, in which civility and decency always seem to conform to Republican talking points. From The New York Times:
And what about the rest of us? What about all the hours we spent speculating about the Mueller report, fantasizing about the Trump ruin or watching and reading speculation about these things? What about the superstructure of scandal politics we have built and live in today?
The sad fact is that Watergate introduced a poison into the American body politic. Richard Nixon’s downfall was just and important, but it opened up the mouthwatering possibility that you don’t need to do the hard work of persuading people to join your side. Instead, you can destroy your foes all at once through scandal. Politics since Watergate has been defined by a long string of scandals and pseudo-scandals - Iran-contra, Whitewater, Valerie Plame, Benghazi, Solyndra, swift-boating. Politico last year compiled a list of 46 scandals that were at one time or another deemed “worse than Watergate.”
In Brooks's list of mortal sins, there are two actual scandals: Iran-Contra, in which the government of the United States sold weapons to what is now called "the leading state sponsor of terrorism" in order to finance an illegal war in Central America the consequences of which are now arriving on our southern border; and "Valerie Plame," in which officials of the Avignon Presidency outed a covert CIA agent for political reasons. Benghazi, Solyndra, and Whitewater were Republican exercises in useful fauxtrage, and "swift-boating" was a pure ratfck.
The only distinction is that, in both Iran-Contra and the Plame affair, the perps walked or were pardoned, and then the David Brookses of the world set the "let's move on from this nasty business" narrative in concrete. In the case of the former, one of the chief engineers was one William Barr, once and future Attorney General of the United States. Let David Brooks go off and rub gravel in his hair. There's no reason for the rest of us to follow.
Third, the president* has decided to abuse the powers of his office in plain view. From the NYT:
"There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things, I would say treasonous things against our country," Trump told reporters at the White House on March 25, without mentioning anyone by name or citing specific actions. "Those people will certainly be looked at," the U.S. president said. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and a Trump ally, told reporters he would ask Attorney General William Barr to appoint a special counsel to probe whether U.S. law enforcement officials made missteps in their investigation.
Of course, according to the logic of William Barr's press release, a presidential crime is not a crime if the president* tells you he's going to do it in advance.
Meanwhile, emboldened by Barr's press release, the administration* has re-launched one of its primary political goals: ripping healthcare coverage away from people who otherwise can't afford it. From the Washington Post:
But in the new filing, signed by three Justice Department attorneys, the administration said that the decision of U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor should be affirmed and the entirety of the ACA should be invalidated. The government said it planned to file a brief in support of the Texas-led coalition of states pursuing the law’s complete nullification, now that “the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed,” as the filing stated. “The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said in a statement.
If the Justice Department’s position prevails, it would potentially eliminate health care for millions of people and cause disruption across the U.S. health-care system - from removing no-charge preventive services for older Americans on Medicare to voiding the expansion of Medicaid in most states. A court victory would fulfill Republican promises to undo a prized domestic accomplishment of the previous administration but leave no substitute in place.
William Barr is earning his paycheck.
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