Pragmatism versus Politics

Abstract:  President Trump has been in office for a year already.  Despite a growing economy and better labor numbers, the political elite have doubled down on their mission to oppose President Trump’s agenda for Making America Great Again.  Today’s segment on NBC’s Meet the Press provided more evidence.  Disturbed by some of the themes—the political capital of DACA and insinuations of a post-heroic period—it was not until I read a well-timed email from my uncle that I more deeply understood the political elite’s mind set.  They do not understand the difference between pragmatism and politics.  Politics requires glibness and visceral emotions; pragmatism requires reason unconstrained by “looking good” and “feel good” language.

Old Gadfly:  Gentleman, did you watch NBC’s Meet the Press this morning?

IM:  Yes. Amazingly, there was no mention of the Top Secret memo circulating within the halls of Congress about Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance System Act (FISA) system (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and other non-mainstream media sources).  Rather, Chuck Todd and four panel members pontificated on the government shutdown, mostly blaming President Trump for injecting chaos into this week’s deliberations focused mostly on the unconstitutional executive order by the previous President called the Deferred for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).  Todd later showed some polling to show why DACA is so critical to elections in districts along the southern border, Florida, and some districts elsewhere in the United States.  It was clear from a Democrat perspective that DACA is critical to their political fortunes by showing “empathy” for those brought illegally to the US by their parents.

 

Old Gadfly:  So, if I understand the implications of Todd’s analysis related to DACA and political fortunes, we can infer that the political elite see DACA as really a political opportunity tied to their political fortunes.  So much for the “Dreamers”—they are mere instruments in the action for political power.

 

AM:  Even Peggy Noonan ventured to claim that President Trump represents the “post heroic” period in American history.  Here is an excerpt from today’s transcript:

Look, as for the presidency, we just past one year anniversary two days into the second year. I think what we are seeing up close every day relentlessly is a post-heroic presidency. A presidency for a post-heroic era. People don't have illusions about how high and upstanding and rigorously upholding of values that the president is. And at the same time everybody in politics around him sees it, sees that it plays fairly well for him, that he is sometimes gross or abrupt or rude in his terminology. So they do it too. It does lower everything. We are living through a cultural lowering.

Old Gadfly:  As a credentialed psychologist, from a psychological perspective I do not believe Noonan truly understands what she is revealing when she says, “what we are seeing up close relentlessly.”  What we are “seeing” is social constructivism by a progressive elite who control the public narrative and the desire to create a culture based on their values.  For example, race is a socially constructed concept that has been very useful for political purposes.  Racism is therefore an inevitable socially constructed concept as well.  Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, misogynist, and the entire litany of similar terms are other examples. More importantly, regarding Noonan’s claim about a post-heroic period, what do you infer from this?

AM:  Obviously, the implication is that Trump represents the antonym of heroic. Think about this.  By implication, Noonan places the previous president (not mentioning him by name to honor his current practice of not mentioning President Trump by name when being critical of him during evening talk shows) in the heroic category.  According to Thesaurus, here are synonyms for heroic: bold, courageous, daring, epic, fearless, gallant, grand, gutsy, noble, valiant, classic, elevated, bigger than life, dauntless, doughty, exaggerated, fire-eating, grandiose, gritty, gutty, high flown, impavid, inflated, intrepid, lion-hearted, mythological, stand tall, stouthearted, unafraid, undaunted, valorous.  Certainly, the previous President can be described with some of these terms.  Yet, pigeon chess master is not one of them—but that would fit more under a psychiatric manifestation of delusions of grandeur, not heroism.  On the other hand, Thesaurus lists the following as antonyms of heroic:  afraid, cowardly, fearful, meek, shy, timid, and weak.  Strangely, none of these terms fit for either the previous President or President Trump.

Old Gadfly:  Ironically, after watching Meet the Press, I opened an email from my uncle.  He forwarded a reflection by Mychal S. Massie, who “is an ordained minister who spent 13 years in full-time Christian Ministry.  Today he serves as founder and Chairman of the Racial Policy Center (RPC), a think tank he officially founded in September 2015. RPC advocates for a colorblind society. He was founder and president of the non-profit ‘In His Name Ministries.’  He is the former National Chairman of a conservative Capitol Hill think tank; and a former member of the think tank National Center for Public Policy Research.  In his official capacity with this free-market, public-policy think tank, he has spoken at the U.S. Capitol, CPAC, participated in numerous press conferences on Capitol Hill, the National Press Club and testified in private session concerning property rights pursuant to the “Endangered Species Act” before the Chairman of the House Committee on Resources.”  Massie explained why President Trump is such a mystery to the establishment in Washington DC and other political elite in political parties, the media, academia, and Hollywood.  President Trump is neither liberal nor conservative—he’s a pragmatist.  He further contends President Trump has risked a hard earned fortune to solve problems both political parties have created, let alone solve.  Sounds heroic to me.  Here is Massie’s article.  I now more deeply understand the political elite’s mind set.  They do not understand the difference between pragmatism and politics.  Politics requires glibness and visceral emotions; pragmatism requires reason unconstrained by “looking good” and “feel good” language.  Meanwhile, those who earn good livings based on ideological politics, glibness, and visceral arguments, will continue droning on and demonizing President Trump while he keeps moving forward pragmatically Making America Great Again.

IM:  Doesn’t President Trump need some help in this process?

Old Gadfly:  Yes, he does.  Help may be on the way in the form of the Article V (of the US Constitution) movement.  Here is an excellent observation from Bob Berry (author and economist), one of the pioneers in the movement:

 [Thomas] Paine’s words ring especially true regarding our present situation.  As he observed, “there is something very absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.”  How much more absurd is it today, the whole of our country’s land-mass and its 310 million inhabitants is ruled with an iron fist from a 68-square mile swamp along the Potomac.  Excerpt from Amendments without Congress:  A Timely Gift from the Founders (2012) by Bob Berry

The nearly miraculous part of this movement is that it is nonpartisan.  It avoids political agendas in favor of restoring the sound governing principles of a Constitutional Republic gifted to us by heroic and pragmatic Americans.  Unfortunately, opponents tend to base their arguments on political agendas.  See for example the excellent analysis provided by Dennis Haugh in Political Vertigo and other postings at his website.

 

While the political elite play their political games, let me know if you want to learn more about this self-governing citizen effort (Old Gadfly at oldgadfly@gmail.com)