D.C. awash in ‘swamp’ of corruption
Legendary journalist H.L. Mencken, famous for his acerbic commentary about America, has provided ammunition usable by both sides of the great Donald Trump Divide. For those who shake their heads at the gullibility of the millions of Americans who persist in believing what this president tells them, the line attributed to Mencken that “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public” summarizes things pretty aptly.
For those who buy Trump’s line that fact after demonstrable fact is actually “fake news,” the observation, often attributed to the Sage of Baltimore, that an editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff, and then publishes the chaff, fits the bill.
Still, the willingness of so many Americans to look the other way at the false statements that come firing out of this White House with machine-gunlike rapidity does raise questions about whether our self-image as a people of supreme common sense is justified, or merely self-congratulatory blather. Close to onehalf of Americans continue to stick with the president, as transparent a seller of snake oil and onedollar “genuine gold” watches as has ever stepped onto a national stage.
Much attention has been paid — and with good reason — to Trump’s historic dishonesty, his obvious gyrations aimed at stopping an investigation into his team and him in order to protect both, the defrauding of students, the hiding of tax returns, the hush money for the mistresses and the lying both about the hush money and the mistresses. But one of Trump’s boasts that would be particularly funny were it not so unfunny is that he is making good on his promise to “drain the swamp” that is the nation’s capital. In fact, Trump’s appointments have been a rogues’ gallery of the unqualified, the incompetent and the ethically deficient.
One hardly knows where to begin. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, served for a total of four weeks before being forced to resign for lying about his contacts with Russian officials, the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. He has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about those discussions.
Tom Price, the president’s former secretary of health and human services, had to step down after disclosures that he had wasted about a million dollars of taxpayers’ money for personal travel on military aircraft and private jets.
Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt finally agreed to leave town last month after the 14th federal investigation was opened into evidence of his conflicts of interest, misuse of taxpayer money and mismanagement, and amid revelations that he had leased a condominium at a deep discount from a lobbyist whose clients were supervised — or not — by the EPA.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has been caught failing to disclose financial ties to Russian business interests during his confirmation process, and is alleged to have cheated his partners and employees out of $120 million. Not long before his appointment, his company was fined $2.3 million by the SEC.
After the president was forced to fire his veterans affairs secretary over a scandal involving charging taxpayers for luxury travel, he appointed his physician, Ronny Jackson, who had made eyebrowraising pronouncements about Trump’s purportedly excellent health. Jackson was almost immediately forced to withdraw in the face of evidence that he had improperly dispensed prescription pain medications.
This list is but the remarkable tip of a depressing iceberg. It does not include an attorney general who testified falsely to the Senate about his meetings with the Russians, a manifestly clueless secretary of housing and urban development or so many others.
Under the circumstances, that so many Americans could still embrace the claim that Trump is “draining the swamp” is sobering. The swamp has never seemed so wide, so deep or so fetid. It is yet another challenge for Americans who really do want to find a way to make America great again.