You know what would be nice? A reduction in the size of the federal government.
You know what else would be nice? A president who doesn’t infect every aspect of our daily lives.
Donald Trump is present already in so much of what we consume — our books, our songs, and even our clothes — that his announced bootleg Razzies for the press would mark a low point in our continued descent into the dreariness of the life politicized.
“I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!”
No.
No. No.
No. No. No.
If the president has a gripe with the news media, let his lackeys in cable news and talk radio deal with that. This is the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It’s bad enough that our commanders in chief waste their time with things like the Easter Egg Roll and other fluff photo-op events. We don’t need the president to engage in more silliness unrelated to the duties of the office.
Remember: Being a silent president is a virtue, not a vice.
We were never intended to have our time and attention consumed utterly by professional bureaucrats, career politicians, and lawmakers. Imagine how much happier we would be as an electorate were it not for the fact that we’re knee deep every day in “breaking news” events regarding the capital's petty squabbling and bickering.
This is not a call for greater ignorance or civic disengagement. Rather, it’s to say that the sort of gossipy political journalism that dominates newsrooms today, and the shrill political activism that follows, has done nothing to make America smarter, but everything to make us more bitter and cynical.
Trump is in everything now. This is because he puts himself there; the man loves the spotlight. It's also because his feverishly frantic opposition can't shut up about him. Turn on the radio or the television and there he is, either in person or being discussed, dissected, praised, and/or attacked ad nauseam by reporters, pundits, musicians, authors, poets, engineers, celebrity scientists, chefs, Hollywood producers, etc., etc., and etc.
Unless we remove Trump — or he removes himself — from the day-to-day interests of the average person, this only gets drearier and more miserable. This means fewer critics trying to cash in on his name through endless, pointless discussion, and impotent opposition activism. This also means fewer White House circus sideshows like a "fake news" awards ceremony.
No one needs that. No one has ever needed that.
It’d be nice to go back to the days from long, long ago when Washington, D.C., was rarely in the news. It’d be nice to go back to hearing about the president, his personal thoughts and opinions, on only the rarest of occasions. It’d be nice to have a quiet president who busies himself only with the responsibilities assigned to his office.
It’d also be nice to again engage in popular leisurely activities, such as sporting and music events, without hearing about the president. It’d be nice if the things we read, watch, listen to, or buy didn’t bear the “resistance” or “MAGA” brands.
It’d be nice to have an escape from an increasingly politicized culture. It'd also be nice to have a unicorn. It isn't going to happen, but you can't stop me from wishing for it.
