Celebrating Death

Roger Ailes, the media maven who built Fox News, died this week.  Today, I came across a Facebook post celebrating his death.  The comments on the post condemned Ailes to hell, cheered at his death, even said 'F**k Roger Ailes.'  To read the reactions, one would think Ailes was a murderous tyrant on the scale of Hitler, Stalin, or Mao.  Nope, he was just a Republican media consultant and Cable TV CEO.  This practice of celebrating the death or ruination of political opponents is something that happens almost exclusively on the left.  I have not seen celebratory postings of Anthony Weiner's fall from grace.  Even on the news, when Ailes death is mentioned, there is also the allegation of sexual harassment.  By contrast, when Ted Kennedy died, the media did not bring up Mary Jo Kopeckne.  No, he was the Lion of the Senate and his Republican colleagues spoke well of him in his passing.

 

Charles Krauthammer has noted that Republicans think Democrats are stupid and Democrats think Republicans are evil.  This is an interesting observation from a man who has been in both those camps, notably switching from stupid to evil.  However, one does not celebrate the death of an idiot in the same way one would celebrate the death of an evil person.  Clearly, the reaction of leftists to Ailes death vs. the reaction of conservatives to Kennedy's death shows how accurately this perception predicts.

 

Obviously, half the country is not evil though it is not obvious that half the country is not stupid.  If you are happy because a person with a different political philosophy has died, you need some serious introspection.

Watergate Redux

In 1972, members of the Nixon campaign sought to steal documents and plant bugs in the offices of the Democratic National Committee at Watergate.  President Trump claims that the Obama Administration - which was actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton - did the same.  Here are a couple of Trump's tweets on the subject:

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

 

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

Donald J. Trump, Mar 4, 2017

 

Is that crazy talk?  Sadly, no.  The Obama Administration tapped the phones of the Associated Press for two months.  Even more invasive measures were taken against Fox Reporter James Rosen.  Edward Snowden was sufficiently alarmed that he went public with leaks revealing mass surveillance.  The Obama Administration used the Espionage Act of 1917 to punish leakers rather than to prevent espionage.  Add to that Krauthammer's view that the outgoing administration left "landmines" to hobble the early days of the Trump Administration.  With all that in mind, was this the kind of administration that would pull a Nixon?  Yes it was.

 

Obviously, it remains to be proven.  Trump makes wild claims (e.g. Inauguration crowd size, electoral college margin, etc.) but he is in a position to know what government agencies have been doing; they all report to him now, even if reluctantly.

Method to his Madness?

Here is what may be a very insightful article by Charles Krauthammer.  Donald Trump has been doing deals for decades.  He has spent years piecing together complicated land deals, navigating building codes and gambling licensing in multiple states, interacting with fellow billionaires, lobbying government, and playing golf with the powerful and influential.  He wrote The Art of the Deal!  Moreover, he somehow convinced enough people to vote for him to win the presidency.  At this point, it would be foolish to think all of this was just happenstance, that he didn't have some terrific skills at doing deals, be they for the purpose of building a casino in Atlantic City or becoming President of the United States.  Krauthammer is onto something here, especially with the good cop-bad cop analogy.  Trump can play the mad king (hopefully he isn't really a mad king) and send out his sober minions to assure everyone that they have things under control but it would be helpful if some changes were made to assuage him.

 

Has Trump simply imported his business tactics to politics?  When Tiger Woods brought true athleticism to golf, he changed the game.  Has Trump done that for politics?  Yes, I think he has.  Of course, like Tiger, he would need to be successful for his innovations to really spread and change the political landscape.