The Distractions Have Become the Focus

Occam's razor is being dulled.  By dullards.

By the most elementary definition, Occam's razor postulates that the simplest explanation is probably the correct explanation.  In today's political climate, however, there is a growing reluctance to accept the simple explanation, but to cling to an alternative explanation that is so meandering in its "logic" that it defies comprehension.  To wit:

Parties to the Trump campaign had contact with the Russians prior to the election.  The simple explanation is that a Trump administration wanted to forge better relations with Russia, at the same time putting Putin on notice that, unlike Barack Obama, Trump isn't going to be Putin's whipping boy.  Trump, after all, has already struck at Syria, enforcing the "red line" that Obama backed away from, even though that rankled the Russians.

The alternative explanation is a convoluted conspiracy theory that resurrects The Red Scare, and suggests that Trump and Putin are besties.

Trump jokingly said during a debate that he hoped Russia found Hillary's "lost" emails.  The simple explanation was that Trump was being Trump, speaking without thinking and making a stupid joke.

The alternative explanation is that Trump actually invited and encouraged Putin, in front of millions of TV viewers, to hack the DNC's servers, ridiculous as that notion is.  (Never mind the fact that, at the time, no one on the left screamed, "Conspiracy!", because everybody on the left smugly assumed Hillary would win.)

Hillary Clinton lost the election.  She lost states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  The simple explanation is that she didn't campaign in Wisconsin, and she promised to take a lot of jobs away from coal miners in those other states.  You don't ignore a state, or threaten people's livelihoods, and expect to win the minds and hearts of voters.  Especially with the pain of the Great Recession so fresh in people's memories.

The alternative explanation is a combination of racism, sexism, bagism, shagism (John Lennon reference - get it?), homophobia, Russian meddling, James Comey, deplorables, and whatever other excuse Hillary can come up with to compensate for the undeniable fact that she was a horrible choice of a candidate who ran a horribly flawed campaign.  Even the bumbling Joe Biden has acknowledged that, and no amount of head-bobbling on Hillary's part could change it.

Trump withdrew America from the Paris Accord.  The simple explanation is that it was a crappy agreement, entered into without proper approval, that would have penalized the U.S. for the strides it's already taken in reducing emissions, at great cost, while allowing the worst offenders to continue their offenses.

The alternative explanation is that TRUMP HATES TREES AND WANTS THE WORLD TO END!!

Et cetera.

Russiagate.  Comeygate.  NATOgate.  Parisgate.  Melania-jacketgate.

The Left has a new weapon in the war on Trump, and it's distraction.  Manufacture a new "scandal" every day, and cover it 24/7 to shift the focus to it.  The mainstream media is more than willing to help in the effort.  George Stephanopolous, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann and Martha Raddatz are at the Dems' beck and call in deploying this strategy.

Activist judges, many of them Obama appointees, are also at the ready.  They will challenge every executive order, inciting the administration to re-do what it has already done, rather than trying to do anything new.

Those matters will distract the administration from pursuing its policies.  The Left knows this, and knows that they cannot stop those policies from being put into action through legislative means, because they lost the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate in the election.  So they have to do something, anything to stop those policies from being enacted before the mid-terms, when they hope to win back control of at least one of the houses of Congress.

At which point they'll continue to ensure that nothing happens in Washington.  And thus they distract.

Make no mistake, these are manufactured "scandals" intended to do nothing more than obfuscate.  And this is the shiny new wrench in the toolkit of partisan politics.  The wrench that will be thrown into the works of policy change, change that the people voted for.

So tax reform, health care reform, border security, fighting terrorism, all the things that the voters wanted in November, will have to wait.  Indefinitely.  To hell with the will of the voters; there are partisan interests and political careers at stake here!

And what of the Republicans?  John McCain et al appear to be jumping on the Dems' bandwagon, focusing on the distractions.  Why?

Here's the insidious truth; pay heed:  Donald Trump promised to return government to the people.  Say what you will about the guy, it's refreshing when a President invites a bunch of plumbers into the Oval Office because it's THEIR house, paid for by the sweat of their brows.  Far better than somebody who sells nights in the Lincoln bedroom to his influential friends, like Hillary's philandering husband did.

And guess what?  The government - the old guard, the McCains of the world - don't want government returned to the people.  They want the people to serve them, not the other way around.  (By the way, if you want to learn what kind of a guy John McCain is, google "Keating Five."  I knew of that scandal by way of the fact that I started my career as an S&L examiner during the thrift crisis.  McCain has always been a palm-greaser, a favor-grantor.  A politician of the old school of back-room deals cut in smoke-filled rooms.  That's why I was never able to bring myself to vote for him.)

So why were the Dems able to coalesce behind Barack Obama, if the GOP won't stand behind their party's President now?  Why were the Dems able to work with Obama to move his agenda forward?

Simple.  Obama favored bigger and bigger government.  Government not of, for or by the people, but over the people.  So the Dems got on board, because that's their platform.  So, sadly, did too many Republicans, because that perpetuates their power.

And when not enough Republicans did get on board, Obama advanced his agenda through the unilateral fiat of the executive order, the phone and the pen, as he put it.

Trump has done that, too.  But Obama had the courts on his side; after all, he appointed the judges.  Those same judges who now thwart his successor's orders, but stood idly by while the guy who appointed them wielded his pen.

Career politicians profit by perpetuating their time in power.  (So do their friends, who line those politicians' pockets.)  So they rally behind the champions of big government, but are threatened by those who would return the government to the people.

Yet, that's what the people have said they want.  We're sick and tired of politics as usual in Washington; that, after all, is precisely why Donald Trump won (the simple explanation, yet again).  Hopefully, we wake up and send a message in 2018, similar to the message sent last year.  Hopefully, it's not too late.

In the meantime, I fear the distractions have become the focus.  And thereby the focus is lost.