Friday, February 17, 2017

Why Trump's Campaign Against Reality Will Lose

The Donald held a press conference yesterday.  It was more like a campaign speech than a press conference.  It was clearly targeted towards his supporters.  He must hang on to his core supporters who are his source of power over Republican politicians who need their votes in subsequent elections.  He used the press conference to tell his supporters that he was doing a great job.  Everything would be great if the public got all of its information from Fox News and talk radio.  His real enemy is the "fake media" which Fox News refers to as the "mainstream media".  The problem with the mainstream media is that they have a bias in favor of reality.  That is, they fact check what he and his surrogates say, and they point out the lies and misleading information that he and his administration provide.  The only way that he can hold on to power is to steer his core supporters away from the "mainstream media" and  get all of their information from media sources which shape the news in his favor.

The Donald won the Republican primaries and the general election with his anti- reality strategy.  The question is whether the Trump Administration can run our government in the same way they he ran his election campaign.  This article, by a Republican who worked in the Bush Administration, argues that Trump will not win his war against reality.  The quote below describes what Trump hopes to accomplish:

"With less than a month in office, Trump is beginning to see reality’s revenge. His overall strategy seems disturbingly ambitious. Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, who directed both the CIA and the NSA, describes it this way in an interview: “A systematic effort to invalidate and delegitimize all the institutions, governmental and nongovernmental, that create the factual basis for action . . . so they won’t push back against arbitrary moves.”
 The article from which this quote was taken 
explains why Trump will not win his war against reality.  "We are not Venezuela"  That is, our institutions are too strong and they have a bias in favor in reality. 

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