Are We Trusting or Naive?

It was especially interesting to watch the way Trump mouthpieces like Spicer, Conway and that new woman, I forgot already, contemptuously handle the questions being asked by the press.

It has been so especially irritating that even Anderson Cooper, regarded as more reserved and professional, rolled his eyes at Conway’s dodging and bickering over the questions being posed about our President's actions. It was ridiculous. It was as if the White House was asking ‘who are you to ask these questions? Who are you to question the President of the United States? We won didn’t we?’

Meanwhile... with a cowardice Congress hoping to pass unpopular legislation while riding a perceived wave of Trumpian fanaticism, the answer to that question is... the press.

The journalists who spend every day looking to keep the power brokers of our nation honest are the only people, right now, to ask the question. Especially since Trump metaphorically put everyone involved in the probes against his staff on notice that they too could be fired for any imagined reason. If Comey wasn’t even granted the decency of a conversation with the President (something Obama gave Gen. McCrystal before asking for a resignation) then who will honestly find themselves in his favor except those who would work for the President and not the people?

The Fourth Estate is the only estate in the political game with nothing to lose by asking tough questions, and they get to ask whatever questions are in the interest of the public, for the public and that is our guardian of freedom. Before guns can even be used to fight off a dictator, the facts are by far the most important thing.

The press must ask these questions to guarantee our democracy and the right of the American people to know the truth. It is quite serious when other countries are questioning the integrity of the American democracy, and we need to take action before we suffer a failure that will be irrevocable.

We need to demand that our government answers our questions, no matter how tough. So when a citizen of the United States asks the Secretary of the Interior why he spent four days with one set of individuals supporting an idea, and only an hour with the “other side,” his response needs to be more than the, “be nice,” he gave. If he can’t justify his actions out right then he shouldn’t do them. The same goes for Trump. If it is impossible to defend an action with the truth then doing it is nothing short of an assault on the American people.

I will not digress to any of my part in this position. I support the right of the people to ask questions of the very people who can take their lives away, destroy their freedom, take their money, or revoke their health care. We are guaranteed that right, and I will support it and defend it regardless of its popularity or our governments disdain for it.

If what is happening in our country is nothing more than a misunderstanding than that is a tragedy, but the truth has to be spoken first if we are to move forward as a free people. Ben Franklin wrote, “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved,” in The Pennsylvania Gazette. He was right. The press is not the issue. What would any branch of government do if there was no one to hold them accountable?