If we rewarded people for their overt corruption, Donald Trump would win gold reliably. From his failed, corrupt university to his failed, corrupt steaks, airlines, mortgage company, magazine, network and vodka et cetera, a single human being could not embody inept failure and bottomless corruption any more than does Donald J. Trump. Trump is inept failure and bottomless corruption right down to his mitochondria. Proudly so! The man has bragged openly about not only his corruption but his ability to get away with it! Trump’s corruption should be the very last thing anyone ever questions about him. And yet! To this very day, there are card carrying members of the press who do question whether Trump is a criminal at all.
Trump confesses to his corruption as easily as he breathes. Where Trumpian corruption’s concerned, it’s only ever a question of magnitude, volume, bulk and heft. Trumpanistas don’t care if Trump’s corrupt. They laugh at the left’s obsession with it. To them, Trump’s corruption is the whole freakin’ point! Their own corruption is their excuse to take over everything. First, of course, they need to project their corruption onto us.
Cos “both sides do it”…
I suspect “both sides do it” arose from the corporatization of the news business. It’s a forthrightly conservative assertion steeped in corporate cynicism. It requires zero data (actual data would disprove it immediately). It’s a gross generalization about human behavior assessed from 50,000 feet, completely free of nuance, detail or insight.
Here’s the usual picture – a “thicket of pundits” (that’s what a group of them should be called) sit around one more glass table, brows furrowed thoughtfully. Before them, six YEARS of overt criminal behavior. Six YEARS of blatant disregard for the law, for the rules, for the norms. That’s six years of Donald Trump lying to the news media.
When Lying Liars Lie
For the record? The news media refused to call Trump’s lies “lies” for the first two-plus years of his presidency.
Why?
The news media debated whether Trump premeditated his lies (because without provable premeditation, they worried, was it really a “lie”?) Meanwhile, as the press debated whether or not Trump was lying to them regularly, he was doing all kinds of other dubious things – like giving away our secrets and selling access to foreign powers (out in the open) for the price of a hotel room. FFS – how much benefit of the doubt can Trump’s corruption get?
A Liar Lying Lies
Trump still treats our secrets as his property. Openly. He lies about stealing our secrets – OPENLY! Just like he lies about stealing elections. Ya see the problem here? Our “news media” keeps asking about a guy they (finally) agreed was a certifiable liar! Liars don’t lie by accident. They know what they’re saying is untruthful. They lie regardless. Trump knows our secrets aren’t his. Yet our news media insists that no one is certain whether Trump intended to steal our secrets.
For some odd reason, a lifetime criminal gets the benefit of doubt he absolutely does not deserve.