DEBATES: Brzezinski lacks the words to speak about Trump!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2024

From Harris, a hint of "the dark encroachment:" According to Theodore White, televised debates arrived on the scene as part of "a revolution in American Presidential politics.". 

This revolution was technological in nature. "It was a revolution born of the ceaseless American genius in technology," he wrote in The Making of The President 1960, a very famous book.

A "political revolution" had occurred. It involved the arrival, in American homes, of the TV set.

Plainly enough, you couldn't have four TV debates without those TV sets! Between 1950 and 1960, Americans had purchased roughly 40 million such devices, White noted in his book.

In White's somewhat eccentric view, the invention of the TV debates contributed to a massive dumbing down of American discourse. In part because of the demands of the new medium, "rarely in America history has there been a campaign which discussed issues less or clarified them less."

As of 1961, that's how it looked to Theodore White. All in all, we find it hard to believe that his gloomy assessment was accurate. 

That said, television did burst on the scene during the 1960 campaign. This year's campaign has also unfolded in the wake of a technological revolution. 

On yesterday morning's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski tried to describe her view of Candidate Donald J. Trump. When she did, she was discussing a political campaign which has come to us in the aftermath of the technological revolution known as "the democratization of media."

The TV set was on the scene as of 1960. As of the year 2024, so was a wide array of additional powerful media:

"Talk radio" had long since gone national. "Cable news" had long since arrived on the scene as a major player.

The Internet had come into being, with its many partisan sites. That had led on to "social media"—to a world in which every citizen is a king, as long as he or she can attract millions of eyeballs to whatever proclamation, however crazy, he or she may choose to emit.

It was within that context that Mika Brzezinski tried to state her view of Candidate Trump. 

Her view of the candidate might be right, or it might be wrong. But as she spoke, that candidate's latest claims were rocketing around the meme-o-sphere, including his proclamations about the eating of cats and dogs.

She tried to speak on Morning Joe. All in all, the mandates of an older order deprived her of her words.

Brzezinski had seen people asking if "Americans are ready for a woman" or for "a woman of color." She was gobsmacked by the question—and she was soon saying this:

BRZEZINSKI (9/13/24): I immediately think [sarcastically],"Are they ready?"

Well, what? Are they ready for a psychopath? Are they ready for someone who wants to use the government to commit retribution against all of his opponents for no reason at all? Who wants to destroy our democracy?

That's not an exaggeration. That's not rhetoric. That's what he said. That's what he has been doing....

Had she just called Candidate Trump "a psychopath?" Plainly, that's the way it seemed. 

She seemed to have voiced that assessment. Moments later, though, she faltered, then apologized, then turned to fuzzier words:

BRZEZINSKI: Are we ready for a woman? That's not the question, I think, we should be asking, Gene Robinson. It's like, are we ready to have a psy— 

I'm sorry. I— I'm just—

Having spoken to experts, someone who seems to have psychotic tendencies running our government, who has plans to do things that are very counter to our democracy and has already hurt women terribly, monstrously—already, happening now, in this country.

ROBINSON: Absolutely.

BRZEZINSKI: Are we ready for that? That's the question! I don't want to hear. "Are we ready for a woman?" That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

First, she stopped herself from using a certain term again. Then, she apologized. Then she dialed her language back. 

Rightly or wrongly, she now seemed to say that Candidate Trump is "someone who seems to have psychotic tendencies." Also, she seemed to say that she has spoken to "experts" about this matter. 

She didn't identify the types of experts with whom she has consulted. Robinson agreed with her, "absolutely," but he made no attempt to examine what she seemed to have said.

Our question today is this:

Absent the "democratization of media"—before the age in which every man and every woman could boot the Cronkites to the curb and exercise the rights of kings—before that latest technological revolution, could Candidate Trump have emerged as the three-time nominee of one of our two major parties?

Could he have maintained his sway to such an extent that 74 million people voted to give him a second term in the last presidential election? To such an extent that he plainly might reach the Oval again?

In 2016, "cable news" broadcast his every word, some of which did make sense. In recent years, his statements have rocketed around the world through the revolutionary auspices of "social media." 

Most recently, that has included his thoughtful remarks about the eating of cats and dogs. Those remarks get discussed on CNN and MSNBC, get disappeared over on Fox. 

Could this candidate have become the Republican nominee three times in the absence of this latest "political revolution"—in the absence of this "democratization of media?"

We'll guess that the answer is no. That said, he has tens of millions of strong supporters. Also, he has opponents like Brzezinski and Robinson—fervent opponents who seem to lack permission to use their words.

Is Donald J. Trump a "psychopath?" Plainly, that seems to be what Brzezinski believes, though we're not entirely sure what that claim is supposed to means.

Clearly, that's what Brzezinski wanted to say. Presumably the "experts" with whom she says she has consulted were drawn from the world of medical science. But there exists a powerful rule—a rule which comes from an earlier era—which won't let Brzezinski say the things she believes and wants to say.

Trump can say that Haitians are eating our dogs—but under prevailing rules of her guild, Brzezinski can't say the things she believes. Kathleen Kingsbury won't say those things. In Bue America, the leading careerists have all surrendered their words.

Brzezinski can't name the experts with whom she has spoken. She can't bring such experts on the air and interview them about this candidate's behaviors and claims.

This is the world in which we all live, in the wake of this latest technological burst. 

According to White, the TV set produced a political revolution. Plainly, the rise of cable news and social media has produced another.

Is there some sort of merit to the view Brzezinski knew she mustn't express? Under prevailing rules of the game, we aren't allowed to hear such thoughts—not even within the frequently disordered realm referred to as "cable news!"

Trump can discuss the eating of pets. Brzezinski can't discuss the nature of (clinically diagnosable) "personality disorders." 

A revolution opened a lane for Candidate Trump. The route to an entire class of "experts" is still almost wholly closed off. 

The New York Times won't discuss this matter. Neither will Mika Brzezinski, except in tiny bursts.

We've long stated our own impressions regarding such questions about Candidate Trump. Today, we only note the echo we hear—the echo from Theodore White's assessments of that earlier revolution.

For good or for ill, Candidate Trump has caught a wave—a powerful wave created by a wide array of new media. 

We'll be voting for Candidate Harris. Yesterday, her interview with Brian Taff sent out a very bad sign.

You can watch the eleven minutes here. For people hoping that Harris will win, it was a troubling performance.

Candidate Trump can talk all day. He's able to speak with great fluency about the eating of cats and dogs, with goldfish perhaps thrown in.

The one candidate can talk all day!  It begins to look, once again, like his opponent perhaps cannot.

"These are the days of miracle and wonder," the observer Paul Simon once said. The year was 1986. The name of the album was Graceland. 

Those were the days of miracle and wonder! Technology was opening a wider world, the gentleman hopefully said.