"The Trump administration is the end result of [a] 40-year [conservative] con job" about the splendiferousness of the excessively wealthy, writes WaPo's Helaine Olen.
From President Reagan sitting agog at self-made millionaires — as though every American of average intelligence and substandard opportunity can acquire similar fortunes — to Trump's extemporaneous comforting of multimillionaire-buffoon Wilbur Ross, who has failed to "really quite understand why" unpaid government workers are seeking food-bank relief — something the excessively wealthy wouldn't abide, believes Wilbur, given their instructive culture of self-reliance — the American myth of the superior monied class has been preached by same for a sickening, devastating four decades.
The myth has now reached its apotheosis; unimaginable is that the cultish praise of the superrich could ever get more sickening. Which leads Ms. Olen to further write: We are all but out of words to describe the offensiveness of the Trump administration.
Such is the burden of political commentary these days — from the Times editorial page to the humble Carpentariat: Describing the Trump administration's ineffable offensiveness is an endless sine qua non of political writing, even though fresh variations on the theme are increasingly grueling to pull off. Although each day of Trumpism brings a new horror, each day is also but a horrifying continuation of the day, the week, the wretched year before.
Is it newsworthy — that is, commentary-worthy — that presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump has asked federal employees to financially "sacrifice" for "a mythical wall designed to combat a mythical problem"? asks Olen. Not really, she answers. "In fact, the Trump administration has asked many Americans for financial sacrifices time and time again." Medicaid work requirements, for example — albeit most Medicaid recipients already work. Is it really news, or newsworthy, that more and more Americans are going without health insurance, since Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have been slashing away at Obamacare for two years?
What of consumer protection? In the way of current political events, hardly sensational is that Republicans are, once again, decimating the much-needed regulation of vulturous lenders. Hardly sensational as well is that Trump & Republican Allies have permanently eviscerated anything close to reasonable tax rates on the superrich and their multibillion-dollar corporations, "while reserving," notes Olen, "a few sun-setting crumbs for the vast majority of the population." And as certain that Trump is an ignorant rabble-rouser and fearmonger is that Republicans, because of their outrageous deficit creations on behalf of the supremely comfortable, are again calling for the urgent knifing of entitlements for the needy.
These are the musings of Ms. Olen, a thousand other commentators, and myself. "We are all but out of words to describe the offensiveness of the Trump administration" — we work on an infinitely looping treadmill of ghastly familiarities — yet somehow we conjure a few new words of appalled consternation each day.
My final words today are something of an aside. I ask for your sympathy for this not-too-devilish commentator. I chose this poisonous profession freely, so perhaps my request is presumptuous. But have some heart. I wake each morning knowing that whatever happened just hours ago, pretty much the same bloody thing has happened repeatedly for either two years or 40. And yet I must think of a way to remark on it with some freshness. It ain't always easy. Indeed, it can be downright oppressive.