This has never previously been seen anywhere else, and in any era, and is truly historic: subversion- by- exhaustion.
I refer to the White House strategy of disgusting and exasperating all normal, decent supporters of thoughtful, informed and grown-up government, with the objective of getting them to stop paying attention to the daily, endless, infuriating and stressful American news. The succession of tweets and leaks, ad hominem attacks, bullying and ignorant comments remove all oxygen from public discourse. Responsible opposition is rendered ineffective and falls upon deaf ears. Tweet by tweet people are stopping paying attention, and are reading a book instead. Public servants are already demoralized. The objective? The sidelining of the Constitution, the end of checks and balances and the introduction of a Putinesque grabitariat.
Watch carefully as Trump subverts a whole country, not by military coup or even economic cataclysm, but by sheer disgust. Steve Bannon- no fool – is winning. We are witnesses to a clever and sophisticated strategy. Only his own Party can stop this. Will they?
Epicureans believe in peace and calm and the reduction of stress. It is for this reason that Epicurus disdained party politics. But is this instance we cannot stand back and shrug our shoulders. We have to hold our noses and keep opposing. Let academics sniff at Epicureans who follow and discuss the political news. So be it.
The worst thing about all of this is that it was entirely predictable. In fact, Hillary Clinton warned us about Trump multiple times, and all of her predictions have come true. http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/08/9-times-hillary-clinton-warned-would-happen. It turns out that predicting the consequences of election results is far easier that predicting the results themselves.
The result of all this could be dramatically reduced voter turnout in the 2018 midterms; midterm elections already suffer from low turnout. This will advantage Republicans because they do better amongst the demographic groups more likely to vote.
You’re right about this administration’s disregard for the Constitution. It used to be conservatives who would treat the Constitution as if it were the Bible. I’d never thought I’d say this, but I actually miss those days.
Interestingly, I’ve just Googled the word ‘grabitariat’, and the only three results are from this blog. Seems like you’ve invented a new word, Robert.