Saturday, February 11, 2017

Aram Bakshian Jr. — The Media’s War against Michael Flynn [and Donald Trump]

The target is national security adviser Michael Flynn. There are plenty of reasons to wonder about Flynn’s policies, most notably on Iran. But in Washington, political differences have become war by other means. What Flynn’s views are isn’t even the main issue. Instead, it’s what can be used to take him down only a few weeks into his new post.
Not just Flynn. There is also a concerted effort to take down Steve Bannon. This is really a propaganda war to take down Donald Trump, who is the real target.

This attack is being conducted in part by anonymous leaks from government and the intelligence services in particular.

This is a soft coup being conducted in a representative democracy and it threatens the republic.

Not that a lot of people are not happy with the results of the election and with good reason from their point of view. But how much of that strong discontent has been either enflamed or even manufactured?

Those leading this coup are encouraged by recent polling (Feb. 10) by Public Policy Polling that shows half the country wants to see Donald Trump impeached. And it is only three weeks into his presidency. This does not bode well for the United States.

The pressure is only going to increase to delegitimize the president and "break him," as Jim DeMint said of President Obama right at the outset of his presidency. And that was preceded by a similar effort to take down Bill Clinton right after he was elected and lasted until he was successfully impeached by the House, but not removed by the Senate.

Conversely, many people never accepted the legitimacy of the George W. Bush presidency that was the outcome of a politicized Supreme Court. Like Hillary Clinton Al Gore had won the popular vote, adding to the indignity.

This is a terrible way to run a country, and it undermines confidence in American democracy and liberalism as a governing principle.

The National Interest
The Media’s War against Michael Flynn
Aram Bakshian Jr. | formerly an aide to presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan

6 comments:

lastgreek said...

In less than 2 years you guys are having elections again, so why bother with a coup? In 2018, the Dems pick up a few seats in the Senate, a couple of dozen in the House, and thar she blows ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2018

Just would like to say re. Hillary: She won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, as the national polls had predicted. So, she basically blew away Trump. What more could the Dems have asked of her? Unfortunately for the planet, Trump got lucky (and with lots of help from Republican shenanigans) and picked up more electoral votes.

And like Trump, the cable news networks got lucky as well. There is not a boring day with the Trump administration. Ratings, baby!

Btw, I don't recall who described Bannon as a Leninist (or if he described himself), but I'll say this: I'd be embarrassed to use such a term lest I be thought of as some old, very old, guy (thinking Chomsky here; that is so early 20th century. And who uses that term today? And what does it mean? Does it mean a tyrant? I doubt there is 1 in 100 Americans who knows, let alone "Two Corinthians" in the Oval Office who doesn't even know how many Articles the US Constitution has.

And this: I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere (not sure if you did, Tom), but about this Muslim ban -- it appears to me to be basically a Shiite ban.




Tom Hickey said...

And this: I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere (not sure if you did, Tom), but about this Muslim ban -- it appears to me to be basically a Shiite ban.

That, and and an enemies of Israel and Saudi Arabia-Qatar list, too.

This list has been around for a while. Not new to the Trump administration.

Dan Lynch said...

You summed it up well, @Tom.

I did not vote for Trump, but nonetheless I would like to see him succeed. After all, the alternative is Pence.

There are legitimate reasons to criticize Flynn, but his talking to Russia is not one of them.

My interest is particular issues, not partisan politics. I may support Trump on some issues and oppose Trump on other issues. The tribalism of partisan politics is a turn off for me.

That said, Machiavelli matters. The political reality is that if Trump fails to neutralize his enemies, then his enemies will neutralize him. It's not necessary to send all of Trump's enemies to a detention camp, just make examples out of a few of the leaders, and the rest will fall in line. I'm sure the spy agencies have some dirt on McCain, Graham, and the Clinton machine.

And perhaps more importantly, Trump needs to cement his popular support by doing some good things, and doing fewer divisive things.

I'm not convinced that Trump has it in him. He doesn't seem to have a plan for health care that is likely to be a significant improvement over O-Care, he doesn't seem to have a Keynesian fiscal policy, and so far it has been business as usual in Yemen and Afghanistan. The only bright spot has been Trump's cooperation with Russia in Syria.

Peter Pan said...

What's wrong with Pence?

Americans seem to believe that by electing a boor, they will receive better government than they did with Obama, who was useless but polite.

Postkey said...


“How the Trump regime was manufactured by a war inside the Deep State
A systemic crisis in the global Deep System has driven the violent radicalization of a Deep State faction”

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-trump-regime-was-manufactured-by-a-war-inside-the-deep-state-f9e757071c70#.gcakmj1dm

Peter Pan said...

An interesting article... ostensibly from an ecological perspective.

Trump is surrounded by ideologues. No surprise there.