February 25, 2023

Putting news in perspective

Sam Smith – According to traditional journalism – as opposed to what we see these days on Fox News – the job is to tell the facts.  One of the things, however, that can be left out of coverage is historical perspective. How does this compare with what has happened in the past? For example, while over 50,000 people have died in a current earthquake, did you know that over 200,000 died in one in Northern Sumatra in 1964 , displacing 1.7 million people in 14 countries?

The current Trumpian assault on American democracy has this problem as well. While much of the media has done a good job telling us the facts, there is seldom mention of how unusual it is. The only other time Americans have struggled to overthrow our political system was during the Civil War nad it is fair to describe what is happening now as not just a political scandal but the efforts of a second Confederacy.

If that seems excessive consider these words from Rep.Marjorie Taylor Greene:

"We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government."

Or these by Donald Trump shortly before the 2020 election when he was demanding that Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton be put in prison: “Biden, Obama, and crooked Hillary led this treasonous plot.”

Admittedly, we not yet at war, but this is the second worst assault on our democracy in our history as a republic. And its leader is Donald Trump.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Talk of a "national divorce" is small beer compared to "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Really Sam when are you going to start invoking the Espionage Act?

Anonymous said...


MTG's missives indicate her willingness to part of the 'tyrant' portion of Thomas Jefferson's quote. Her willingness to 'rule' through authoritarian behavior is 'tyranny'.

The 'patriot' part would be personified by (most) Democrats.