For as long as there have been Presidential elections, nary an American citizen could recall voting for a politician who kept all of their campaign promises. It has become a tradition of sorts- and could be reasonably labeled a tradition of lies.
Everyone has heard the joke, ‘How do you know when a politician is lying? When his mouth is moving.’
Donald Trump’s presidency is almost completely unlike any other in recent memory. In his first week- including the weekend- he worked tirelessly to keep his campaign promises, and so far he has kept or made progress toward keeping every single one of them.
That by itself is startling, even for his supporters. We’ve never seen anything like it. Sure, we had high expectations. But we never expected him to work this hard. We never expected him to meet with business leaders on a Sunday to explain to them how he intends to restore jobs to the middle class, to protect worker safety, the environment, and to boost trade. We never expected to see the New York Stock Exchange to rocket to unseen levels of optimism.
But our surprise is laden with delight. The surprise at CNN has a different character, however. They are not elated to see a president keeping his promises. They are not optimistic about the positive repercussions it will have for our democracy. They seem to look on him as some kind of simpleton.
In a recent article, CNN said this, “But the determination to keep campaign promises is verging on an obsession…”
At a glance, this statement inspires a shrug. But thinking on it more carefully reveals a deep cynicism bordering on pathological. CNN has been openly anti-conservative for years. This is not the problem.
It is common for reporters to have a bias, to admit it, and to be open about the fact that our biases will have an effect on the tone of the content we produce. But CNN seems to be expressing not just surprise at Trump’s bold honesty and determination to keep his promises- they seem to be disgusted by it.
They should be excited, even if they don’t agree with his policies. They should be positively interested in the fact that we have a politician in the country’s highest office who is speaking plainly, saying what he means, and following through with his promises.
They seem to see this honesty- and the predictability that goes with it- as a weakness. It reminds one of the classic argument between fictional heroes and villains. The hero values honesty and care, while the villain sees straight shooting as a tactical error. The dichotomy is so simplistic, it almost seems like the script of a bad movie.
They admit, “Trump is reinventing the Presidency…” They have called his first week a flurry of action, and ‘jarring.’ Why is honesty jarring? Why is promise keeping jarring? Who has been giving us the news all these years?
In this article, which is meant to be critical of the President, they write, “Lawmakers and business leaders say the larger than life President and former reality show star listens more than he talks.”
Listening rather than speaking is a sign of wisdom. It’s the rare characteristic that enables a person to develop sound opinions and to synthesize workable solutions to problems. It is a virtue that has been praised in spiritual traditions across all cultures since the beginning of recorded history. Praise for the patient listener is cut into stone tablets from Sumeria. It is lauded in the Old Testament. It is praised in the Quran and the Bhagavad Gita. But today, according to CNN, listening more than speaking, when Trump does it, is jarring. Since when did this become a bad thing?
Lionel Lebron of Lionel media has predicted that for the next 4 to 8 years the left will throw everything they have at Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter of it’s a provable fake news piece from Buzzfeed about urinating on a prostitute, accusations of racism for doing the same things his predecessor did, or actions that amount to honesty, integrity, and studious listening being interpreted as somehow ‘jarring.’
A physicist once opined that if beings could be made from antimatter, then to them what we call goodness and virtue would look like vice and folly. It’s a comical characterization, but what else can you say?
In an age where mainstream media reporters are referring to straight shooting, virtuous behavior, and promise keeping as jarring obsessions, one can only wonder if we have all been transported to Bizarro World.
~ American Liberty Report
