Op-ed

There is one thing that voters, elites inside Washington and in corporate America, and the four constituencies can agree upon—Donald Trump is not a conventional president. When he was elected, voters knew he was a philander, a crass and mercurial man, quick to anger and prone to attack his critics directly and sometimes viciously, that he was not a member of the elite club of Washington insiders and that he certainly was not a denizen of the Washington swamp.

An unprecedented Tsunami of negative media, books, interviews, rumors, leaks and the like have been used over and over again to bring Trump down—to make the on-going soft coup a reality. Yet the #Resistance (a name so pompous and self-aggrandizing it's laughable) has so far failed.

Now, the New York Times, the core mouthpiece of the #Resistance has published an op-ed written by an anonymous member of the #Resistance who tells us that there is a Resistance cell embedded deep within the White House and that they are working to protect the country from Donald Trump. It's the stuff of movies, and a wet dream for progressives who I suspect picture themselves as "resistance fighters" in the World War II mold, all the while drinking lattes at their local coffee shop.

If you are to believe the anonymous op-ed writer (that in itself is a travesty, op-eds should be attributable, but nevermind), the hidden resistance is the reason for the long, long list of Trump administration achievements. What incredible Chutzpa.

After all, upon his election Trump changed his position and wanted to raise taxes to further cripple the economy—it was only the cabal of intrepid resistance fighters who stopped him from doing it. Trump wanted to double the number of ineffective and burdensome regulations—it was only our brave resistance fighters, working secretly from the White House basement who convinced him that regulatory reform would help the country. Donald Trump wanted to embrace the Mullahs of Iran and extend an irresponsible and ineffective "deal" with them—only to be thwarted by the daring resistance fighters who thought Barack Obama was wrong to do the deal. It was Trump who wanted more people on food stamps but was somehow convinced to go the other way by the courageous resistance group. It was Trump who didn't care about minority employment—only to be overruled by a plucky collection of resistance members, secretly working for the American people. I could go on, but ...

Let's consider all of this critically for just a moment. If, as authors as varied as Carl Bernstein and Amarosa claim (not to mention the anonymous op-ed writer), the White House is in chaos, how could the Trump administration achieve as much success as it has in two short years—a booming economy, the best employment numbers for minorities in history, trade reform, regulatory reform, tax reform, middle class jobs, more manufacturing jobs, the highest level of 'right-track, wrong track' polling in decades ... the list is long and growing. Yet the running narrative by the four constituencies is that none of it is Trump's doing—that he's just lucky. Like most things that come out of the Left, that position runs counter to reality.

But back to the NYT op-ed writer. Trump supporter, Steve Cortes, is not kind to him/her:

... this coward hides behind the veil of secrecy. Assuming the Times is telling the truth – a big assumption – when it states this person indeed holds a senior position of public trust in the Trump administration and believes this president actually endangers our republic, then the author is honor-bound to follow the esteemed tradition of Thomas More. He should immediately resign and publicly explicate his reasons. Instead, he acts as a sniveling sneak who should never be given the once-august platform of the New York Times editorial pages ...

... the Times editorial board need not quibble with such basic facts [the Trump administrations's long list of achievements], nor even pretend to believe in the kind of fearless storytelling that once defined its dominance. Instead, the vague musings of a nameless and disgruntled insider will work just fine, provided that the target is Donald J. Trump. What happened to honest liberal journalists, the Nat Hentoffs of days gone by, who believed in open inquiry, intellectual rigor, and philosophical tolerance?

Instead, the mainstream media of today have devolved into an amalgam of “Resistance” advocates masquerading as journalists, pursuing an anti-Trump agenda at every turn, no matter the relevance or accuracy.

Of course, the Times is the media champion of the resistance, so they're perfectly willing to publish the op-ed. One can only wonder whether they would have done the same if a disgruntled anonymous member of the previous Democrat administration wrote something similar. That op-ed would have wound up in the proverbial waste basket.

The trained hamsters of the media will now spend weeks talking about this, hoping it will bring Trump down. It won't.

UPDATE:
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In thinking about ththis weeks events for half a second, the timing of all of this is rather interesting. Carl Bernstein comes out with an anonymously sourced book telling use that Donald Trump is crazy and his administration is mired in chaos, and coincidently, the NYT publishes an anonymous op-ed claiming the same thing, but adding that the #resistance is here to save the day.

Steve Hilton comments:

If you’ve been living your life rather than following the latest circus in Washington, you may have missed the fact that the Swamp’s chief scribe has a new book coming out. Or maybe you're unaware that some anonymous, arrogant Trump administration staffer who no one voted for has written in The New York Times about how he or she feels entitled to overrule a president elected by the American people according to the Constitution.

It turns out Bob Woodward doesn’t have a flattering view of President Trump. It also turns out that there really is a deep state conspiracy to thwart President Trump's agenda, organized by his own administration's appointees. Stop the presses! I think we knew that already.

What's more illuminating than Woodward’s gossipy, exploitative book or the pompous, self-important preening of a presidential aide is the D.C. media and political establishment's obsession with covering its own pathetic palace intrigue.

It certainly reminds us of the very worst of Washington – the focus on style over substance, the personal over policy. But it’s even more serious than that. Political appointees (or civil service bureaucrats, for that matter) who actually take pride in subverting the democratic will of the people exemplify the frightening authoritarianism we face at the hands of an entrenched ruling class determined to cling to power regardless of who wins actual elections.

It is a ruling class, moreover, entirely funded by taxpayers for whom it shows constant and complete contempt.

What this week reveals is that the Washington elites have gone mad.

That's why it's called Trump Derangement Syndrome.