Chaos and Collapse?

It was not an auspicious start for Sean Spicer. Rather than announcing statements of fact he did so of fancy. Right off the starting block: “The greatest inauguration crowds ever in the history of the nation.” Remember those statements? And then they were followed by press reports and aerial views of the ‘crowds’ in comparison with both an empty space (before the event was held) and the Obama inauguration. Stunning differences. Clearly the Trump inauguration was no match for Obama’s special day. And the nation's inauguration of its first African-American President!

The more push back the press corps played, the more Sean retaliated. Months later he was moved to remove live TV coverage from the press briefings, and then sound recordings, too. Hiding behind a wall of privacy and privilege, the Press Secretary announced the news whether he had any support of the facts or not. And mostly it was not.

Slow forward a bit and stand-in press spokeswoman Sanders filled in for Sean but continued the abbreviated witness of electronic media.

Finally, the White House Communications Director position was announced and it wasn’t Spicer. Instead it is Scaramucci. Sean thought this was a mistake, told the president that and resigned on the spot.

Sanders appeared before the press corps and announced Scaramucci’s appointment and introduced him. He in turn announced Sanders’ promotion to Press Secretary. And all of this was recorded live on TV and audio tape. One hopes that the electronic witness is back for good.

The press has a job to do. It is to report factually on what happens and piece together the meaning of the event and why it occurred. This is what the press does. It writes history with the facts hour by hour, minute by minute and day by day. Years later historians pore over it and build the minutiae into a larger picture; from that they are able to deduce historical weight for an era, a president’s administration, and so on. This is the process. It takes time. And it takes serious research and thinking. Theories of what things meant then and now, are tested and researched more. In this fashion history is written slowly and surely.

Even then years later history is tweaked to reflect even more perspective and facts that finally emerge.

For now we live with the immediate facts. Spicer is out; Sanders is in; Scaramucci is on scene calling the shots; somewhere in the background is the president. An olive branch has been extended to the press by Scaramucci. That’s a beginning to re-order what has been chaos.

The chaos has been reminiscent of collapse. That is how serious this 6-month episode of White House ‘history’ has been. It is up to the doyens of the White House to extend this turn of events into a solid plane of performance that spells order and confidence.

Without that order and confidence the trump administration continues on a trajectory of ill will, factoid manufacturing, and destabilization. Let’s be clear here: the American federal government is in free fall without stable leadership. Instead of building, everything of order is being torn down without a clear plan of replacement. Opposites appear to be the rule of the day.

The clean air agency is touted for closure or at least severe limiting of its authority. The education agency is hell bent on destroying the agency and its authority over establishing just and fair education standards that will support new generations learning how to sustain their own lives through education and self discovery. The health agency is pulling scientific research from the table and limiting research in total from the university community.

Academia itself is suspect and down graded to background noise of society.

Healthcare standards and insurance coverage is thrown in the air into little pieces with no idea on reorganizing it into a cohesive whole. It appears the government has abandoned its people in the name of something yet un-named.

Does this describe chaos or intended management reform? Does this describe Wholistic movement forward toward a desired objective? Is that goal even defined? Do we have cohesion or disintegration?

If I have to write this here, isn’t that proof enough that chaos and collapse is imminent?

All I’m asking is this: what is the plan Mr. trump? What is the goal? We live in a democracy where we the people have a hand in defining such major goals. You do not have the power of edict to make anything so. Let us in on your secret so we can judge if you and we are on the right path.

If you don’t have a defined goal, say so. If we don’t agree with your defined goal, be prepared for democratic opposition. This is how America operates. You propose and we dispose. It is not the other way around!

Speaking of disposal, perhaps you should consider your words and actions very carefully at this point. 330 million people are listening. And we have the power to remove you from office. Unlike your administration, our procedure is spelled out clearly in the US Constitution.

So speak carefully and clearly. We are listening and paying attention.

July 25, 2017