Stupid
Watergate is a term coined by John Oliver several months ago in a joke about
the Trump administration Russian collusion scandal. The joke was funny and I like John Oliver’s
sense of humor. That being said,
referring to modern political scandals with the suffix gate takes away the
seriousness of the situation. The suffix
gate has lost all meaning in American culture for several reasons. This first
being it’s obvious and hyperbolic overuse.
Second, many Americans living in 2017 do not know or understand their
own or world history, therefore, they do not grasp the full gravity which
should come with the comparison.
Finally, because of the first to reasons, this political age needs its
scandals to have a more well branded moniker as an icon for the current
scandals. I suggest Tower, as in Trump
Tower, the stinking, steaming pile of bullshit upon which the current President
resides in the top floor. From now on I
will refer to this as the Russian Tower scandal.
One of the premises
of Oliver’s joke is the question of whether those in the Trump
administration/family are so stupid as to get themselves tied up in such an
obviously illegal and unethical situation.
The answer is that they are not stupid at all. They have assessed the modern political
reality in the United States with Machiavellian psychopathic clarity. Their analysis, which is sadly on point,
determined that shame is no longer a viable persuasive tool in American
politics. This is a big deal. Without shame as a border between acceptable
and unacceptable behavior, acceptable behavior is redefined in absolute
Machiavellian terms, the ends justify any means necessary.
What killed
shame as a viable persuasive tool in the American Political Theater? There were a multitude of afflictions which
lead to shame’s eventual demise. One is
the daily hyperbolic sensualizing of events on what are considered news
outlets. Second is the relentless
ideology of the profit motive within the corporations that control media
outlets. Third is the ubiquitous
invasion of personal privacy, real or imagined.
Fourth is the partisan divisions which have given credence to black and
white thinking. Finally, the natural
death of nuance that occurs when a people are not adequately taught history and
as a result develop poor long term cohesive planning skills.
The result
has been that American politics and in many cases American life has become an
embodiment of a phrase from the opening monologue of the movie Patton,
“Americans have never tolerated a man who lost and laughed. Americans love a winner! Always have, always
will.” While this sentiment makes an
excellent battle cry for soldiers you are sending to fight and die, it is a
disastrous way for a society to function.
It is this mentality that propelled Trump and his minions to the White
House. Trump’s entire brand is based on
the concept, not the reality, of winning.
Trump succeeds to this end by defining whatever he does as winning. Much like Charlie Sheen. This is the exact approach that his team used
to steal the election and they will make no apology for it. This not making an apology for it is one of
the important reasons why they continue to get away with it. Don Jr. comes out and says yeah, I met with a
hostile foreign government to aide my father in winning the election, so what,
it worked.
The saddest
fact is that the American people are so jaded, divided, overwhelmed, empathy
eroded, sacred, and our system is so corrupt that it will work. It will continue to work for as long as Trump
stays in office and those who follow him will adopt his tactics and increase
them to absurdity and beyond.
This Russian
Tower scandal will be the least of the scandals that come out of this
administration, so I say we do right by our President and his lifelong goal of
promoting his brand and drop the gate and rebrand his scandals
appropriately.
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