Squelching dissent

This administration seems to be unable to tolerate or even imagine dissent

I read a headline today in the Washington Post that read “Trump: ‘We must fight’ hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus in 2018 midterm elections’. What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that? Everyone that dare disagree with me should be cancelled out. That is so much easier than perhaps trying to reach a common ground or even (heaven forbid) listening to their concerns and maybe finding whether there is merit in some or all of those concerns. Far better that everyone just fall in line, regardless of what their conscience dictates or even what those pesky people holding a divergent view might perceive a serving the greater needs of both their constituents and the country as a whole.

This fits neatly into the general posture of denigrating and demeaning anyone or anything that be so silly as to dare to raise a question or perhaps point out an error or misrepresentation originating from the White House.

After all we have seen the entire media labeled as “the enemy of the American people” and entitle that media as “fake news media”. Of course we expect this sort of name-calling when referring to the opposition party; we’ve seen it historically from both sides of the aisle, using such labels a Nazi and other despicable pejoratives when describing the other side of the aisle.

Apparently the attitude pervasive today in the White House is one of “if you don’t agree with us, we will do all in our power to denigrate you, label you as unfit for office, and work to unseat you so that you can be replaced with someone who will blindly follow our lead”. It makes me wonder what working in that atmosphere and for that President must be like.

I wonder if any member of that staff has the temerity to perhaps even hint to Mr. Trump that he may be overreaching himself, embarrassing himself, damaging his party, undermining his status and power, or all of the above. I suspect that should anyone even suggest such a blasphemy to the one who has never made a mistake and has a perfect record in predicting events, that person would take his or her courage and Chutzpa in hand and find himself or herself looking for another source of income and employment immediately.

This administration seems to be unable to tolerate or even imagine dissent from outside and probably from inside as well. It every instance it appears that any failures, shortcomings, or cavalier treatment of facts must not be the fault of anyone in the White House; any such fault must rest with people or institutions of evil intent. What a way to lead and govern!