Miner Queries | Cherie Miner
On Thursday, Charles Pierce wrote a piece in Esquire titled, “The Great American Surrender.” In it he writes, “But the truth is that the facts are out there if anyone wants to make the effort and find them. (The elite political media makes this harder by its curious reluctance to let these stories fully inform its coverage of the campaign.) That’s our collective job as citizens, and to do it requires a collective national will that no longer may be in us.”
This conclusion follows a relatively short article covering this election season and the Republican’s nightmare candidate, Trump. Pierce notes: “A substantial portion of this country wants someone not to govern, but to rule, to defeat the imaginary enemies they have concocted so as not to bestir themselves to resist the forces that actually are working against their interest.”
Trump, I would note, is among those forces working against average Americans.
And there is plenty of evidence of that if you’re willing to do your homework. Last week saw a deluge of it.
As Matthew Yglesias outlined on Vox, Trump’s Foundation, as opposed to the Clinton Foundation, has far more questionable relationships and history – and it doesn’t have the record of life-saving initiatives and charity. He writes: “But much of the foundation’s spending doesn’t really fit the traditional conception of philanthropy at all. Some of the money seems to flow back into Trump’s pockets through his businesses, while other funds are used to punish his political enemies or try to gain new friends in the conservative movement.”
Yglesias credits David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post with much of the reporting on Trump’s foundation, but also notes it hasn’t led to much coverage by other media outlets. “In that sense, the Trump Foundation both reveals something disturbing about Trump himself and something disturbing about the functioning of the American media ecosystem, where the basic idea that you should have a similar number of reporters covering each campaign creates a skewed view of what’s actually going on.”
Also last week, Newsweek released a story by Kurt Eichenwald about how Trump’s business interests could endanger America’s national security. “The problem of overseas conflicts emerges from the nature of Trump’s business in recent years. Much of the public believes Trump is a hugely successful developer, a television personality and a failed casino operator. But his primary business deals for almost a decade have been a quite different endeavor. The GOP nominee is essentially a licensor who leverages his celebrity into streams of cash from partners from all over the world.”
Eichenwald documents numerous examples including Trump business ventures in: Korea, India, Libya, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, not to mention Russia and Ukraine. All these countries present serious U.S. foreign policy challenges, as well as conflicts of interest for a President Trump. And they highlight the need for Trump to release his tax returns.
Do yourself a favor before you abdicate your civic responsibility by not voting or before you auto-vote R. Read these articles, dig deeper, and definitely turn off the TV and radio. Then do your homework.
Because as the famous quote says, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. In a former life, she was a corporate writer and public relations professional. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.