18 Feb Why Margaret Brennan Matters
Over the course of the last few days, we’ve seen various members of the Democrat-media complex make the arguments that: a.) free speech caused the Holocaust; b.) free speech is bad, actually, and should be punished harshly; and c.) and that a professional, non-partisan bureaucracy is the true bulwark against totalitarianism.
Ironically, and a bit hilariously, all of these arguments (such as they are) were made as part of the effort to rebut Vice President J.D. Vance’s warning to Europe that it is heading down a disturbingly familiar path and/or to make the case that it’s really Vance, his boss (Donald Trump), and his boss’s boss (Elon Musk) who are the Nazis and who should, therefore be feared and rebuked.
The obvious response to this would, of course, be to offer historical correctives, e.g. to point out that Brennan, in fact, has no idea what she is talking about, even if you assume (probably incorrectly) that she was referencing what is known as the Weimar Fallacy; or that the German prosecutors are much closer to replicating Nazi or even Stasi tactics than they are “defending freedom” and democracy; or that Amy McGrath, bless her heart, has no understanding of organizational theory or bureaucratic operation or (especially) that which Hannah Arendt described as “the banality of evil.”
Rather than be obvious today, however, I thought I’d take a slightly different tack and explain that events such as this constitute my entire reason for being and are likely to become more and more frequent going forward.
The first part of that statement – that this stuff is why I exist – is an exaggeration, of course, but only slightly. It is, indeed, an explanation for what I try very hard to do and have tried very hard to do for almost three decades now, dating back to the good ol’ days of Prudential Securities’ Washington Research office. I direct you to the slightly out-of-date but mostly accurate “About Us” section of The Political Forum’s/The Political Forum Institute’s website, wokecapital.org:
The Political Forum Institute believes that the contemporary approach to American business, markets, and economy largely ignores the history and philosophy that underpin American and Western culture and drive current events. There has never been a greater need for deeper understanding and informed discussion of the interconnection of capital markets, government, and culture in society. This lack of intellectual foundation is reinforced by the 24-hour news cycle, which exacerbates the decline of thoughtful analysis and discussion. Additionally, the increasing power of government and the concentration of control in the hands of a very few large institutions at a time of major political turmoil, social unrest, and economic volatility means Main Street and individual freedoms are being disregarded or sacrificed.
The explanation we gave for our existence on the old website (thepoliticalforum.com) was a little more detailed and slightly longer. Nevertheless, the above captures the spirit of the enterprise. In brief, I/we know that most of the people who “inform” us today, through the mainstream press and even some of the alternative press, are both a little dim and incredibly poorly educated. Although they may have gone to impressive schools and may have impressive credentials, most of them still don’t know their heads from their backsides. Margaret Brennan graduated with high distinction from the University of Virginia, generally considered an excellent school. Amy McGrath graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and has an advanced degree from Johns Hopkins. Yet neither knows much about anything – or at least not anything important.
Interestingly, the interwebs is full of people who do know things and who do understand complex subjects, people who know far more than I do and know it far better than I do. It’s also full of people who articulate ideas and concepts exceptionally well and who constantly make me mumble under my breath while reading, “Damn! I wish I’d written that!” For the most part, though, these people are treated as fringe-dwellers, oddities whose knowledge and opinions don’t really matter and wouldn’t matter, even if they were more widely read. That’s the problem with our media, political, and educational establishments in a nutshell: they ignore or summarily dismiss anyone whose credentials or perspective differs from what is considered acceptable.
One of the most refreshing things about the Trump Revolution – even for those who don’t necessarily agree with the President or find him especially wonderful – is the fact that he has gone out of his way to elevate those whose credentials and perspectives are almost entirely ignored by the dominant cultural apparatus. The spectacle of the Trump cabinet appointees’ confirmation hearings bears this out. The attacks leveled by the Democrats and their allies in the media were (almost) exclusively about the nominee’s unorthodox beliefs, opinions, and paths to power. With the notable exception of RFK, Jr., the criticism of most of them has been that they didn’t put in the right amount of time with the right part of the bureaucracy and/or that they dared to challenge the Washington, D.C. uniparty consensus, not that they lacked the actual capacity to do the jobs for which they’d been nominated. Trump is an outsider himself and has favored outsiders – in thought and deed – far more than any president since Reagan at least, maybe far longer.
One of the least refreshing things about the Trump presidency is that the “resistance” still thinks it matters and still thinks that it represents the “real” voice of the nation and its “democracy.” The reason Brennan and McGrath, to name just two, felt empowered to speak out, despite knowing nothing about the subjects on which they spoke, is that they understood that facts don’t really matter much these days. All that matters is the resistance. All that matters is “standing up” to Donald Trump and “fighting back” and doing “what is right.” All that matters is being on the “right side of history.”
Mark my words, the companies, schools, and other organizations that are dropping DEI because of President Trump’s directives are not really dropping anything. They are changing the names of their efforts or are reorganizing their departments or are simply setting up endeavors in exile until the moment that they can emerge back into the political sunlight. They refuse even to consider the possibility that what they did historically might have been bad for business, bad for shareholders, bad for students, or bad for the country. Even when confronted the evidence of their misfeasance/malfeasance they refuse to see, if only because Donald Trump is on the other side of the issue. They will resist until they no longer have to, and then they will resist some more.
Twenty-four years ago, as the Clintons were leaving office and just after the aforementioned Prudential Securities had canned us, Melcher and I used to talk a great deal about our fear that we’d have nothing to write about without Bill and Hillary. Even we didn’t understand that it wasn’t about them so much as it was what they represented, the triumph of narrative over fact. Needless to say, we found plenty to write about. I have never, ever lacked subject matter.
Sadly, that’s not gonna change anytime soon
