That We All May Be One

Donald Trump gave an acceptance speech last night that, while crafted by someone else, he read credibly from the teleprompter. The speechwriter had gotten most of the Donald’s cadences down pretty well, and the fact that he yelled for most of the longest-ever acceptance speech made it all seem pretty much like a normal Trump rally.

The fact that his children (especially Ivanka) did masterful jobs of paving the way for Donald’s acceptance speech and that he was actually able to sound like he knew what he was talking about for a change led most of the media to stand in awe and commentators like Chris Matthews actually to sing his praises. What the media seems incapable of doing is to identify the fact that Donald Trump told at least 21 lies during his speech and set himself up as the savior of some alternate reality country that he calls the USA! A few examples cited by Politicus USA:

1. Obama has doubled our national debt. Nope, most of is was amassed before he took office.
2. Before Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State ISIS was not even on the map. Nope, its roots go back to 2004 when Bush was president.
3. There is no way to screen refugees or find out where they come from. Nope, a careful vetting system is in place.
4. Trump says he has been deeply affected by parents who have lost children to “violence spilling across our borders.” Actually, there is no evidence that immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans.
5. Donald claims that his tax plan would be the largest reduction of any candidate’s proposals and middle income Americans will experience profound tax relief. Nope, the Trump tax plan (predictably) will mostly benefit those at the very top.
6. When the F.B.I. Director said that Clinton was “extremely careless” and “negligent” in handling classified material, those words were to save her from facing justice for her “terrible crimes” when others have paid so dearly for similar transgressions. Well, F.B.I. Director Comey has repeatedly said that is not true.

These are just a few examples, but they serve to illustrate the fact that Donald Trump is somehow able to tell the most outrageous lies and describe a nation in decline and in serious danger from within and without and no one seems willing or able to call him on it! I’m sure Hillary Clinton and the Democrats will try, but we will simply be caught in a “he said, she said” vicious circle and folks will discount our rebuttals as more political fabrication.

It is incumbent upon the national media, particularly the so-called “mainstream” media (network news and newspapers) which people actually listen to, watch, and read to hold all the candidates (Secretary Clinton included) to a higher standard of truth than we currently see happening. If the “Fourth Estate” does not fulfill its responsibility to be a watch-dog on politicians, then we are in danger of electing someone who lives in an alternate reality and wants to take us along for the ride.

These are indeed scary times. But not for the reasons Donald Trump enumerated last night.

This entry was posted on July 22, 2016 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Justice and Peace, Politics, Politics, The Episcopal Church, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.