“This Is the Only Story Now”–Why Most Americans Feel an Empty Deadness Inside
I normally link to, rather than reprint, others’ pieces in their entirety, especially if they’re longer than a paragraph or two, but I’m thrilled to make an exception with this masterpiece by Esquire Magazine’s Charles Pierce. In the same breath, he communicates the horrible truth of what’s occurring in America, along with a haunting description of the hollow emptiness that most Americans carry around with themselves as a result.
In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and say, “And we shall overcome.” I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh’s madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing “Amazing Grace” in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
The scion of a multi-generational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. Watch him again, behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn’t he a funny man? Isn’t what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now.
Craig,
Well, I guess Charles Pierce and President trump won’t be exchanging exchanging Christmas cards this year !
How helpful is such a diatribe in restoring civility in American political discourse ? Well, that’s a matter of political persuasion but an impartial person reading Charles Peirce might rightly assume it’s a matter of the pot calling the kettle huely challenged .
The President’s observations may have been politically insensitive, but were they inaccurate? Although shocking to those dedicated to political correctness, were the President’s remarks not spoken in defense of an individual set upon by a howling mob ?
Charles Pierce can only justify his harsh criticism if he has personal knowledge or evidence verifying the accuracy of Christine Ford’s accusation.
He possesses no such knowledge. His indignation is borne of prejudice and false sanctimony.
In this matter there were always four possibilities.
1) The allegation is accurate and the accuser is telling the truth
2) The allegation is false and the accuser is lying
3) The allegation is inaccurate and the accused is telling the truth
4) The allegation is accurate and the accused is lying
Other possibilities also exist, in that the circumstances of the accusation may be true but the accuser identified the wrong person. It’s also possible the accused believes himself to be telling the truth and genuinely doesn’t recall the incident as a result of intoxication.
If the accuser is lying, or even genuinely mistaken, then the accused, and the American people are victims of a monstrous plot. The monstrosity of such a canard is rendered even greater since it does immense harm to every genuine victim.
It may be very hard to believe a woman as believable as Christine Ford may be a party (even unwittingly) to such a dastardly scheme, but after all the emotion is removed from consideration, it not by any means inconceivable.
Schemes of this nature, tend to take on a life of their own as the originators lose control and a media frenzy takes over.
The President’s criticism of the cynical political tactics of certain Democrats is accurate and deserved. If Christine Ford was a willing party to those tactics then her role is despicable, and indefensible on so many levels.
If Christine Ford is an unwitting dupe, then the culpability and wickedness of the perpetrators is magnified even if they believed her story.
We live in unusual times, Trump has become President in a political era without no rules. The media and many of the progressive left argue anything, no if previously thought despicable, is justified if used against Trump and his nominees.
“The end justifies the means “, has become the new motto of a self-righteous left. The politics of the lynch mob is the standard of huge swathes of the US media. Emotion has replaced reason, vengeance in place of fair process, the ‘moral’ compass is so askew US society has completely lost it path.
Is the President a “mean bully”, or a “courageous President standing against the popular tide defending the values of Atticus Finch” ?
Again, it depends on your political conviction.
As it is, the truth of the accusation may never be known. However, I prefer the carefully considered, well reasoned, conciliatory summation of Senator Collins to the belligerent rantings of Charles Pierce.
But, that’s just me….
I believe in reporting accuracy. I believe what conservatives oft derisively refer to as “progressive” or “liberal” media, reports more accurately than many, if not most, conservative sources. This is born out in Media Bias/Fact Check.
I believe the investigation into Christine Ford’s allegations were conducted in such a manner, by direction from within the White House, to ensure the extent was limited and outcome was expected. No effort was made to examine the veracity of the accused.
These beliefs are based on facts presented by the very media you degrinate. It may not agree with or influence your own beliefs, but that does not mean these media sources were wrong or biased in their reporting.
Charles Pierce is absolutely right. The presidents before Trump at least tried to make America better for everyone, not just the rich, and now we have a child buffoon trying to destroy the last 6 years of progress of trying to stop global warming just so he can make more money. It’s absolutely disgusting.
The entire SCOTUS nomination process was engineered to be completed before the mid terms. With that end in mind, Ford’s allegations were never to be taken as anything more than an inconvenient obstacle, regardless of the veracity of the allegations.