By Douglas J. Hagmann
A great deal of print space and political oratory has followed Donald Trump’s “pessimistic” acceptance speech at the RNC. It’s been criticized by pundits and politicians alike as unjustified, untrue and unnecessary doom and gloom rhetoric steeped in apocalyptic hyperbole.
“Fear is the electoral gold for the GOP,” asserted pundit Paul Waldman in the November 15, 2015 edition of The American Prospect 1. The Liberal Progressive Leftists currently in power have pulled out all the stops to tamp down such negative talk by using laser-like pejoratives to describe Trump, his supporters, or anyone who dare question the state of our nation today. The media is facilitating this narrative, and it’s critical to our future to understand their motives and methodology.
Obviously, the accusation of using fear to gain political ground is not new. This particular narrative has been repeated by countless columnists, pundits and politicos of all stripes for the last several months. They have assailed Trump’s past and present assessments of the condition of America, and those who agree with Donald Trump and support his policy of change are criticized as uninformed, intolerant, bigoted, or just plain wrong. After all, America is just fine and even better than it was, thank you.
If you don’t believe the politicians, just ask the mainstream media. Violent crime is down. Unemployment is down. Immigration poses no threat. The border is more restrictive than ever. ISIS, the jayvee team of Islam, is weaker. Bin Laden is dead. Accordingly, we’re safer and better off than 8 years ago and getting better, at least according to the globalists and their puppet media.
Yet, a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), published on November 17, 2015 2 found that a whopping 70% of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong course. Public confidence in government, the safety and security of our nation, and our future is in peril, according to the participants of this poll which, interestingly enough, was financed in part by the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
The findings from this poll did not sit well with the guardians of the globalists. Irrational anxiety is “being driven by white, evangelical Christians… which has become a centerpiece of the GOP presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” according to Jeff Nesbit, contributor to U.S. News & World Report in a column that pre-dates Trump’s acceptance speech by seven months.
According to Nesbit and echoed by many in the corporate media, the PRRI survey showcases that “pessimism and intolerance motivates Trump supporters.” He asserts that “[D]espite the fact that millions of new jobs have been created in the past few years and unemployment levels have fallen nearly five points to near-historic lows since the height of the recession in 2009, more than 70 percent of Americans simply don’t believe it…3”
Silly us. What do we know, anyway?
To understand exactly what is taking place before our very eyes, it’s absolutely critical to recognize that we’ve seen this tactic used before. Divert attention away from the message then go after the messenger with accusations of spreading fear through a platform of “overstated doom and gloom.”
Ironically, some of the very people who are currently making accusations of “pessimism peddling” were deeply involved in these same tactics just a few decades ago, except that they have mysteriously switched sides. They have apparently been rewarded with coveted spots on weekly news panels and programs on all of the news networks, or have been given lucrative positions within any number of agencies that exist on government largesse, or both. Whatever the case, they’ve sold out. They’ve sold out their country and their souls for a seat at the globalist table.
Regardless of your feelings about Donald Trump, he is absolutely correct that the system is rigged and the media and most in government are intentionally lying about the state of our country. This represents one of the most serious dangers to our nation and to the existence of our Republic.
You might be surprised to learn how and when it all began, at least in modern times.
If you are an American old enough to now be receiving regular solicitations from AARP, know your history or have an affinity for linguistic expressions that reflect a specific era in our history, perhaps you recall hearing this little gem of a phrase: nattering nabobs of negativism. Sound familiar? If not, allow me to be of assistance.
It was uttered by the much loathed and ultimately disgraced Vice President under Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew on (interestingly enough) September 11, 1970 during an address at the California Republican state convention in San Diego4. In context, it was used to describe the decidedly pessimistic assessments of America being made by the mainstream media at that time.
“In the United States today, we have more than our share of nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H club—the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”
This memorable bit of prose was actually the creation of Nixon speechwriter William Safire in response to those outspokenly concerned with events in America during the turbulent and tumultuous period that encompassed the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and, of course, the Vietnam War. At that time in our history, it was actually the corporate media that was doing its job to uncover the dark reality of current events, including government corruption and criminality.
At that time, some in the mainstream media actually did their jobs as investigative journalists. Their efforts resulted in the exposing of crime and corruption. It ultimately led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, the resignation of then-President Richard M. Nixon, and the indictment of many others in criminal acts that involved financial kickbacks, burglaries, and an assortment of other crimes.
Yes, the state of America indeed was as bad as the media suggested, but they did not back down nor did they cover it up. At least not all of them. Enough did their jobs to actually make a difference, posing a threat to the growing lawlessness within government.
But then, something happened. The media became an arm of the government through corporate consolidation. It was infiltrated by some with ties to globalist criminals in power through this consolidation and consequently, the official spin or narrative became much easier to control. This is much more efficient than the previous environment where the CIA had assets embedded within the different news organizations to monitor and when necessary, discourage or redirect coverage by rogue reporters to issues of less importance.
The infamous reference of the press as the “fourth estate” by Edmund Burke has now been fully transformed into the much more accommodating “fourth branch,” a fully subservient and subjugated power that is facilitating government corruption at levels never before seen. This is particularly nefarious and readily seen by the lack of honest reporting by the media and the perpetuation of the lie that the platform of fear is nothing more than a cheap sales tactic for the GOP.
Honest journalists have turned into cheap cheerleaders, guarding Americans from the truth instead of reporting it. From the incestuous criminality of DC leaders to the benefactors of the Clinton Foundation, Fast & Furious, Arab Spring, Benghazi, the threat of ISIS, and every other scandal (i.e. continuing conduct of criminal behavior) that has plagued the Obama-Clinton-Holder-Lynch globalist regime and even many on the right, there is obviously no “there” there.
Spiro T. Agnew would have been proud.
Yes, most assuredly, it is we the people who are the misinformed “nattering nabobs of negativism.” All 70% of us.
Prepare. Pray.