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Stewart Myrent
Enjoyed "Truth in Our Times", by David E. McCraw, Deputy General Counsel of the NYT so much, that I picked up another new release, "The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump", by Peter Wehner, a conservative commentator & contributor to the NYT opinion section & to The Atlantic. Unlike McCraw, Wehner is not an employee of the NYT. Also, despite the fact that he is a Republican conservative, he obviously detests Trump. Imagine that. He also is a dedicated Christian & I enjoyed reading his book quite a bit. From chapter 2, "How We Ended Up in This Mess", "It's often said that the American manufacturing sector is in decline, but in fact manufacturing is declining in terms of employment, not in terms of output or its share of the economy. The increasing efficiency of American manufacturing has come at the expense of lower-skilled workers." In Chapter 3, "What Politics Is", he talks about 2 philosophers, Aristotle & John Locke, & one president, Abraham Lincoln, as models for political thought, relative to creating & advancing democratic ideals. From Chapter 4, "Politics and Faith", "The strongest case for religion in public life comes from the moral instruction needed in guiding our politics - religion helps ground politics in morality. Without this grounding, it's more difficult to appeal to fixed moral points." "My point isn't that atheists can't be good people; clearly they can, and many prove that every day. Many, in fact, live lives of greater moral integrity than people of faith." Talking about the fractured idealism of the religious Right, "But Jerry Falwell Sr. gave way to Jerry Falwell Jr., Billy Graham gave way to Franklin Graham, and things are now worse, not better. The Trump era has utterly discredited significant parts of the American evangelical movement." Also, in Chapter 4, talking about Trump's support from the religious Right, after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape, "...more than seven in ten (72 percent) white evangelical Protestants said an elected official can behave ethically even if they have committed transgressions in their personal life. Five years earlier, when Barack Obama was president, only 30 percent of white evangelical Protestants said the same. No group shifted their position more dramatically than white evangelical Protestants. But it's not only Mr. Trump's sexual transgressions that are relevant here; it's the whole package deal. Mr. Trump lies pathologically. He exhibits crude and cruel behavior, relishes humiliating those over whom he has power, and dehumanizes his political opponents, women, and the weak. He is indifferent to objective truth, trades in conspiracy theories, and exploits the darker impulses of the public. His style of politics is characterized by stoking anger and grievances rather than demonstrating empathy and justice." From Chapter 5, "Why Words Matter", after listing many of Trump's outright lies & misrepresentations, since he took office, "After 773 days in office, Trump made more than 9,000 false or misleading claims, which averages out to more than 11 per day. In 2018, Trump averaged 15 false claims a day. (In the seven weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, he averaged nearly 30 a day.) That is a staggering, unprecedented achievement. The sheer scope, breadth, and shamelessness of the Trump lies are impressive in their own corrupt way. Mr. Trump told falsehoods about voter fraud costing him the popular vote to Hillary Clinton (it didn't), Russian intervention in the 2016 election being a hoax (it wasn't), having won the biggest landslide since 1980 (not even close), and President Obama bugging Trump Tower (it never happened). He prevaricated in claiming his 2018 State of the Union was the most watched of any State of the Union in history, in stating that tax reform had cost him a fortune, and in claiming credit for business investments and job announcements that had been previously announced. He was wrong when he asserted that he had signed more bills than any president ever, that counterprotestors in Charlottesville didn't have a permit, and that the NYT had apologized for 'bad coverage'. Trump claimed the FBI inspector general's report on Hillary Clinton's email server totally exonerated him; it did no such thing. He claimed that the policy of separating migrant children from their parents was forced on him by Democrats; the person responsible for the policy was Trump, not Democrats. For two years President Trump, his legal team, and his advisors denied that he was involved in hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal; we now know that was a lie and Mr. Trump was involved in or briefed on every step of the agreements. On dozens of occasions since the summer of 2016 Mr. Trump said he had 'nothing to do with Russia' - no deals, no investments, no business with Russia. Those claims were lies." Of course, there's way more, but I got tired of writing this out, but he closes with, "Trump is not simply a serial liar; he is attempting to murder the very idea of truth, which is even worse. Without truth, a free society cannot operate." Something further in this chapter, made me happy. "In a sense, we see what we want to see in order to believe what we want to believe. In addition, we all like to be proven right, and changing our views is an admission that we were previously wrong, or at least had an incomplete understanding of an issue." And finally, in Chapter 6, "In Praise of Moderation, Compromise and Civility", "As you look at the broken state of our politics, lamenting its tone and shaking your head in disgust at the bickering and lack of cooperation, the mistake you're likely to make is the same one I can easily fall into: to assume that all would be right with the world if only more people agreed with me, if they saw things just as I see them, if they interpreted things just as I do - and if they don't, to get irritated with them for their ignorance and inflexibility, their flawed judgment and lack of self-awareness, for not sufficiently loving their country. To believe, in short, that they're not only wrong but deeply flawed as human beings. Here's the thing, though: the people I'm quick to condemn because they hold different views than I do look at me the same way I look at them." And, "It's true that if we only set aside our differences - if one side or the other jettisoned its beliefs in the name of agreement - our politics would be less acrimonious and gridlocked. But that hope is a fairy tale."
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