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Government |
Bourbons of the Press, Believed by But 15 Percent, Straggle on in Defeat |
2017-01-27 |
Conrad Black![]() But the establishment Donald Trump assailed, which reacted to his campaign with mirth, and then with rage, and then with desperation, is now cobbling together a rather contemptible guerrilla resistance. It will be ground to powder by what is emerging each week as a juggernaut that holds all the offices, has a clear mandate and program, and is installing a strong administration to reverse 20 years of national decline. The Obamas, Clintons, and Bushes have left Washington; they had a few good innings, but they will not be back unless one of them a generation younger than these comes back meritocratically. The press will not have rebuilt its credibility until it recognizes how terribly it has disserved the country from Vietnam and Watergate all the way to the Golden Shower. The Democrats, presumably, will get the hint and change course and recruit better candidates; both sides come to bat. The press is like Talleyrand’s description of the Bourbons returning to Paris in 1815 in the baggage train of Wellington’s army: “They have forgotten nothing and they have learned nothing.” In a few more years the Bourbons were gone forever; the press will cling on, but they will not make or break administrations as they have and will not regain public confidence from one election to the next, and not before they have conducted a profound self-reappraisal with the help of the 85% of the public who don’t believe them. |
Posted by:Fred |