"The Death of Outrage"

 William Bennett wrote that book, the Death of Outrage, back in 1999. In it, he lamented about how Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky affair was an "assault on the American ideals", and how most Americans were willing to look away as long as they were doing alright economically.   

 I saw  William Bennett on a political talk show recently and he was making excuses for Donald Trump's behavior and encouraging him to keep pushing his agenda. The same William Bennett who wrote that the moral failings of Bill Clinton was disqualifying, was now encouraging republicans and those on the right to keep supporting Mr. Trump. 

This, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with America. And it's why no matter what Donald Trump does, he will have half of the country behind him. 

To his credit, Donald Trump has figured it out: Lean in on white nationalism and white pride to let white folks believe that rolling back progress in the area of civil rights does not affect them. Trampling the concept of due process and ignoring the rule of law is fine, as long as it does not affect those in the majority. Bullying and threatening large law firms who have the clout and the money to fight injustice is cool, because they won't be fighting for causes that affect  "red blooded American" white people.   

He is already doing all of these things, and there is no outrage. Not from William Bennett, not from  the elected politicians (in either party), not from the press, and certainly not from the majority of white Americans.  I watched in horror as those ICE agents snatched that doctorial student off the street in Boston because of her political views, and I thought to myself, this is it, this has to be the breaking point. Certainly, I thought,  this has to be where Americans open their eyes and say,  this could happen to me. But it wasn't. Sure it was a news story, and we all watched the video on various news programs. But most of  you just watched and  chalked it up to the Trump administration doing what they promised. 

We watched those undocumented immigrants being shipped off to one of the world's most notorious prisons without any due process, and we shrugged that off as well.  Trump promised that he would round up all the gang members and trouble makers and ship them out of our country. And we thought, looking at those images, that they all fit the profile:  Young,  brown, and male.  So no harm no foul. Just Trump doing what he promised. Outrage is not even on life support at this point. It's dead. 

This past week there was Signalgate. I won't get into it because  if you read this blog you're pretty plugged in politically. This story seems to have legs, not because we are shocked by the conduct of the uniquely unqualified sycophants that Donald Trump has placed in positions of power, but because of their hubris and total disregard for the safety of the country. 

The folks who are saying that planning a military strike and revealing war plans while on a public email chat is no big deal, are the same ones who were clutching their pearls until they choked over Hillary Clinton's email server being used to conduct State Department business. This is no big deal they say, because the mission was a success. (There are questions about that as well.) This is like saying don't prosecute the bank robber because he  didn't get away with any money.  Whether the mission was a success or not is beside the point. Imagine what could have happened in the alternative because of the incompetence and conduct of these people? 

I suspect, though, that this too well pass. There is no outrage from the right, because they are  in a cult, and they can't speak against Dear Leader no mater what. There is outrage from the left, but they feel hopeless  because no one else seems to care. The folks in the middle watch and stay disengaged because they do not believe that all of this affects them. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump keeps issuing executive order after order. He is skirting the rule of law, and daring the courts to stop him. His Attorney General has threatened to go after the very Judges who must interpret the law. And his agenda for his second term is to go after his perceived  enemies, and those who are not showing fealty towards him.  Sadly, at least for now,  those of us who fall into the latter category are in the minority.