Many are still struggling to understand what just happened, i.e. politics and media in Washington. First, know Mr. Trump is not a Republican at heart. Second, establishment Republicans and Democrats in Congress are more alike than any of them are like “we the people.” Third, national news media are more like establishment Republicans and Democrats than like “we the people.”
For decades media elite and political party elite have ruled over “we the people.” Mr. Trump is challenging that rule. In fact, last week Mr. Trump labeled the media as the opposition party. The media will continually try to make Mr. Trump pay because the elites in charge don’t like him and don’t like his policies.
Last week President Trump met with corporate leaders, union chiefs, automobile executives, and congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle. He froze federal hiring, terminated the Pacific trade deal, and approved construction of two major pipelines. Vice President Mike Pence was a headline speaker for the annual March for Life, signaling the Trump administration’s solid support for the pro-life movement.
The 44th annual March for Life stood in stark contrast to the Women’s March the previous week. As far as I have been able to learn from interviews with supporters of the Women’s March, the one common denominator for attendees was being anti-Trump.
Speaking of labels with “anti-,” media elite covering the March for Life insisted on labeling those who marched “anti-abortion.” This is the same media who label another movement “pro-choice.” Why would media elite call one group “anti-abortion” and another group “pro-choice?” Style manuals normally emphasize consistency in labeling. Why not call the other group “pro-abortion,” or the first group by their preferred name “pro-life?”
Media elite have rarely given much coverage to the annual March for Life. This year VP Mike Pence and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway drew a little more coverage than normal.
In contrast the media gushed all over itself for the Women’s March, which some media predict could become the next Tea-Party-like movement. I don’t think so. In the first place, media elite have rarely covered the Tea Party over the past seven years except to denigrate or belittle supporters. In spite of such biased coverage, the TP movement continues to reflect grassroots politics and issues.
Secondly, the most significant common value shared by supporters of the Women’s March was opposition to President Trump. Could that generate a unique movement in addition to opposition from establishment politicians and media elite?
President Trump’s winning the White House is a major hallmark signaling the growing irrelevancy of elite news sources, with the exception of FOX News, a right leaning cable news channel. FOX was number one over all television networks and cable news channels according Neilson ratings. NBC was a distant second, ABC and CBS finished third and fourth respectively with about half as many viewers as FOX. CNN and MSNBC were tiny little blips on the ratings radar.
Takeaways: Democrats are relevant in Washington only when working with Republicans; Republicans are relevant, but not particularly united; elite news media are less trusted than social media and have unilaterally made themselves irrelevant, clinging to their closed-minded ideology; President Trump is making things happen; and, America is much more relevant in the world community.
That’s what just happened in Washington.