I grew up in the Midwest, the breadbasket of the world. We never learned how to sit around pissing
and moaning and being angry with everyone who dared oppose any view we may have
or embrace.
Long ago, thanks to our brother Samuel Clemens from
Hannibal, Missouri, better known as Mark Twain, he captured our particular
views through his masterful words. Twain
said we should never be upset with anyone just because they thought they knew
better because, “everyone is entitled to their own silly ideas.”
We are about to begin the fourth year of Donald Trump’s
presidency so I thought it is a good time to issue a report card on Congress
and the News Media. We, the people, have
high standards for our elected officials since they volunteered to be our eyes
and ears in public office. They also
promised that if they were elected, they would serve all the people.
There is nothing in the Patriotic Code of Honor that says political
parties have the answers to anything let alone everything nor that parties
should direct those officials elected by the people on how they must vote. As far as we are concerned the elected
officials work for us, not the political parties, and they must do what is best
for the state or nation as a whole.
The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Pledge of
Allegiance and other pertinent American documents do not mention political
parties, Democrats or Republicans. So, what
did our Founding Fathers know that we seemed to have forgot along the way?
There are a couple of things they knew about politicians
and politics. First, you can throw
everything you know about America to a simple test. According to our Founding Fathers, America
must follow a course of political evolution “Under God,” with liberty and
justice for all.
In other words, our wise old Founding Fathers said, “in God
we trust,” would be our motto and stand before people, politicians, political
parties and popular fads. They were a
lot smarter than we are today.
But we can fix it, our stupidity that is. We already have to some extent. You do not need to spend thousands of dollars
on polls, focus groups, town halls or advertising to know what the people think.
What we also do know, the news media and Democratic party
leadership are united against our nation that does trust in God first. Guess what, we could care less what the pious
and self-indulgent squishy politicians or the gadfly news media thinks.
According to the latest national polls, eighty-seven
percent (87%), of Americans do not believe nor trust the news media and over
seventy percent (70%) do not trust Congress.
‘No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of
Political News
Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other
developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin. Many
Americans are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out.
When it comes to the news media, the irony of where
Americans get their news about the government, and what sources they rely on to
deliver news about the government they can trust, was exposed in a survey
published this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion
Research and USAFacts.
It found that 54% of Americans say they get
government-related information from social media at least once a day, compared
with 52% who said they get information about government daily from local TV
news, 50% from national TV news, 47% from cable news and 19% from nationally
circulated newspapers.
Yet the survey found only 11% of Americans say they trust
information about the government they see on social media a great deal or quite
a bit. Nearly two-thirds said they have little to no trust in government news
they find there. Of all the potential places to find news about the government
included in the survey, social media was the least trusted.
You have to go back 10 years in Gallup data to find a
single poll in which Congress' approval rating was at 30% or above. That's by
far the longest stretch that Congress has had a sub-30% approval rating since
polling on this began.
The decline in congressional approval is almost certainly
linked to the decline in trust of government in general. According to the Pew Research
Center, only 17% of Americans currently trust government always or most of the
time. While trust in government has
generally been on the decline since the Vietnam War, it's never been that
consistently bad
Recent polling could be a warning sign to House
Democrats that they failed to convince the public that President
Trump should be impeached when they held hearings on the matter last
week, Washington Post reporter Rachael Bade said on Tuesday.
"I do think that this polling, is sort of a warning
sign for them. I mean, if they’re not able to move public sentiment at all with
those five hearings with ... a dozen State Department or [National Security
Council] officials coming forward and testifying against the
president," Bade told CNN. "I mean, that's a problem for them. I
mean, this should be a high point for them in terms of making the case to
the voters."
CNN's John King reported on polling that showed 40 percent
of Americans believed Democrats were abusing their constitutional powers.
HOUSE DEM SEES NO 'VALUE' IN IMPEACHMENT, AS
POLLS SHOW FAILING SUPPORT AMONG INDEPENDENTS
Polling has shown that both independents and Democrats have
started to lose interest in impeachment.
Meanwhile, 50 percent of independents questioned in
an NPR/PBS/Marist poll conducted Nov.
11-15 did not support impeaching and removing Trump from office, with just 42
percent backing such a move.
Americans trust God first, and most all Americans do not
trust our sources of news information about the government or politics. That does not say much for the elected
officials nor the news media, self-proclaimed defenders of freedom.
Nonsense.
Once upon a time the media might have been the defenders of
freedom or watchdogs over the government, but not in recent memory. When the news media stops fact checking
itself it has thrown honesty to the wind and nothing could be more apparent
than the genuine bias, hatred and loathing of certain members of the media
toward President Trump.
No matter how high of an opinion the news reporters, anchors
and politicians have of themselves, they are still just people like you and
me. We make mistakes, have silly
opinions, get greedy, hunger for power, hate or are tempted by a host of other
equally idiotic ideas.
It is very clear the media and extremist political parties
and politicians are not operating “Under God” by any stretch of the
imagination. Nor do they demonstrate any
understanding of the motto “In God We Trust!”
Someone or something stole their spiritual, ethical, and
moral foundation and it is more than obvious to those of us outside of the
media and political circus - they can be trusted no more.
No matter how many times you tell lies, how many lies you
tell, distractions you promote, self-serving interests you embrace and how much
hate you may spew, we know better. You
cannot be trusted.
You have self-destructed and become the lunatic fringe of
society, and no one cares what you think, do or say. Just look at the flight away from TV news
viewing on broadcast and cable. Look at
your fading Nielsen ratings. Look at
your failure to win the trust of the very people you represent if you want the
truth.
It is not Republicans or Democrats that are bad. People know there are just bad and good
Democrats and Republicans. Unlike the
press and politicians, the people know who they can trust.
Remember the Spirit of Thanksgiving, that most
American of American holidays!
It is Thanksgiving, a time for family and friends to
remember the beauty and good of America, and the symbol of freedom we project
to the world. There are times when it
seems to the outside world that we are beating ourselves up.
Do not underestimate the resolve nor patriotic spirit
embedded in Americans. Our Flag rose
from the flames of revolution to become the beacon of freedom to the
world. We may disagree, even carry our
spirit and emotion too far on occasion.
But in the end our Founding Fathers left us a most sacred
gift, a Constitution that has weathered the most difficult storms and attacks
from inside and afar ever conceived by an evil force in the world.
We have stumbled but never failed to protect the principles
of our rich heritage, “One nation under God” and “In God We Trust.” So, while you are being thankful remember to
thank God for the gifts he gave us and pray to God to give you the knowledge to
know how to use your gifts to help others.
The final report card…
The News Media - Grade [F] The Congress – Grade [F]
