Marve Waterstone Common Dreams

I’m old enough to have been politically cognizant, admittedly less so for a couple of the earliest, of 13 presidents (14 if you count one of them twice). Through all of those decades and all of those administrations nothing comes close to the way the current regime takes up ALL THE AIR IN THE ROOM! In fact, dare I say, no one has ever seen anything like it. The fire hose is so voluminous, ubiquitous, and inescapable that it literally takes one’s breath away.

How is this gargantuan enterprise sustained? I have a theory that President Donald Trump (or whoever are the real masters puling the strings on the public puppet) has at least two teams at work constantly. One team is in charge of producing the daily (or hourly or minute-to-minute) outrage and distraction. This is the team that has given us the Gulf of America, the takeover of Greenland, the cancer-causing windmills, the never-ending toilet flushing and never-working showers, the fight with the pope, etc., and then the really crazy stuff like the current war.

While we’re kept dizzy and disoriented by this onslaught, the other team, which consists of players like the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, the tech broletariat, and other bastions of the oligarchic overlords, are quietly busy with the “deconstruction of the administrative state” (as Steve Bannon put it so aptly early on). At least those parts of the administrative state that serve the more general public interests. The parts that serve elite interests, however, like the military and their domestic adjuncts in the militarized police, the repressive courts and “justice” system, and the subservient elements of the media, are richly endowed and strengthened.

For just a moment, I’d like to dwell on the central role of the media (in its legacy and social forms) both in amplifying and downplaying the crazy as well as ignoring, minimizing, or trivializing the serious. Right now, both of these outcomes are accomplished through one certain mechanism, which I’ll name presently. One way that I try to keep up with the sometimes subtle changes in the inflections in the news cycle is by maintaining an evolving and revolving list of key words or phrases that become especially annoying, but through their (over)use capture an essential dominant characterization of events. Over the course of the past several months, and particularly at the height of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement invasions, the phrase du jour was “appears to contradict,” almost always in the circumstance of video footage putting the lie to the lies of administrative officials.

What might happen if serious journalists finally said enough is enough with the spectacle and distraction?

In a similar vein, and most often in the context of displaying the utter incompetence and buffoonery of administrative nominees or officials facing congressional “oversight,” we were repeatedly subjected to the slight variant phrase, “And he (or sometimes she) brought the receipts.” And finally, along these same lines, the now ubiquitous, “He (and again, sometimes she) said the quiet part out loud.”

What all of these anodyne formulations have in common is that they all highlight the crazy or horrendous without really calling them out explicitly. Which brings me to the current term of art, which because of its complete inadequacy is the most dangerous and enabling of all: sanewashing. This flaccid, hand-wringing, bland lament is now so easily deployed that those uttering it seem completely oblivious to its actual implications. Here the more “conscious” in the media have the opportunity to lodge a complaint against their less aware colleagues or competitors without themselves then having the obligation to call things out as they really are.

But do things have to be this way? I understand the exigencies that accompany access-requiring reporting, and I also understand the necessity for profit maximization for “news” organizations. But what might happen if serious journalists finally said enough is enough with the spectacle and distraction, and stopped covering the non-stop shit show that Team One puts out, and instead started to provide in-depth, relentless coverage of the activities of Team Two. The outrage and tantrums that would come from the main inhabitant of the White House at not being given constant attention, which could be covered as the lunacy they are, would produce enough controversy to guarantee viewer- and readership and healthy profits. And we could all use this breath of fresh air.

If Joe Biden wants to recuperate his lagging campaign and demonstrate his presidential strength, he should immediately seize upon the opportunity just presented to him by the six wingnuts on the Supreme Court in their ruling in Trump v. United States (the most appropriately named case this term). He should begin by unilaterally (or unitarily as the theory goes) defining what constitute “official acts” of the President. As the power now vested in him by this decision this should be well within his purview and should be conceived as broadly and deeply as possible.

Of course, one of his first such “official” acts should be to issue an arrest warrant for his insurrectionist predecessor for trying to overthrow the U.S. government and the constitution. Under his new authority, he should be able to waive any trial (or associated delays and appeals) and summarily jail the now convicted felon, forthwith. And, it should be crystal clear that he would be able to deal appropriately with any of the MAGA crowd that attempts to rise up in response to this action. National Guard anyone?

He should then turn his attention to making the government and our “democracy” functional. A first task here would be rectifying the stolen U.S. Supreme Court seats by packing the Court with sane justices who will follow the law instead of their cultish “leader.” I recognize the risk here that such a Court might seek to reign in a newly empowered President, but careful vetting and selection could circumvent these possible inconveniences. He might then turn his attention to the electoral system to make sure that one person/one vote is the rule rather than the too rare exception. Get rid of the Electoral College, outlaw partisan gerrymandering, and expand access to the vote and make voting itself easier. Then it’s on to Congressional reform: eliminate the filibuster, greatly expland the power of Presidential signing statements to shape legislation to his liking, declare Presidential vetoes the final word on legislation he dislikes.

Beyond these good government tasks, it is tantalizing to imagine a slate of non-reversible executive orders covering all those vital national needs that an oppositional Congress and the courts have impeded for years: women’s’ bodily autonomy, universal health care, child tax credits, climate legislation and a real green deal, strengthening pro-labor and environmental protection laws, real immigration reform, curbing wealth and income inequality, reshaping tax policy and spiraling corporate greed, addressing homelessness, and on and on.

Of course, Biden being Biden, he has already snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by declaring that he will “follow the law” no matter what kinds of powerful openings this ruling provides. You can bet that his predecessor and successor will have no such compunction.

And further, Biden being Biden, the whole notion of a vivid and vibrant imagination guiding political or policy action is largely inconceivable. But perhaps some of his close advisors (if they can’t persuade him to drop out which would be eminently preferable) will see this as a chance to hone their puppeteering skills during the his final months in office. Could do the country some good.