Failure to see and teach

Three who must do better

Historian Timothy Snyder, I think correctly, tells us that one way to fight fascism is to defend institutions.

And one way to defend institutions is to ask them, require them, demand of them that they do better.

Families, especially fathers, could do better in this country. Stick around. Listen. Show the kids how to put down the phone.

Universities and colleges, higher education, certainly could do better. Give graduates some practical skills, as well as the skill of critical thinking. Spends less on sports and administration. Charge less tuition.

Our Christian churches could be more Christian – serve the poor and save the earth.

More American synagogues might concern themselves with justice for Palestinians.

But three institutions to focus at the moment; in this hour of quickly deepening fascism: First, the legacy media. Second, our pundits and podcasters. And third, the Democratic Party.

I recall a professor of mine, decades ago, putting down a copy of The Washington Post and saying, "These people are supercilious."

The legacy media – and here I'm speaking specifically of the TV networks, and two of our once “great” newspapers, The Washington Post and the New York Times – are failing us badly.

(The Chicago Tribune and LA Times are so reduced in both circulation and content that they are largely irrelevant nationally. So, too, many once fine newspapers in smaller cities. They are now shadows of themselves. The Wall Street Journal is a special case because it is the last major newspaper that actually separates its news product from its opinion product. )

I am speaking of the pinnacle of the legacy media, the institutions that set the news agenda.

In this Trumpian moment, when our government and our liberties are both being dismantled, they are asleep.

Innocent people are being snatched from churches, schools and workplaces and imprisoned, and families are being destroyed, without due process of law.

A president seeks to dictate policy and curriculum to universities, including private ones.

He occupies cities with National Guardsmen and masked paramilitary.

He creates new law and abolishes old law by fiat.

And the legacy media treats all this as acceptable and legitimate. Policy on steroids.

And this invites citizens who also wish to sleep into the game of pretend.

Let’s pretend all this is normal.

The legacy media needs to focus on what's really going on in government, the economy and culture and not simply chase the rabbit of the moment – the rabbit that someone with an agenda set loose, or that Mr. Trump created.

There are two things the networks and remaining national newspapers ought to focus on in a very concentrated way: The assault on our constitutional system and protections. And, following the money. Who do the money guys back and elect? And where is income and wealth being redistributed, via federal tax policy?

These are issues that matter – that make and break American lives.

They're being largely ignored.

That's our legacy media.

Next, our pundits and podcasters: Talk about superciliousness.

I listen to several political podcasters on a regular basis, and I often agree with much of what they say. But two things are almost always true of our commentariat. One, they are full of themselves. They're full of their own cleverness.

Is it written somewhere that journalists must be snide, smug, self-important twits? When did this happen?

No wonder they turn off most Americans.

And, two, I don't learn much from them. Most of what the punditocracy is saying is obvious, not very thoughtful, not new, not insightful.

Our pundits and podcasters need to do better.

Finally, the Democratic Party.

This is a party that took out Bernie Sanders, twice – the first time in favor of Hillary Clinton, which set up Trump. The second time pre-emptively.

The elites in the party were frightened to death of him.

Look at him now. The one Democrat that voters like and respect.

And he’s not even a Democrat.

And then they took out Joe Biden, their own president, and a good president, because he was fragile.

He was fragile, but he wasn't senile and he wasn't mentally ill. And he was the best at the job since Jerry Ford, and maybe Ike.

Can you imagine Republicans turning on Bush I, Bush II, or Reagan after a bad debate?

And there is nothing that will make them turn on, or even question, Trump.

Can you imagine if Mr. Biden had said half the crazy things Donald Trump has said, in just the last week?

Or if Biden had vanished for days without explanation?

I'm not sure that Joe Biden won't outlive Mr. Trump, but I am sure that, at the end of his days, he will know truth from lies and patriotism from plunder and pander.

The Democratic Party eats their young and their old. It always, always seems to choke.

I don’t mean to suggest that everyone in the party has to imitate Bernie Sanders and

everyone has to swing far left.

What they need to swing toward is intellectual integrity, conviction.

Say something. Do something

Don’t get me wrong. The voters and the Republican Party gave us Trump.

Ignorance and rage gave us Trump.

The young bros and a scary number of Latino and African-American men gave us this hot stupid mess.

But three institutions could and should do better – the legacy media, the podcasters and the Democratic Party.

My grade school principal,

Sister Mary Cecil, used to say, when she handed out report cards, “must do better.”