Donald Trump has gotten the rawest deal in the past 50 years.
This observation comes from over 50 years of listening and observing, in an out of government. A quick trip through time should make that point—and others.
Since 1968, I’ve worked for every president—that’s eight— except Obama & Trump. Alas, my labors—at least initially—were at such low levels, there were none lower. After service as an Army intelligence linguist and analyst in support of LBJ’s questionable geopolitical instincts, I worked as an investigator for the US Civil Service Commission, now OPM, the government’s central personnel agency. Working the street during Nixon’s impeachment process, then the Ford and Carter years, I began to discern how much the media and Hollywood manipulated the political views of the average citizen—about LBJ, Vietnam, Nixon, and Ford, especially.
Important to note, however, is that feds back then were steeped in the vagaries of the Hatch Act, which prohibited us from expressing political views or displaying campaign buttons or bumper stickers, amongst other no-no’s. But we could listen.
This is not to suggest every civil servant was pure of heart, but most presented an apolitical public face and acted responsibly in carrying out their duties. This is in stark contrast to the present day, when many civil servants believe their agenda superior to that of the electorate, and they have no hesitation in acting upon it. Think IRS.
The media doted on Jimmy Carter, showing their truer colors only when Reagan-Bush took office, and for twelve years, mockery and disdain reigned in every media cave. Although RR prevailed overwhelmingly in 1984, that did not stop the birthing process of the Alt-State—when media, academics, and young Deep Staters, along with Hollywood elites, began to discern what power they might have—collectively.
Through at least the GHWB administration, one rule prevailed: If you were down in the ranks, you simply didn’t speak out or participate in protests—or leak. If you were in a senior position, in career service or as a political appointee, you could speak out all you wanted—right after you resigned. Criticizing “the boss” and keeping your pension was not a career plan. Then, civil servants understood their speech rights were limited the day they took the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution—and the objectives of the administration in power.
Naturally, media mavens fell in love with Bill Clinton, and at that point in my career, I was meeting with fairly senior FBI officials to improve the efficiency of fingerprint and case processing for clearance purposes. Those with long memories will recall a smallish scandal called Filegate. Daily, the WH alleged the FBI was dawdling with security clearances, and the media dutifully echoed spoon-fed talking points. What many of us knew was that the investigations were completed, but numerous Clinton acolytes were simply not clearable. Anyone surprised?
Think about what that fact means. The FBI of the 1990’s clung to what James Comey now ironically calls, “A Higher Loyalty.” Those women and men were truly loyal to the principles they swore to uphold, and they rolled over for no one. None of them would have skewed investigations for political reasons as Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and Page are purported to have done. There was always “the aroma test.” If it would stink on the front page of the New York Times, you simply didn’t do it. Apparently, the olfactory nerves of the above-named operators became somehow dulled by the methane seeping from their work product.
So invested was the media in a third Clinton term, they went at George W. Bush from the very first hour of his presidential campaign, and after a brief respite around September 11, they continued their attacks to the end of his administration. The Alt State had fully formed. Compare GWB’s rough ride, then, to the easy glide given Obama. Think about Donald Trump’s tenure thus far. If Reagan’s relationship with the media was iffy, and George W. Bush’s was rocky, Trump’s has been cataclysmic. How did that happen?
Before 1980, presidents had to contend with sour-faced journalists out for any negative they could magnify—such is the nature of the fourth estate. The Alt-State began to coalesce in the Reagan years when daily criticisms were trumpeted via the media and academia, almost as if on cue. By the time GWB came around, the first two camps, strengthened by a powerful CNN, gave oxygen to leakers and thieves of secrets, the now mature Deep Staters hungering for both their pensions and another payday.
Because Trump is Trump, he has earned some of the media’s enmity, but no president has ever faced what he faces daily: a phalanx of deceptive, hyper-critical mouthpieces in media, academia, and Deep State USG circles allied against him—not to mention the powerful Progressive/Hollywood elites. And he has a former president camped in the capital city who spends his energies OFA to undermine anything he does. No president has faced such an array of leakers and liars attempting to unseat him any way they can. Oh, “the nattering nabobs of negativism!” (as Spiro Agnew famously said)
Can anyone imagine CEOs at General Mills, Ford Motor, Starbucks, or Facebook suffering silently while underlings tossed daily verbal hand grenades at them, sought unceasingly to destroy the effectiveness of their efforts, and even, to unseat them?
The Alt State has never been stronger, and it is up to us, the people, to surveil this cabal with clear eyes and listen with our third ear—that which discerns the real motives of the power cravers.
What’s truly amazing—an accomplishment far from small—is that Trump has managed to neutralize the Alt State. So, for Americans who want secure borders, immigration sense, a respect for the unborn, and a safer world, Donald Trump is the best junkyard dog we could have guarding our homeland.