Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Dogs That Aren't Barking. Why Are U.S. Media Chatterers Silent On Trump's "Momentum"?

One of the hackneyed, dubious propaganda tropes of U.S. corporate media hacks, reliably trotted out during presidential election seasons, is "momentum," or "Big Mo." The idea is that a candidate who wins, or "wins" (does better than projected to do by polls) in this or that state caucus or primary, will do better and better because of "momentum," like  a rock or a snowball rolling down a hill, picking up speed and size as it goes.

More often than not, "momentum" turns out to be ephemeral in the instances when "the" media ballyhoos it. Not that they ever admit that.

"Momentum" is applied to candidates the corporate propaganda system wishes to promote. (Meanwhile, candidates like Ralph Nader, who filled Madison Square Garden in New York City with people who paid for the privilege of attending, are blacked out by the media. In this election, Bernard Sanders was virtually ignored until recently, even though he was getting more votes than Donald Trump. Trump, of course, of omnipresent in the U.S. media.)

You'd think, given the U.S. media's Trump-obsession, and the fact that Trump obviously IS going from strength to strength, that this more than anything would be a "momentum" moment.

But no, not at all. Even though in the last 5 primaries, Trump got from 54% to 65% of the vote! (So much for the wishful line saying most Republicans didn't vote for Trump, therefore they're against him.)

The reason for this is that the U.S. elites are increasingly alarmed by the prospect of a Trump candidacy (or in the "worst" case, a Trump presidency). This is because Trump has proven disruptive of the established political order. Not because he's a revolutionary. Because he says things out loud that are supposed to be tacit, to avoid causing class and race conflicts to burst into flame, instead of kept smoldering under the surface, allowing deniability.

Trump also is "unreliable" on "foreign policy," as he does not faithfully hew to U.S. imperialist scripts. Here again, his statements incite conflict, with China, and with U.S. "allies" (satraps and clients and lackeys). Were he to act on his claimed intentions, it would upset a number of apple carts.

And he even praised Russian Bogeyman Putin!! Doesn't he know Putin's a Bad Guy?

Clearly Trump is unschooled in "foreign policy," and says "irresponsible" things. To keep the American people brainwashed in the ideological catechisms of the moment of U.S. imperialism, it is necessary to create the illusion that the propaganda describes reality. The illusion is potentially spoiled when someone highly visible says the wrong "message."


U.S. Chatterariat Overlooks Trump's Big Mo


 

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