Mountain Views News          Saturday, September 3, 2016

B4

OPINION

Mountain Views-News Saturday, September 3, 2016 

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WILL Durst - Raging Moderate


ASSEMBLING TRUMP’S 

DREAM TEAM

Any politician angling to 
be president has to appear 
believable while wearing 
many hats. The electorate 
needs to imagine him/her in a pith helmet 
to lead us through the jungle. A hard hat to 
connect to blue collar voters. A top hat to 
conduct formal diplomatic negotiations. A 
deerstalker to sift through the intrigue. And 
a toque to cook up some fun.

 Even a branded baseball cap to protect 
his hair from whipping to the heavens like a 
sentient shrubbery signaling a secret society 
of Navajo fringe talkers has a certain appeal. 
Apparently.

 Of course Donald Trump is no ordinary 
candidate. As can be verified by recent 
attempts to appear statesmanlike, which 
are so all over the map, his staff should be 
CCing Rand McNally with daily briefings 
from the expanding duchy of Trumpistan.

 First, he refuses to back down from 
anything he’s ever said or done, then issues a 
blanket apology to whomever for whatever, 
whenever. Following that he jettisoned a 
campaign manager he never paid attention 
to, before hiring an entirely different 
ministry of folks to totally ignore.

 Now the GOP nominee’s position on 
undocumented immigrants either has 
changed or hasn’t, and in the space of a 
week, he described it as both a softening 
and a hardening. So he’s got his rigidity 
spectrum pretty well covered.

 The new management team seems to be 
turning their crabby coif almost, kind of, sort 
of, semi-reasonable. But even the creamiest, 
fluffiest, down-filled Donald Trump could 
still poke huge holes in democracy without 
swinging his elbows extra wide.

 The Commander-in-Chief commands. 
Chiefly. Plotting not just the direction of the 
Ship of State but also wielding responsibility 
for staffing all positions including the helm, 
the hold and who gets to clean out the head. 
Chris Christie.

 With victory comes the spoils, and 
that includes choosing a cabinet, judges 
and over 300 other appointments that 
don’t require Senate approval, including 
commission directors, council members, 
national park eagle wranglers, roller coaster 
rail grease inspectors, swan boat concession 
sommeliers and shoeshine kiosk employees 
at the New York Port Authority. Chris 
Christie.

 And without any experience in the 
public sector for us to ascertain previous 
proclivities, we’re forced to make educated 
guesses as to whom a President Trump 
might or might not pick for certain positions 
based solely on evidence observed thus far. 
So, let’s give it a go, shall we?

THE TRUMPEAN DREAM TEAM

Attorney General. Gary Busey.

CIA Director. Rudy Giuliani.

Secretary of Edumacation. Sarah Palin.

Postmaster General. Scott Baio.

Secretary of Defense. Buford T. Justice.

Surgeon General. Hannibal Lechter.

Secretary of State. Vladimir Putin. 

Supreme Court Justice. Judge Judy.

Secretary of Agriculture. Tommy Chong.

Environmental Protection Agency. Darren 
Woods: President of Mobil- Exxon.

Secretary of Interior. Arsenio Hall. 

Ambassador to the United Nations. Dennis 
Rodman.

Secretary of Health and Human Services. 
Martin Shkreli.

Chief of Protocol. Ozzy Osbourne.

Secretary of Labor. Mike Tyson.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Melania 
Trump.

Secretary of Transportation. That old guy 
from Duck Dynasty.

Secretary of Treasury. Scrooge McDuck.

White House Chef. Ronald McDonald.

Federal Communications Commission 
Chairman. Roger Ailes.

Executive Administrator of the Small 
Business Administration. Carl Icahn.

Homeland Security. Ann Coulter.

Chief Scientist for the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration. Ben Carson.

Federal Deputy Northeast Regional Bridge 
Inspector. Chris Christie.

——-

 Copyright © 2016, Will Durst, distributed 
by the Cagle Cartoons Inc. syndicate.

 Will Durst is an award-winning, 
nationally acclaimed columnist, comedian 
and former Pizza Hut assistant manager. For 
sample videos and a calendar of personal 
appearances including his new one- man 
show, Elect to Laugh: 2016, appearing every 
Tuesday at the San Francisco Marsh, go to 
willdurst.com.


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 MAKING SENSE by Michael Reagan


DICK Polman


HOW FALSE MEDIA 
EQUIVALENCY IS BENEFITING 
TRUMP

Back in early May, I predicted that the mainstream media’s 
“objectivity” rituals would kick in as autumn neared, “balancing” the two major 
candidates according to the timeworn rules of “on of the one hand, on the other hand,” 
thus leaving the impression that Hillary Clinton (seasoned and experienced, whatever 
her flaws) and Donald Trump (manifestly unfit, by dint of his temperament and 
ignorance) can somehow be equated.

 I predicted the coverage would devolve into he said/she said, with insufficient 
attention paid to the truth or value of what was said. My prediction was not exactly 
daring; I’ve been around long enough to know how the traditional media game is 
played. And sure enough, the false-balance game was played to the hilt late last week, 
and the effect was sickening.

 Last Wednesday, Trump (whose entire campaign is grounded in white grievance 
against minorities) claimed that Clinton (who has been working on minority issues 
since the 1970s) is a racist. On Thursday, Clinton delivered a fact-packed indictment 
that accurately tied Trump to the racist “alt-right” movement and listed some of his 
most disgraceful racist episodes — like his habit of retweeting white supremacists, 
including a user who goes by the name “white genocide.” In response, Trump (who 
thrived in his dad’s real estate empire, where applications from African Americans were 
branded with the letter C, for “colored”) simply repeated his Wednesday attack, again 
calling Clinton a racist.

 In order to treat his drive-by name-calling and her substantive indictment as equal, 
you have to be cognitively brain dead. Either that, or you have to be tethered to the 
tenets of “objective” false equivalency. Here’s how four media outlets played those 
episodes:

 The headline in The Washington Post: Clinton, Trump exchange racially charged 
accusations

 The headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer: Trading tough jabs on race and alt-right

 The headline on the Politico site: Trump and Clinton throw more blows in bigotry 
fight

 The headline on the Bloomberg News site: Trump, Clinton trade blistering attacks 
on race, prejudice

 This is “objective” journalism at its most reductively banal, seeking to “balance” the 
unbalanceable. As I’ve argued before (and I’m hardly alone on this), the traditional 
journalism tenets are inadequate to meet the challenges of this perilously historic 
moment. It’s not sufficient to say that a dangerously racist demagogue “traded jabs” 
with a qualified opponent, absent of fact-checking context. 

 There are blessedly rare times in the life of this nation when journalists have found 
it necessary to step beyond their “objective” roles and tell the unvarnished truth. 
Edward R. Murrow did it in 1954 when he slapped down Trump predecessor Joseph 
McCarthy. Walter Cronkite did it in 1968 when he returned from Vietnam and told 
viewers exactly what he’d learned, that the war was a lost farce. We are living such a 
moment today. 

 I agree with Paul Moses, a professor of journalism at Brooklyn College, who 
recently wrote that “something is lost” when journalists feel compelled to abandon 
their Olympian dispassion. However, there are times when “conscience calls for it,” as 
Moses explained further:

 “As the son of a father who grew up Jewish in Nazi Germany, I can well understand the 
danger of muffling or muzzling criticism of a would-be leader who builds a movement 
based on antipathy toward immigrants and a minority religious group, joined to an 
exaggerated nationalism and violence-tinged rhetoric .... [O]bjectivity in journalism 
doesn’t mean allowing the wool to be pulled over your eyes. It means a commitment 
to the truth, rooted in determined reporting and a fair-minded consideration of the 
facts.”

 This is no time for lazy boxing match banalities. We pull the wool over our eyes 
when we practice false equivalence. Conscience calls us to do better.

 Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia 
(newsworks.org/polman) and a “Writer in Residence” at the University of Pennsylvania. 
Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.

HELPING TRUMP ISN’T EASY

 Donald Trump actually looked like a statesman in Mexico City 
Wednesday afternoon.

 It didn’t matter what he and the president of Mexico talked about.

 It didn’t even matter if they made a secret handshake deal to split 
the cost of building the great Wall of Trump.

 For the first time in his long campaign, Trump actually looked presidential. The visual 
gravitas didn’t last long, though.

 Six hours later in Arizona the old Trump was back, reading a speech from the teleprompter 
and throwing big slabs of U.S. Prime red meat to his hardcore fan base.

 He erased all thoughts that he was headed to a kinder, gentler place on immigration, 
which, unfortunately, remains the signature issue of his campaign.

 Not only did he promise to build his wall taller and deeper and stronger, and make 
Mexico pay for it, but he also promised to get tougher on illegal immigrants in every way.

That’s great. But Trump – and his campaign – still don’t get it.

 He’s still pounding away at immigration when he should be talking about the economy, 
Obamacare and making the country safe.

 His tough stand on immigration is what won him the Republican primary. It’s what keeps 
his hardcore base applauding and cheering for him at his rallies.

 But he doesn’t have to pander to that base anymore.

He also doesn’t need to be boosting Fox’s ratings every night by appearing with his soulmates 
Greta, Bill and Sean.

 He doesn’t need to please the conservative Fox audience anymore, either, who tune in to 
see everyone beat up on Hillary. They’re already in his bag of votes.

 How hard is this? Trump needs to address all those people out there who are not part of 
his base – people who aren’t Republicans but who dislike Hillary enough to vote for him 
because of issues like the economy or trust.

 Speaking to a black audience this weekend and pointing out how the Democrat Party has 
failed blacks for 50 years is the right idea.

 He has to do more of that. Next, I’d like to see him shaking hands at a corner taco stand in 
L.A. After that, he should show up on CNN and even PBS, if they’ll have him.

 He needs to eat away at Hillary’s base. And that means talking about the economy, jobs 
and lying Hillary’s personal failings, which are huge.

 Trump’s campaign staff had a good week.

 But calling Hillary a bigot because she takes the black vote for granted was a total waste of 
time. It’s not going to win Trump votes in November.

 When I tried to tell the Trump team that in a tweet this week, the response I got from a 
campaign operative in Trump Tower was, “Oh, are you on the Hillary Clinton payroll? 

 That’s the common response from Trumpsters and the campaign’s brain trust. If you say 
anything critical they say, “You must be on Hillary’s payroll.”

 They don’t want my advice, but everything I’ve said about Trump’s campaign has been 
proven to be true.

 I told them not to hire Paul Manafort to run the campaign. But they did – and then had 
to fire him.

 I told them long ago Trump had to soften his approach to Latinos – and eventually he did. 
I think.

 I refuse to be a Trump enabler. I’ve decided to be a consultant to him via Twitter or my 
columns.

 But when I criticize Trump’s campaign I get grief from his followers and his campaign 
people for being a Hillary lover.

 When I told my father in 1980 to fire Paul Manafort and the rest of his campaign team 
because I could see they were losing the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush, did that mean 
I was a supporter of Jimmy Carter?

 No.

 There are too many major differences between Trump and my father to count. But one 
difference is that my father had the sense to listen to me when I gave him good advice.

 Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author 
of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is the founder of the email service 
reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.
reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. 
Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. 

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