The Skill Of Normalizing Controversy
January 21st, 2017: To start the Trump Administration the day after President Trump’s inauguration, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer claims Trump’s inauguration held the largest crowd in history despite images showing a clearly more dominant crowd for president Obama. Nobody cared, though; after all, a lie about a crowd size affected nobody.[su_pullquote]Nobody cared about Spicer’s lie, though; after all, a lie about a crowd size affected nobody.[/su_pullquote]
And yet Spicer’s first press conference set the tone for the administration. It started a 2017 in which “covfefe”, the week-long tenure of Anthony Scaramucci and the president’s twitter account made more news than the Trump administration’s actual enforcement – and dismantling – of national laws. Quite simply, it began an ongoing period in which the sheer ridiculousness of our politicians distracts us from their efforts to undermine our democracy and pass laws many Americans detest.
In Trump’s first 100 days, he twice tried to implement a Muslim ban, moved towards dismantling NAFTA and ordered reviews into the protected status of federal lands. Many Americans, however, found amusement in Sean Spicer’s repeated gaffes and Trump’s ridiculous tweets.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]As the Trump administration rolled on, it engineered a political environment in which politicians successfully distract us from matters of national importance using scandals with less gravity. [/su_pullquote]But the first 100 days only scratched the tip of the iceberg; as the Trump administration rolled on, it engineered a political environment in which politicians successfully distract us from matters of national importance using scandals with less gravity.
For example, instead of focusing on Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s knowledge of Trump’s collusion with Russia, Americans seemed intent at exploring his role in silencing porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom Trump had an extramarital affair – normally very scandalous, but not outweighing possible treason. However, instead of treating it like a scandal (similarly to how Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for covering up an extramarital affair), we read it, laugh about it on shows like Saturday Night Live, and move on to the next Trump scandal. We form a vicious, unhealthy cycle of normalizing certain scandals while ignoring even more serious ones.
Most recently occurred the Kavanaugh hearings. Despite the composed, convincing hearing of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the rambunctious, emotional, immature hearing of Judge Kavanaugh surrounding Dr. Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, congress still accepted Kavanaugh, and he currently serves on the highest court in the land. The hearings angered Americans for about a week, but Kavanaugh barely appears in the news anymore, and Americans moved on.
Meanwhile the focus on his assault – under normal circumstances, a serious accusation – distracted from Kavanaugh’s opinion that, as he wrote in 2009, “the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship.” He questioned in a footnote for that same article “whether a president can be criminally indicted and tried while in office.” His opinion juxtaposed to his nomination during an investigation into the president’s collusion with another country means a judge now sits on the supreme court who believes that Trump’s possible guilt of collusion means nothing during his presidency. Congress, and seemingly most Americans, ignored Kavanaugh’s stance on presidential immunity because they instead focused on the comparatively less serious matters surrounding the judge’s assault.
From the day Sean Spicer made a ridiculous but unimportant lie about an inauguration crowd size to the day the Senate approved Brett Kavanaugh to join the supreme court, Trump eroded Americans’ attention span. We can no longer focus on the President’s scandals and controversies because far too many occur, and even if we can focus, we normally only do so with scandals with relatively less importance.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Trump effectively changed our political environment to one in which politicians are totally immune to scandal and public opinion; more dangerously, a justice now sits on the supreme court who believes they should be immune.[/su_pullquote]Trump effectively changed our political environment to one in which politicians are totally immune to scandal and public opinion; more dangerously, a justice now sits on the supreme court who believes they should be immune.
Christian Monzon ‘22 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at Christian.monzon@wustl.edu.