Ah, yes, the Wall Street Journal editorial pages.  Sometimes, I wonder if they are trying to outfox Fox in their outlandish pronouncements.  (You do know these two media giants are owned by the same folks, right?  Rupert Murdoch et. al.)

Here’s Barton Swain’s latest pronouncement:  “…. the most salient theme of the past five years was not any challenge to democracy. The great theme of the Trump years, the one historians will note a century from now, was the failure of America’s expert class. The people who were supposed to know what they were talking about, didn’t. “

(Of course, that’s bullshit.  No, I won’t worry that I am using that term, either.  The great theme of the Trump years will be – hopefully- that America skirted the destruction of its democratic institutions.  Why “hopefully”?  Because as you will see in a future post, it’s not clear that this White American Christian Nationalist fervor is going to retreat back to the corners of Idaho, Oklahoma, and Texas.  It’s pervasive in all 50 states.  Just simmering below the surface, waiting for another Donald to release them.)

Back to Swain’s whitewash.  He then tries to justify the statement by mentioning the failure of the pollsters.  OK.  I could buy that some might consider them experts.  (Here’s what Pew has to say on that subject.) But, given the fact that the pollsters have not yet determined how they can reach Americans who’ve abandoned land lines by the droves, I’m not quite so convinced that they are “experts”.

But, then Swain decamps to the statements that TheDonald Presidential campaign signified a fascist threat.  Hmm.  Maybe we should examine the definition of fascism, since so many folks only associate that ‘ism’ with the Nazis.

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.

Um, that pretty well matches the aims of TheDonald from the start of his Presidential campaign through to his refusal to accept his loss in 2020.  Despite his claims to the contrary, where Swain once again puts words in our mouths (this is called a Straw Man argument), that we averred that TheDonald only won the 2016 election because he colluded with the Russians.

What we said is that was a contributing factor, where the Russians tweeted and published non-facts about the political conditions.  Which TheDonald promptly then repeated many of those ‘creative’ tweets.   Which many folks never researched their veracity to find out how many of them were machine propagated and/or false.

Let us not forget (despite the obfuscatory remarks of Bill Barr) that the Mueller Report clearly outlined that TheDonald interacted with the Russians with their interference in the elections.  (Only because it was stated policy- NOT LAW- that a President cannot be indicted for law violations was he referred to as “Individual One” in the report.)  Right up to Donald attempting multiple Saturday Night massacres to finally arrive at a DOJ (Department of Justice) head who would violate the law and attempt to intimidate elected officials in Georgia to overturn the election that TheDonald lost.

And, then, of course, Barton Swain resorts to another ‘straw man’ approach claiming that we folks equate ‘democracy’ with progressive policy aims and the extension of welfare-state provisions to new constituencies.  Actually, we decry the Republican party (who he defines as our opposites) as doing just that- extending welfare-state provisions to companies.  Whereby we citizens have to cover their profits- profits gained at the expense of big corporations paying their workers below living wages.  So, these low-paid workers must rely on AFDC (aid for dependent children), SNAP (supplemental nutritional aid programs, aka Food Stamps), Medicaid, and the like.  These firms-  Walmart, McDonalds, et. al- extol their profits to stock brokers… but those amounts are barely above- and often below- the subsidies American taxpayers provide their employees.  In other words, we are providing the cash that Walmart, among many others,  claims as a profit.

Swain’s claim that TheDonald did not assault democracy until after the 2020 election is ludicrous.  Did Barton Swain not notice that TheDonald misappropriated funds for the DOD to build his wall?  The one for which he swore Mexico would pay.  The one that the Republican Congress and Senate (yes, when TheDonald became President, all of the levers of power were with the GOP) refused to fund for him.  (This is but one example.  The tweets below are from April 2020!)

Oh, and then Barton Swain decides to throw in the COVID-19 pandemic.  Claiming… “No nation—or anyhow no nation that values individual liberty and isn’t an island—has managed even to slow the spread of Covid-19 without causing economic ruin and attendant disorder.”  The key two words there are “individual liberty”, since so many of the GOP resent the fact that face masks should be mandatory.  That it encroaches their liberties.

Hmm. When we were fighting in World War II, folks who lived on the East Coast and the West Coast were required to keep their lights off, to protect against foreign attacks.  (Similar prohibitions existed in the UK.)  No one complained that those were infringements on their individual liberty.  What about the government-imposed screening of all airline passengers?  Yes, it could be considered s an infringement of our rights, but to protect the majority of Americans, we need to be so subjected.  Why not the same for masks?

And, why not have a national response to the pandemic.  With mask mandates, with federal distribution of the vaccines, instead of relying on thousands of local health departments, many of which lack the basic understanding of logistics and develop different rules of engagement, to do so.  (Actually, TheDonald chose the local method so that the Federal Deficit would not take yet another hit, after the death knell dealt by his eradication of corporate taxes and slashing of upper income folks’ tax munificence. )

Actually, folks like me who knew about TheDonald from his antics in NY and his reputation (barely above the cellar) as a real estate mogul, were never surprised at what he did.  It was always in his (lack of) character.

Oh, and as a business person?  That’s why he’s had multiple bankruptcies.  What TheDonald does do well- is marketing.  Selling the sizzle, never the steak.  He did that is spades to America, too.

Sorry,  Swain.  The only  folks buying your tripe are the Proud Boys, the QAnon, and the White American Christian Right.