In an era of smoke and mirror politics, we need more substance
By Clayton Felts | June 23, 2017, 02:00pm | @claytonfelts "We have tribalism growing in America where people are voting against the candidate of the other party, instead a vision of their own party. We should be against identity politics and for idea politics that talk about what American means and what are the best policies going forward.” Senator Ben Sasse
As I watched highlights of President Donald Trump’s campaign-style rally in Iowa Wednesday evening and watched Democrats hammer Republicans on Thursday about the Senate Healthcare bill, I thought in frustration how politics just seems like a big game.
Perception has always played a huge role in politics. After all, as political consultant and pollster Frank Luntz wrote in his book Words That Work, it’s not what you say, it’s what people hear. Like a bull chasing toward a matador, partisan warriors on both side cheer when the cape with their favorite rhetoric is waved only to find nothing but air behind those promises.
This is a problem. Not just because those who recite talking points can be proven hypocritical, but because words do matter. Especially, words from our elected leaders. It was President Trump who claimed that Carrier air conditioning and heating company in Indianapolis, Indiana would be saved in December. That deal, announced with great fanfare, was billed not only as a heroic move to keep jobs from going to Mexico but also as a seismic shift in the economic development landscape. Now almost seven months later, the landscape has not changed. Instead, 100s of employees would be laid off as operations continued to move to Mexico.
President Trump will tell you himself, he is the best, no President has accomplished so much in so little time. Forget that every executive order (even those that I agree with) can be changed by whoever occupies the Oval Office next with one swipe of their pen. I say all this hoping and, yes praying, that the President would be successful. When he does well, the country does well. That is why his one real accomplishment, the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, was impacting.
However, the majority of success that the Trump administration claims has been a mixture of smoke and mirrors and loud tweets. Where is the substance? When reporters ask the Trump administration about content, we instead get a ridiculous war against the media or cries of “fake news.” That may play well to his base, but not for the country.
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http://theresurgent.com/in-an-era-of-smoke-and-mirror-politics-we-need-more-substance/
