The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
This is the second in a series of five inter-related one-page essays which resulted from my recently watching an entire Trump campaign speech on Fox News. I happened to see the speech only because I was watching Fox News, which trumpeted the fact that they would be televising a Trump rally later that evening. Otherwise no other network even mentioned the rally.
Almost three years into the Trump presidency, I would surmise there are only two groups of people who watch only cable news networks. The first group consists of those who watch MSNBC and CNN (in varying measures for each, depending on political tastes), and those who watch Fox News. Other people watch traditional network news programs (ABC, CBS, NBC). They are wise to do that, because there is more objective reporting on the traditional networks. However traditional networks are not in any sense 24/7 news networks.
I further surmise that most Trump supporters watch only Fox News. The President has very successfully convinced them that all other news programs are purveyors of what he calls “fake news.” Fake news to Donald Trump is anything that does not engage in total unquestioned support for everything Mr. Trump says or does. Since nearly all television news programs other than Fox do not follow that policy, nor do most newspapers or new magazines, the only news other than Fox News to all Fox News fans is therefore, by definition, fake news.
On Nov. 3, 2020, many millions of voters will cast their votes for any candidate other than one named Donald J. Trump. It behooves all of those voters to tune in Fox News for at least a few consecutive days to understand exactly why their vote for someone other than Mr. Trump is so vitally important for the future of our nation. You must see a lot of Fox fully to grasp that.
Fox News is not the mouthpiece of the Republican Party, although many Democrats might think so. However, it is the mouthpiece of Donald Trump. It is essential for every serious Republican to realize that Donald Trump is the antithesis of what the Republican Party traditionally has represented. Although Mr. Trump apparently has contributed far more money to Democratic than to Republican candidates during his lifetime, he is certainly not a Democrat. Instead he is an unabashed Trumpian. He constantly proclaims only himself. It has become excruciatingly obvious that he cares nothing at all for the United States of America.
I have no idea how many people who receive these essays actually read all or any part of them. I do assume, however, that most who receive these deliberately undisguised diatribes do not watch Fox News. If you do read the essays and you don’t watch Fox News, then you are a person I most want to reach via this particular screed. The only way you can fully appreciate how dangerous Donald Trump and Fox News are is carefully to observe Fox News for several days.
With very few exceptions, almost everyone who appears on Fox News is a Trump sycophant. They help insure that the “Trump Base” remains sycophantic. Everyone who voted for Trump in 2016 and the odd few (in every sense of “odd”) who have become supporters since his election will vote for him again in 2020. Fox News will guarantee that.
Because Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the future of the USA, Fox News is also a clear and present danger. Nevertheless, this a still a democracy, and our democracy does not allow the silencing of free speech, even from those who are clear and present dangers. Thus only motivated voters can silence Donald Trump, by voting him out of office.
To study Fox, even for a few days, is to be fully alerted to the peril we face. For the sake of the republic, watch Fox. Then speak out. But above all, next year vote your disapproval.
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.