Some Reflections on Inauguration Day, 2017

The anti-Trump movement’s hypocrisy may well backfire as it is so obvious. I am opposed to many of Mr. Trump’s apparent policies but as one who seeks to be fair and objective, I am appalled. For example, with respect to the demand by Democrats that he divest all his properties, they apparently forget their own LBJ.

“…. LBJ placed his holdings, primarily radio and TV stations in the Austin area, in the hands of nominally independent trustees. Throughout his presidency, Johnson and his aides insisted that he had divorced himself completely from his business interests. This was untrue, according to biographer Robert Caro. LBJ spoke frequently with Texas Appeals Court Judge Anton Moursund, a member of his inner circle and the primary trustee. He also spoke frequently with his station general manager. Johnson installed in the White House residence special phone lines routed around government operators to conduct these calls. “All during his presidency, the phones stayed in place, and the calls went on,” Mr. Caro writes in the fourth volume of his LBJ opus, “The Passage of Power.”

And as to the Clinton’s “speaking fees” and donations to the Clinton Foundation, … what can one say.

With reference to the allegations that Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Education Secretary insists guns are necessary in schools to ward of grizzly bears, I finally saw the actual clip which merely expressed that in one school in the west, where one of the “inquesting” senators had observed a fence was necessary to protect students and faculty from local grizzly bears, that she could understand why maintaining a rifle on premises might be useful. The distortion and ridicule were so unfair that they deprived arguments concerning policy of credibility that they perhaps deserved to any unjaundiced observers.

Such attempts to generate hatred and exacerbate divisiveness are not only counterproductive but extremely dangerous to the common welfare. Examples like the foregoing reduce the credibility of arguments against Mr. Trump that have real merit, like his pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian and anti-Iranian postures, the GOP’s anti civil liberties postures, the risky position viz a viz the environment, issues pertaining to universal healthcare, the emphasis on cabinet platforms for the wealthiest among us, etc.

The hypocrisy of the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party and its sycophants among the mainstream media make constructive opposition as seemingly irrelevant now as did GOP obstructionism during the Obama era. We need grown up, mature, sober, ethical and wise political leaders and neither major party seems capable of providing them. Much of the world has reacted to similar situations by rejecting duopolies in favor of real multi-party systems. We need to do the same. And we also need to replace the sycophantic main stream media with real journalists in a non-homogenized information system. Finally, we would do well to treat those with opposing viewpoints with dignity and respect rather than ridicule and calumny.

Here’s hoping, … albeit rather pessimistically
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2017; all rights reserved