Wednesday, January 25, 2017

"Pray for the grace of accuracy"




     "All's misalliance," writes poet Robert Lowell, "Yet why not say what happened?"
     Why not indeed? I can answer that. Because whatever hole in your soul is so large, nothing can fill it. So you have to keep shoveling stuff in. A certain kind of guy has to be, not just rich, but the richest. Not just high, but the top. Who has to shine at absolutely everything, outshine everyone, and when he doesn't —because nobody shines all the time—he has to frantically pancake a thick crust of fake sparkle over himself and hope nobody notices.
     The American public—the part that still cares about such things— noticed, and will long remember the first three days of the Trump administration. His sour inaugural address on Friday, Day One, which George W. Will, not exactly a liberal firebrand, dubbed "the most dreadful inaugural address in history." Saturday, Day Two, when press secretary Sean Spicer clung to ludicrous claims that the crowd on Inauguration Day was the biggest ever. Then Sunday, Day Three, Kellyanne Conway on "Meet the Press," coining an instant classic in the long history of mendacity: "Alternative Facts."   
     Let's be clear. It doesn't matter how many people attended Trump's inauguration. The true figure could be half what it actually was, or triple. The issue is that the real number was not enough for Trump, because Obama's drew more. So Trump had to claim the most ever. Because everything about Trump must be the biggest, greatest, most expensive, and if it isn't, well, he'll lie and shout down and bully whoever is rude enough to mention it.
   It can't rain on Trump's parade. He had to claim the rain "never came." When you could see the raindrops spotting his suit.
     A small matter. And pointing out the truth feels small. But necessary. Trump's paid hirelings claim the media "hates" Trump. That isn't so, at least not with me. What I hate...


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6 comments:

  1. Trump's one thing, his supporters another. I'm starting to believe in an alternative universe, in which skies are red, the sun blue and lies are truth. And a mendacious braggart is leading us to the promised land.

    john

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it." One can only hope for this 17th Century axiom from Dean Swift's "Essay on the
    Art of Political Lying" to be abrogated by the vigilance of a 21st Century press.

    Tom Evans

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not the evil, malignant, odious, lying, corrupt, elitist, bigoted, prejudiced-against-ordinary-people 21st Century press!

      john

      Delete
  3. The blogosphere is pretty good at giving exposure to falsehoods. Maybe we should have referenda to establish what are facts and what fables. Can't go wrong there, can we?

    John

    ReplyDelete
  4. The blogosphere is, in my opinion, an unreliable medium of mass communication. Also in my opinion, the hated Main Stream Media, has done a pretty good job of revealing and publicizing the "truths" about Trump's "alternative facts." Even FOX news (as opposed to its propaganda wing) has been unable, or unwilling, to defend the worst of them.

    TE

    ReplyDelete

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