Two Truths

“Everything faded into mist.  The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.

               -George Orwell, 1984

I look about me and think to myself that maybe, in today’s world, there is not one, but two truths that are trying to but cannot coexist.  At least, while likely not true for universal truths, it seems that people are willing to adjust their definition of daily truths to one that coincides with their wishes and desires.

We often like to say: look at the facts, the evidence, because it cannot lie.  And while that is true, it may not necessarily be the truth of our daily life.  For some, truth is absolute realism.  Picture a painting of a table on which stands a wilted bouquet of flowers.  That may be what indeed a photograph would capture at that moment. 

Now picture the same painting but with a glorious and bountiful bouquet of freshly blooming flowers.  The painter may be thinking that if he tends to his garden, that will be the bouquet that he can paint next week.  It does not exist today, but for him it absolutely exists in the future and hence is part of his truth today.

Early in the Soviet era writer Maxim Gorky counseled a young writer that it is not enough to say “I wrote the truth.”  Rather, the author must ask himself two questions:  Which truth? and Why?  At that time Gorky was referring to the truth of pre-revolutionary Russia versus the truth of what Russia was becoming.

Much the same may be going on in today’s America.  Those who would have America remain true to her core values and the Constitution see truth as the descriptions, facts, and evidence that are true to that America and the traditional beliefs/values of its population.  Those who are looking for great social change see truth in the picture they paint of what we can be and are becoming.  To them it is true that a person can choose their gender or shift it as they please, resulting in statements such as “men can become pregnant”, a statement which is factually and scientifically inaccurate and thus not a truth to the realists, but something which those trying to recreate a future see as a realistic future truth and hence a truth to them today.

Obviously, these opposing truths and many others cannot coexist.  Laws are affixed to one reality.  Opposing truths result in opposing laws or just anarchy.  Education – its needs, goals, and how to achieve them – is similarly at odds.  How one manages everything, from the food one puts on one’s plate to international relations, suffers.  The concept of opposing truths is currently on full display in the reactions to the terrorist attacks on Israel:  those whose truth is the factual history of the region are in opposition to those whose truth is the factually inaccurate but desired narrative that Israel is a guilty oppressor.

If the revolutionaries (and that is perhaps a good term for the progressive Left and its truth) prevail, then their narrative which is their truth, while not the reality of today, will become the reality of tomorrow.

That might not be so if we retain a pathway to current and past truths of this country and its values, accomplishments, and failures.  But if they are not retained, even if only as part of history, then they will be lost, and the revolutionary truths will be the only truths.

Interestingly, some would argue that part of the reason for the fall of Soviet Russia is that it retained and revered its prerevolutionary classics.   The works of the great Russian authors – Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov, etc. – retained a picture of the prerevolutionary reality and the values it conveyed, values that were in direct opposition to Communism.  At least some have traced the intellectual force behind Gorbachev’s glasnost to be the youthful reading of Russia’s great literature.  “The Bolsheviks did not realize that by having their children read Tolstoy…they were digging the grave of their revolution.” (Slezkine, The House of Government, quoted in Morson, Wonder Confronts Certainty).

Perhaps today’s Progressive Left learned from that Bolshevik mistake.  Perhaps it is for that reason that they feel the need to cancel and destroy anything that represents the past and current truth of America and how they justify their openly asserted belief that free speech must be canceled.  If there is no other truth, then their revolutionary truth that is yet to be can become the only truth. 

The analogy is not completely misplaced because for the Progressive Left, the destruction and reimagining of America is as obsessive a cause as was the Russian revolution to the Bolsheviks.  As the Russian people discovered, when the revolutionary lie becomes the truth then the reality is not that of the glorious utopian vision, but a very ugly existence. 

But the Russian people had access to their past truth, a truth that was actually more real than that within which they lived.  If today’s Progressive Left Cancel Culture has its way, we and future generations will not have that access.  We will not know what else was and could have been, and our truth will be as hollow as the unachievable dream narratives of the Progressives.

Like Gorky we must ask: Which truth and Why?  The truth that has been America for 247 years, or the truth that the Progressive Left believes will become the new truth.  A vision is not a truth but a narrative dream.  America’s truth is fading into the mist.  We must not allow America’s truth to be erased and the Left’s revolutionary dream to become a nightmare of false truth.

(Image AI Generated in response to prompt “Two Truths in Opposition")

A Few Short Notes

These short thoughts are a few of many than regularly come to me when I hear the “news” or think about the political and world situation.  These all, along with many more, deserve further discussion and elaboration in the coming weeks. 

NO, it is not “Putin’s Price Hike”.  While Putin must take the blame for the horrors he is inflicting in Ukraine, this is Biden’s, not Putin’s gas increase.  Biden finally stopped buying Russian oil (good, though late) but he still refuses to open this country’s oil and gas production.  Thus, rather than produce gas locally we still must import it, which is increasing the costs.  Biden’s policies had already unconscionably raised gas prices and it is those policies that are causing it to rise further.  Continuing to buy foreign rather than return to American oil independence is what is causing the unprecedented hikes at the pump.  Biden’s coining and use of the hashtag “PutinPriceHike” is blatantly false.

Not producing gas in America does not turn the world green.  To think that hiking gas prices will cause us to immediately turn to renewable energy is ridiculous.  To tell us that is the way we can support Ukraine is another falsehood.  First, that cannot happen overnight.  Second, we continue to use oil and gas, but instead of producing it here where we do so in the cleanest fashion, we buy from countries whose actual production does greater damage to the environment than would American production.  Then, we must transport it here, which leaves additional carbon footprints. And none of that will stop the immediate tragedy in Ukraine.

Is the administration so stupid that they think by not producing American oil that we will be instantaneously green? If yes, then we are in deeper trouble than I thought.  But no, they know exactly what they are doing.  Perhaps they think they are somehow teaching us a lesson on how to be green, but for sure they know they can use this to make people think that our inflation at the pumps and elsewhere is not Biden’s fault but instead belongs to Putin.  Just another lie from an administration for whom lying seems to be the only thing that they do well.

Never let a crisis go to waste.  That mantra from the communist ideology is well understood by the Left in this country.  That and the idea that if you repeat something, no matter how false, often enough the people will believe it to be true.

The real world is not the world that one aspires to.  Sen. Manchin had it right when on Sunday’s Meet the Press he said our leaders and policy makers have to start living in the real world.  That world cannot be aspirational in the sense that when one has aspirations/aspires to something, they are looking for a reality that does not currently exist but toward which they would like to work.  To expect reality to be at this moment the aspirational world that one envisions is not only stupid, it also likely defeats the aspirational future.  Yet, the Left would have us all behave as if we were now living in their aspirational world.  That is not only an impossibility, but their demands that everyone accept their delusions are destroying the world.

A day late and a dollar short.   Biden’s actions relating to the Ukraine situation have all been too little too late.  He removed sanctions which he said he would use as deterrence when necessary.  He didn’t begin to impose sanctions until after the act (war) that they were supposed to deter had begun.  He held back on the most significant sanction (Russian oil) until it was clear that public opinion would not stand for him to hold back any longer.  He now seems to think that if we all just stop using non-renewable energy then Ukraine will be saved.  Is he really that stupid?  Or is this all part of his agenda?

 “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”  I think that used to be true, but that was before the news media became spokespeople for the popular lie rather than spokespeople for facts and truth.  Now I’m not so sure.  Clearly the Biden administration and the Left think that if they simply repeat something often enough that with the help of mainstream media that they can fool all of the people all of the time.  Hence the most recent assertion – that this gas hike is Putin’s fault.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.  I don’t know what happened to fact checkers (well, actually I do –most have been proven to be biased and inaccurate) but I do know that our President, if not a liar, is a total hypocrite who regularly speaks out of both sides of his mouth (perhaps a forked tongue?).  For example, on Ash Wednesday Biden, asserting his alleged Catholicism, wore ashes on his head – a sign of a devout Catholic who, if truly devout would honor the sanctity of life and oppose abortion.  On Ash Wednesday Biden also spoke out in favor of abortion.  More broadly, he claims to be all about support for the working/middle class (which he claims to understand and be part of) but everyone of his policies hurt the middle class.
Here are just a few of the recent blatant lies told by Biden (these from Politifact):

•   As a youth, “I got arrested” protesting for civil rights.  FALSE
•   “I’ve been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times.” FALSE – never been there as president or in recent years.  May have gone to visit son when he was serving there and in Iraq.
•   “I’ve been against that war in Afghanistan from the very beginning.” FALSE
•   “I used to drive a tractor trailer … I only did it for part of a summer.” FALSE – never drove one.
•    "The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own.” FALSE and demonstrative of a failure to understand basic  Constitutional principles.  The Second Amendment limits governmental power, not the right of individuals to own a weapon. The first national gun regulation law in 1934 did not rely on the Second Amendment.
• “The boilermakers union has endorsed me because I sat down with them and went into great detail with leadership [about] exactly what I would do.” FALSE – they didn’t endorse him.
•  Senate Republicans' move to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in an election year is "not constitutional."  FALSE and again shows a lack of understanding of the Constitution, our nation’s governing document which Biden swore to uphold.
•  Says he was the first person to call for invoking the Defense Production Act. FALSE
•  “The NAACP has endorsed me every time I've run.” FALSE – the NAACP doesn’t endorse candidates.

The above are just a few of the multitude of lies, ones that he has told since 2020.  The Politifact list from which these were culled goes back to  2007 (LINK).  Some can remember back further to his acts of plagiarism as Senator and many other lies.  This man lives in a world of lies, saying whatever is useful at the moment.  

Is truth no longer important?  Certainly not to the president.  Not to mainstream media “journalists.”  Not to the politicians and partisans who want the world to be entirely made to their design.  Not to those who are looking to create a “new world order”, probably one in which they see only themselves as holding all the power.  But I still like to believe that truth and honesty still matter to the everyday Americans who make this country what it is.

What to make of it all.  These short thoughts do have a common thread.  It is that Biden, his administration, and the Left live in some world that is not the world in which the rest of us live.  In their world facts and truth take second place to their own narrative.  Biden is either deluded or diabolical:  he either has no clue about what he is doing or what a president should be doing or he is acting to further a calculated scenario that destroys this country and the world order as we know it.  I just wonder what happens to those of us who don’t want to live in Joe’s aspirational world.   

(poster from Newsmax TV)

And So It Continues – (in circles?)

It was exactly 4 years ago tomorrow that I began this blog.  Donald Trump had just been inaugurated and the Democrats and the Left were exceedingly angry.  The ability to have civil conversations was already falling apart and this seemed a good place to present my viewpoint without the childish games of Facebook and other social media.  (see my first post HERE)  

So, today I want to look both back and forward. 

As part of my introductory post 4 years ago, I wrote:

I am not an ideologue.  I do not belong to any political party and am happy to vote for Democrats, Republicans, or others depending on whom I believe will be best for the country as a whole.  My political leanings probably identify most with what were once called the “blue-collar lunch bucket Democrats” – a group that really doesn’t exist anymore.  In the 60s I was a self-styled “hippie” and antiwar protester.  I put myself through college and law school and practiced law before becoming a professor.  I have always been deeply committed to the Constitution and to the equal treatment of all along with the concept of individual responsibility and a “no excuses” approach to life.  I have always believed in America.  I have voted in every election since I became eligible, and as to presidential elections, I have voted for slightly more Democrats than Republicans.  In 2016 I voted for Donald Trump.  I do not think he is a perfect person, nor do I agree with all his policies, but I do believe that he was not only the best candidate but indeed a good candidate who believes in America and its promise.  I also believe that now that he is president, if we will allow him to govern and put our interests in what is best for the country as a whole, that we really will see a better and stronger America.  I hope to explain my reasons behind these statements in upcoming posts.

               Looking Back

What I said 4 years ago holds true today.  Yet in that 4 years the country has been through a lot.  The liberal Democrat party has become extreme progressive Left.  The Democrats never were able to accept Donald Trump as president and instead tried to block his every action whether good for the country or not.  Unable to get over their anger they allowed it to evolve into an intense, vitriolic, and irrational hatred for not only Donald Trump, but anyone connected with him including those who simply voted for him. 

Meanwhile, despite being under attack 24/7 by not only the Left but its handmaiden the media as well, President Trump indeed accomplished a lot for America.  Some of his accomplishments furthered policies that the Democrats opposed, but others did for America what Democrats themselves had been promising for years but unable to deliver. 

Most important to me was that he tried to counter the identity politics that for the previous at least 8 years had been used by the Left to tear this country apart.  Instead of identifying Americans as members of this or that victim or oppressor group, he simply furthered policies that treated all Americans the same – in the spirit of our Constitutional belief and aspiration that we all are equal.  And, despite some programs being identity blind, those whom the Democrats regularly identify as victim groups actually benefited the most – take for example jobs and the economy and the effect it had on the Black community, or Trump’s prison and criminal justice reforms.

The implementation of many of the Trump policies led Americans to once again have hope and a belief in the promise of this country.  For years prior to his election we had been led to believe that America was not a good country and it was our duty to feel guilty and apologize, both to those within our country who had been convinced they were victims with no hope as well as to the rest of the world.  President Trump put his and our country first and allowed Americans to be proud of who and what they are.

               Yet the Hatred – when and how did it begin?

Yet, along with the many positives that were accomplished by the Trump administration (but seldom reported by media), the anger level of the country reached the red zone.  This anger is expressing itself daily as pure hatred.  Many assert that it is traceable to the election of Donald Trump.  I disagree.

I saw hate grow for at least the 8 years prior to Trump’s presidency.  During that time we had a president and a progressive party who played group against group in an attempt to further their own power agenda. 

To grasp at an understanding of “why?” we must go back far more than 4 years, probably to the founding of this country or before.  Books could be (and have been) written.  There are many events and examples that have contributed to various degrees of anger and its cohorts fear and hatred. 

Let’s consider slavery as an example.  When the world came to realize that slavery was wrong, it ended it in a variety of ways.  In America, with no class or caste system, it was actually possible for former slaves and their descendants to rise to positions of wealth and power; some did.

But not all with a history of slavery did well.  There remained discrimination which came to a head in the 50s and early 60s.  While some Blacks had found a way to be successful before Civil Rights, the legislation of the 60s gave hope to all that they would truly have a better life.  And most were motivated to do the work necessary to personally succeed as they chose.

But, enter a series of programs, sparked at least in part by a desire to help but also, I believe, by a more sinister and racist belief that Blacks were/are not capable of succeeding on their own.  This, of course, completely contradicts the American belief/ideal that all humans are equal.   Nonetheless, a series of social programs, mostly created by the Left, created a dependent underclass of dissatisfied Americans.

Never ones to let discontent go to waste, the Left reminded those dissatisfied of their victim class.  We saw identity groups develop into battling warriors of us versus them.  The victims vs. the victimizers.  Blacks vs. Whites; Poor vs. Rich; Women vs. Men; Gay vs. Straight.  Intersectionality developed, giving us a framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.  It became all about that – discriminated victim or privileged oppressor – rather than about the individual and that individual’s substantive character.  Individual substance has no place in a world governed by identity politics.

The anger of the oppressed was cultivated.  Those assigned the oppressor status felt unjustly accused and began to hate back.  And that is where we were when Donald Trump became President Trump.  And, despite his hope to see all of America thrive as one, he was thwarted repeatedly by the Left who ramped up their fomentation of hate among their malicious identity group creations. 

As President Trump’s 4 years progressed, the Left seemed completely unable to see people as people; rather, they were simply representatives of a particular identity group.  Conservatives and whites were deemed evil and essentially inhuman, thus not only justifying, but necessitating hatred and violence toward them.  Meanwhile, every member of designated victim identity groups was to be honored and always believed: almost superhumans capable of no wrong.

               The Election and January 6

The election had irregularities.  Many believe there was widespread fraud.  This came to a head on Jan. 6, the date the votes of the Electors were counted.  As was their right, some Congress people planned to object to those votes.  As was their right many Americans gathered near the Capitol to protest the counting and to support the objections.  As was his right, the President spoke to his supporters.  And as often happens when there are actions and protests that are highly charged, a small percentage of those present turned violent; those few misguided individuals illegally stormed the Capital.

What is now called the “insurrection” by the media and Democrats has given the Left an excuse to continue to promulgate their hatred against not only President Trump but anyone who does not fall into lockstep with the Left’s positions.  We now see calls to “cleanse” the Republican Party, blacklisting of Trump supporters, silencing and cancelling of all opposing views, and a general litany of threats toward anyone who is not on board with Leftist policies, all under the guise of “healing.”

It also gave us a militarized capital that looked more like what one sees when a dictator (always in fear of being unseated) takes over.  These were troops that the Democrats demanded be vetted as not anti-Biden before they could take their posts.  This look of a police state is something that America should never become desensitized to.

               Looking ahead to the Biden presidency (or is it looking back?)

So here we are.  We have just experienced the inauguration of a new president.  What are my thoughts now?

I fear that we are actually circling back to the era immediately preceding President Trump.  We see already President Biden’s litany of signing executive orders to cancel former President Trump’s accomplishments. 

We see a clear return, actually mandate, of identity politics as Biden proudly proclaims not the qualifications of his various appointees but their superficial identity instead: “We'll have a Cabinet of barrier breakers, a Cabinet of firsts” he said.   And so we will have the first woman of color VP, first transgender person as Assistant Secretary of Health, first Native American Secretary of Interior, first openly gay Secretary of Transportation, First Black Defense Secretary, first Latino to head Department of Homeland Security, first woman of color to head Office of Management and Budget, first woman Director of National Intelligence.  The list goes on and on.  (Those appointments that are not “firsts” seem to be mostly retreads from the Obama years.)

I have nothing against people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and beliefs holding these positions; in fact, such diversity is generally a good thing.  But what I object to is the bias inherent in picking individuals specifically for those qualities.  Such bias by necessity excludes a number of qualified individuals from even being considered.  It is racist, sexist, and otherwise discriminatory.  That is not American where a core principle is equal opportunity for all, not just for members of specific identity groups.

This dividing of Americans into groups also counters President Biden’s words calling for “unity.”  Group identity does nothing but divide us.   It is becoming more and more clear that the “unity” that the President and his party are calling for is simply a silencing of all opposing views.  Without any dissent we may have the illusion of peace and unity, but we will have lost America. 

A unity born of silencing also requires elevating narrative over truth.  We saw during the campaign that candidate Biden had no qualms about repeating by then disproven allegations against President Trump.  We see the same disregard for the truth in the first presentation of President Biden’s press secretary.  Jen Psaki vowed to “combat misinformation” while during the same press conference proclaiming that Biden had issued an executive order ending Trump’s “Muslim ban.”  That misnomer was proven false at the time the ban was issued and again last year when Biden used it on the campaign trail.   (What Democrats call a “Muslim ban” was an executive order issued on January 27, 2017, that barred tourism and immigration from seven countries previously identified by the Obama-Biden administration as being particularly vulnerable to terrorism, partly because their internal record-keeping was substandard. These seven nations happened to be Muslim-majority countries, but there was no blanket ban on Muslims from other Middle Eastern countries or the two largest Muslim countries, India and Indonesia.)

The Press Secretary also made it clear that hypocrisy is alive and well in the Biden administration.  She informed us that it was perfectly OK that President Biden violated his own mask mandate because he has “bigger issues to worry about.”  Apparently, the American people are not one of those issues.

So, without a respect for facts, without a respect for all Americans or a belief in the equality of all, without a true respect for America and its citizens, I am concerned when I look at what the next 4 years may bring.  In many respects it is not forward, but a circling back to the often anti-American policies of the Obama years. 

The Biden Administration will not give us the utopia that many dreamed.  I believe that it will, however, give me much to write about as this blog continues.

 

Two Worlds

That we in America are co-existing in two different worlds is really no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention at all for the last few years, and certainly since Donald Trump was elected to become President Trump (President for at least one of those worlds; the other refusing to accept him as President).   But, this all really struck me again today as I listened to the House Judiciary Committee’s latest episode of the Impeachment Show.

Today we had staffers – staff counsel – commenting on the hearsay and opinion testimony that had been provided to Adam Schiff’s Star Chamber segment of the Impeachment Show.  It was so clear as I listened to the two different interpretations of the evidence (which we will remember is not first hand accounts of the “offense” under consideration, but accounts of what someone was told by someone else who heard it from someone else who may or may not have first hand evidence).  So, rather than coming closer to the truth we become further and further removed from reality.

But, it is interesting to listen to how both sides hold some of the same buzz words and phrases dear and use them to explain what is wrong with the other side.  For example, each side proclaims how the other does not care about America and is destroying our country by disregarding the Constitution. 

In my opinion, it is ludicrous for the Democrats to proclaim that President Trump does not care about America.  Who in recent memory has done more for our country and its people?  The economy is good, unemployment is low, those disaffected groups whom the Democrats have always pandered to are experiencing far better conditions than under the Democrats who would keep them dependent and depressed. 

There is hope in the country for many who have lost or at least not seen hope for many years.  America is blossoming after having been told for years that we should be ashamed and hopeless.  This is the President’s doing, so it is hard for me to understand how people can say he does not care about America.  But, they live in a different world where they look at life through different glasses.  Glasses that are a complete mystery to me.

The Democrats proclaim that President Trump is all about using his position for self-gain.  Again, I do not see what they see.  The President is trying his hardest to make America great again, for all its people.  He donates his entire salary, making nothing for the hard work he puts in.  His businesses as well as those of his adult children are if anything losing due to being under constant attack by Democrats and the media.  I do not see the self-gain that they see in their world.

As far as disregarding the Constitution, I see the Democrats as the ones who are shredding it daily and since the moment that President Trump was elected.  It is they who refuse to accept the will of the people, who believe that they have a right to overturn the results of an election because the people’s choice is seen by them as not the one that the people should have made.  Indeed, they are disdainful not only of the choice, but of the people themselves.  They have sought since 2016 to overturn the election and remove the President.  Yet, in America, under our Constitution, the losers must accept the will of the people if our democracy is to continue.  At least, that is the reality I know, though apparently not theirs.

Beyond overturning the people’s electoral voice, the Democrats have consistently attacked the President and his supporters and appointees with star chamber like proceedings that deny fairness and due process to those involved whom the Democrats are attacking.  We witnessed this in the Russia probe, in the FISA warrants, and most disgustingly in the Kavanaugh hearing to name just a few.  And, of course, in the current proceedings in which Adam Schiff seems to think he is a king who can do as he pleases, violate House rules, and deny all due process in order to reach a goal that he has already chosen.

Moreover, it is the Democrats who would silence every voice that opposes them.  It is they who are not tolerant and supportive of the diverse views that our democracy demands.  It is they who spew hate at everyone who does not join them in their hatred of the President while at the same time claiming that it is he who is hateful.

Meanwhile, how has the President thwarted the Constitution?  In our system of laws, he has gone to the courts, not made proclamations by fiat in response to seemingly unfair and unjust demands by the likes of Adam Schiff and his gang of Impeachers.  He follows the process.  Perhaps that is why so many of the unelected diplomats who thought they were in charge were so infuriated when the President removed them or at least some of their power.  Apparently, they had forgotten that the people elect the President whose duty it is and who holds the power to make the policy decisions that they thought it was their right to make.  Again, they seem to live in a different reality than do I.

What I see are politicians set in their ways and in love with their power who are angry that President Trump is not willing to support their continued disregard of the country and its people.  They are now dug in and determined to remove him.  Removal is their only goal and they are willing to shred the Constitution and even the country to do so. 

And so, they tell their stories of how the President is destroying America.  How?  Perhaps by not leaving so that they will stop their destruction?  They tell stories of the President’s (and his supporters’) evils – racist, hateful, etc.  How?  The President’s economy is helping minorities, raising them out of the depressed, hopelessness that has been their gift from Democrats.  He enforces laws equally, not based for or against someone on their identity. 

And, returning to the specifics of the current Impeachment Show,  the president has a duty to investigate fraud that may have been perpetrated on this country by another nation or by individuals within this nation who held power and used it for their own personal or family gain.  So, when the President told Ukraine that we (our country) wanted them to investigate both the 2016 election interference and the possibility that the then Vice President’s son had in some way benefited from the Vice President’s power and position, President Trump was doing his job.  That the then Vice President happens to now be a presidential candidate should not preclude an investigation into what might be at best an unethical act during his vice presidency. 

And, here is what I really don’t understand:  it is pretty clear that the then Vice President in some way used his position for his or his family’s personal gain.  There is no evidence that the current President has done so.  Yet the Democrats would have us ignore the facts, ignore possible ethical violations by the Bidens, and instead claim that it is President Trump who is doing so.  It is like the pop psychology assertion that we see others through our own eyes.  That is, the Democrats seem to be projecting their own behavior upon the President.

It is like Truth and Untruth in 1984: “Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.”  And, we clearly have two realities coexisting in this country.  I would label them as follows:  The one based on emotion and the belief that if you say and believe it enough, then it will be true.  I assign this to the Trump-haters and the Impeachers.  The other reality based on reason and logic I assign to those who demand real facts and evidence, not innuendo, supposition, and narrative based upon personal feelings.

For some Truth is simply what they want it to be.  They ignore real facts that contradict their fanciful and personal narrative.   This is the approach of The Impeachers.   They, in my opinion, are not rational.  Theirs is not Truth, but UnTruth, an UnTruth designed to suit their own personal ends.   Orwell writes in 1984, “There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”  I hope that there are enough of us willing to cling to the reasonable, rational, and factually supportable Truth so that we can keep the country from not only going mad, but from the destruction that the continuing attacks of the Impeachers will cause.

The Politicization of Truth

We seem to be living in an era where one’s ideology determines what one’s Truth is.  How else can you explain the assault on the medical report issued by the doctor who examined President Trump, as well as, it should be noted, President’s Obama and Bush?  Because some so want to believe that the President is not fit for office, either physically or mentally, because that truth does not fit their reality, we have them questioning the physician as well as making their own pronouncements of the President’s ill health despite the report and despite the fact that, unlike the report’s author, they have conducted no examination whatsoever of the President.

 

Similarly, how can one explain that while Sen. Durbin is the only one who claims to have heard the President utter the word S***hole during a meeting, and despite the fact that at least 4 others present assert that the word was not uttered, those whose agenda the remark supports, including the main stream media, continue to take the word’s utterance as a proven fact. 

Let’s consider some examples of ideology rather than truth controlling our political narrative since Mr. Trump became President Trump.  The Democrats, as well as some Republicans and others were so stunned they could not accept the election results.  Thus began a multitude of attempts to unseat President Trump from office.  Hence, despite no evidence in over a year’s time, we are still hearing about collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign as if it were truth. The digging for evidence goes on and far outside any fields with any relevance to such collusion yet the Democrats hang on, because collusion supports their ideological goals.  But, when that story failed to unseat the President, those who were and are determined to do so had to look for other “truths” that would lead to their desired result.  We have had the stories about the President’s mental health – now disproven by an examination by a competent doctor.  Nonetheless, the belief that he is mentally ill remains a truth for may whose ideology it suits.  (I hate to tell these people, but just because someone behaves in a way they don’t like, or holds views and values different from theirs, or supports policies contrary to their own, does not make someone mentally ill).  We also have the allegations that the President is a sexual predator or the story that the President is a racist.  I have yet to see any concrete proof of either.  The President, unlike some of his opponents, does not single out individuals based on their race, but tries to treat all Americans equally.  Nonetheless, those whose ideology is served by having a racist president, will see their view as “truth.”

Let’s consider how asserting that President Trump is racist serves the current Democrat ideology.  The Democrats assert their concern for Dreamers (I’m not sure they really are concerned, but appearing so is part of their political and campaign strategy).  If a deal were reached that gave some sort of permanent status to Dreamers, but also compromised in a way to give some of the other immigration demands of Trump and Republicans, Trump might actually get some good press from the Democrat’s base.  They don’t want that.  So, instead they can push Durbin’s story, say they can’t work with the President because he is a racist, and either leave the DACA situation unresolved (and blame Trump) or demand that to prove he is not racist he must sign a non-compromise bill that only gives the Democrats their demands on this issue.  This is just part of their political strategy.  And in my opinion, it is sick if not un-American.

Let’s just assume for a minute that the President did refer to Haiti as a S***hole country.  So what?  That, my friends, is not a racist statement.  And, following that statement with the comment that we should let in more Asians and people from Norway also does not support a charge of racism.  What it does support is the idea that we should look to what those seeking immigration have to bring to our country.  Maybe that idea could have been stated more eloquently, but there has never been an argument that Trump is an eloquent speaker.    Again, failure to be eloquent is not proof of racism, or mental illness, or Russian collusion, or sexual predation, or any other of the many narratives that the Democrats try to put forth as a reason to end the Trump presidency.

We now have some legislators, lead by Rep. Lewis, announcing their boycott of the State of the Union address because the president is racist.  As noted above, that is their truth, based not on fact, but on their ideology and what they simply wish were true.  In their minds it justifies their refusal to work with the president, but in the end it is simply disrespectful of the Office and of our democratic Institutions and system of government.  It is not helpful to the country or to the American people whom these legislators were elected to represent.  Instead, it is a betrayal of their constituents as they place their ideology and their lies created to support it above the good of this Country.

What I would like to see is the Democrats, along with the main stream media, be fair and honest with themselves and with the country.  Admit that while they don’t agree with Trump’s policies, that he is the duly elected president deserving of bipartisan support.  Acknowledge the many good things that are the result of the Presidents actions, most notably a more thriving economy including lowest unemployment in years for minorities, successes against ISIS and in other international issues, an end to the office of the president being a supporter of identity politics, to name a few.  I would like the Democrats to understand that being the loyal opposition does not mean fomenting hatred toward the president, but means supporting him in his efforts to do right for America, while opposing those policies with which they don’t agree.  It does not mean constant ad hominem attacks against a man whom they personally may not like.

In Communist societies, ideology regularly overcomes truth.  People are imprisoned or worse for not holding the Party’s ideology – its Truth.  That is not our tradition or our history in America, even though many Democrats would make it so.

Why I’m Not Writing About Today’s Indictments

Plenty of people will be busy putting their spin on the Manafort indictment.  Unlike those involved in the investigation who are under an obligation of secrecy but leak anyway, I have no obligation to keep quiet.  Yet, I see no point in rehashing the facts because people will read, misread, omit, distort, or whatever as they choose in order to use the current developments to support their own narrative. 

So, this will be very short, with just a few comments/questions:

 1.   I thought that the “investigation” was a hunt to find collusion between Trump and the Russians that affected the 2016 election.  If so, why is the indictment for alleged crimes committed at the latest in 2015 and before?

 2.  Why did Mueller suddenly ramp up and indict when the news was coming out of his possible involvement in the Clinton uranium deal (possible scandal) and his connection with Comey and the FBI and its use of the DNC ordered & paid for dossier on Trump (possible connection with Russia to affect election!)?

 3.  If Mueller’s investigation has this broad latitude to go hunting far beyond and outside of the 2016 election, why is he not investigating the many questionable actions that occurred during the Obama administration or at the hand of Obama’s some or one-time affiliates?

 4.  How can the left possibly read today’s news to justify headlines such at: “Information proves Trump campaign tried to collude with Russia”?

 5.  Why do the democrats continue to insist upon creating a narrative in which Trump is not a legitimate president?

 6.  How long and with what power will this “investigation” continue?

The far broader question can be simply stated:  Why do people jump to conclusions without examining or understanding the facts, or asking necessary questions?  Or, put another way:  Why do people insist that their preferred narrative is fact, whether or not facts can or do indeed support it?  Why cannot people be honest with themselves and others and admit that things are not always the way they wish them to be, but that simply wishing them to be so does not make them so, nor does it justify recreating factual reality in order to support their own narrative?

Perhaps rather than gloating at how today’s (or any day’s) news supports one’s preferred narrative we would all be better suited by stepping back and taking a breath and understanding what the facts really say and what reality really is.