It Wasn't The Airplanes That Got Him

While composing this article, I could not help but wonder what the future will look like, especially the next four years. We have to resign ourselves to what appears will be, outside of a Supreme Court ruling, the writing on the wall. While President Trump and his legal team continues their efforts to reverse the elections results, half of this divided nation is ready to accept the inevitability of a Biden administration, while the other half would prefer not to admit it, and continue to cry fraud and clamor for justice.

Perhaps if I had the prophetic abilities of the prophets of the Old Testament,  or that of Nostradamus, or even a crystal ball, I could satisfy all of our uncertainties and misgivings, and just report that we are heading for better days, or prepare for the worst. But regretably this is not within my purview, and so we can only hope that the policies and agenda of a new administration going forward, will provide for a modicum of respect for those who disagree with it on the issues, and a measure of honesty, truthfulness, and professionalism in its dealings with domestic and international affairs. 

How did we get to this point in time, and what is the cause of all the current derision, hostility, and rage among a divided American people, especially the 75 million Trump supporters. If I had to make a determination as to the reason for our current dilemma, and where to place the blame, I guess there are a number of factions that have contributed one way or another to the outcome of the election.

The never-Trump legions would say it’s entirely the presidents fault; he brought this on himself with his caustic comments and behavior, and rather rude and abrasive persona. Others, it was the Democrats and their supporters whose venomous and unabated hatred of the president went beyond all bounds of decency and the dignity of Mr. Trump, into realms of the pathological.

As for me, I believe it was something else, an immutable force that has infected politics and the culture and that spelled the defeat of President Trump. I can best sum this up with an analogy. In the final scene of the great and iconic classic “King Kong”, as the lead character of the movie falls to his untimely death from atop the Empire State Building in New York City, people gather around the star-struck lover, and someone in the crowd speaks out, “The airplanes got him.” After a brief silence another voice can be heard; the adventurer who was responsible for capturing Kong and bringing him to his demise said, “No it wasn’t the planes that got him, it was beauty that killed the beast.”

No, it wasn’t the Democrats or the never-Trump among the political class, punditry, academia and Hollywood, although they did play a part in a small way; no, it was the "Media in all its biased and corrupt manifestations that defeated President Trump.” It was a rogues gallery of networks/ABC,CBS, NBC, cable news/ CNN, MSNBC, FOX (to an extent), print media/New York Times, Washington Post, and a host of other outlets that comprised a formidable force that declared war four years ago on a newly-elected president, and from that point were hell bent on his destruction.

Has anyone in the journalism community, whatever is left of it, spoken up in denouncing the media and its unprofessionalism? Sharyl Attkinsson is an award winning reporter, and recently in an interview spoke out. “People at home realize that they recognize, even if they’re on that team or on that side; they see when we as journalists are favoring one side so blatantly that we’re probably not accurately giving the whole picture, we’re giving them the narrative or the spin we want them to have. Top to bottom, I think it’s a mess.”   

The Founding Fathers on many occasions expressed their attitudes and thinking on freedom of the press. Thomas Jefferson said, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.” Most of their comments however were positive, but I cannot help but wonder what these learned men would think today.