https://www.google.com.kw/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4034658
In Donald Trump, progressives see their hypocrisies laid bare
Clinton's ultimate campaign expenditure was a whopping $1.2 billion. (Elizabeth Shafiroff/Reuters)
Republican Trump's comparatively paltry Wall Street fundraising and total spending was just $616 million – a pittance in modern presidential races and a bitter pill for progressives to swallow. It was "poor Donald," of all people, who publicly took on the likes of the Koch Brothers and knocked back deep-pocketed political interests. How uncomfortable.
- With Donald Trump, the word 'lie' finally enters the mainstream media lexicon
- Hey, journalists: Give the pedantic, pointless Trump fact-checking a rest
After eight years of trashing a rather docile President George W. Bush – who stated in his book Decision Points that he felt mixing it up with the media was beneath the office of the president – the media slipped a little too comfortably into the role of cheerleaderfor the Obama administration. Indeed, when the Obama administration – like administrations before it – conducted off-the-record gaggles and backgrounds with hand-picked media, there was hardly a peep from journalists.
And when the Obama administration named journalist James Rosen as a criminal co-conspirator in an investigation into State Department leaks about North Korea, and used the Espionage Act to obtain warrants for Rosen's phone records and those of his parents, the broader press reaction was muted, at best.
Trump's mean tweets
But when Trump sends out a mean tweet about CNN? Suddenly the very foundation of the First Amendment is under siege. With the furor surrounding Trump's decision to break tradition and not call on the AP first at press conferences, one would think he had just subpoenaed two months' worth of the AP's phone records.
There is hypocrisy flying around in other areas, too. Liberal publications long criticalof the CIA, particularly for its actions in Latin America, are now suddenly seized by the idea that America needs a strong and independent intelligence community.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was mocked over his warnings about Russia. (Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press)
Critics and pundits who openly mocked Mitt Romney over his characterization of Russia as America's number one geopolitical foe have all now seemingly rediscovered their membership cards to the John Birch Society. Of course, by that same token, conservative news outlets that traditionally pray at the altar of Reagan now find themselves taking a more conciliatory approach to Russia.
For a political neophyte, Trump causes considerable consternation. For his politics, yes, but also for what he and his actions represent.
Trump has single-handedly accomplished what decades' worth of politicians —progressive and conservative alike — could not, and has knocked a self-absorbed media down a peg. There is the uncomfortable realization that taking on the intelligence community or eschewing big money donors was possible all along, but establishment politicians had no such interest in doing so. It took a blustering Manhattan amateur to upend America's political order, the result of which is exposing the crushed hopes and hypocrisy of his rivals.
