Headline:Public cynicism is destroying American politics

Sub-headline: Rather than defend Trump, his supporters argue Democrats are corrupt too

Mr. Ganesh , like his idolized Tom Wolfe,  is in thrall  to the vicissitudes of Pop Culture. Its no surprise that he uses a minuscule quote from Hollywood kitchmeister Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ , as the opening to his hectoring essay on the menace of ‘public cynicism’. Ganesh calls Spielberg’s cinematic meditation on Lincoln an ‘inert biopic’ in the casual snobbery of the cineaste? Or is it just an example of a boulevardier’s coffee house wit?

Mr. Ganesh never ask the most pressing questions of the ‘why’ of the  question of ‘public cynicism’. The most glaring contemporary example of cynicism is that the New Democrats, who claim the moral/political high ground, as defenders against the predations of Trump, are knee deep in their own corruption.Which Ganesh tries to render null, but fails to engage in any semblance of an holistic approach.

Mr. Ganesh ignorance of American political history is always dependable: You are forced to reach for the Iraq war as the only explanation for this mistrust. No! Begin with the secret CIA testing of LSD on unsuspecting Americans, the assassination of Kennedy, and Arlen Spector’s preposterous  ‘single bullet theory’ presented as ‘political fact’ , the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, The Church Committee’s finding that there was more that one assassin in Dallas,  the founding of the FISA Court, that rehabilitates The Bill of Attainder, Lettre de cachet and invents The National Security Letter. Add to this the FBI Crime Lab scandal and the Clinton/Brennan/Clapper alliance that gave birth to the Mueller Report, and the death of the lie of Russian Interference, as a cover for Clinton’s loss in 2016. Given the accumulated evidence, of not just misdeeds, but lies, cover up of National Security State’s crimes against its citizens. And its democratic institutions renders the use of Prof.  Hofstadter’s  ‘paranoid style’ not just anachronistic, but contrary to the empirical evidence.

The Spoils System is alive and well! The reader need only look at Hunter Biden, Paul Pelosi Jr and Chris Heinz involvement in Ukrainian business ventures. As proof that this ‘public cynicism’ is the product of the machinations, not to speak of utter dishonesty, displayed by the claimants to the ‘moral/political high ground’ 

Old Socialist

https://www.ft.com/content/cf8d0622-f56c-11e9-b018-3ef8794b17c6