The 2016 Presidential election finds all four branches of government in play. While the three formal branches of government are clearly in play, it is less widely recognized how significant the impact of the fourth estate has been in setting the agenda for the election, and no one elected them.
With regard to the judiciary, many on the right and left have correctly figured out the Supreme Court is in play, enough said.
With regard to the Congress, the legislative branch takes care of itself for the most part except for a “down-ballot” effect, which is unknown and often fraught with a lot of public pontificating “strum und drang”. However, ultimately as Speaker Tip O’Neill correctly pointed out, all politics are local
With regard to the executive department, the past is clearly prologue in the current election.
The most important factor of executive department responsibilities is the constitutional responsibility of the President to keep us all safe. Our National Command Authority responsibilities transcend politics.
In the very heated public debate about the fitness of either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to become our next Commander in Chief all national security experts and military officers who support Secretary Clinton, have had a significant case of willful blindness to overlook her most significant dereliction of duty in our history.
The most highly classified programs in America are embedded in our Continuity of Government (COG) plans and procedures. COG contains the most closely guarded secrets in the United States:
“Continuity of government (COG) is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of nuclear war or other catastrophic event.”
In fact when I served as President Reagan’s Principal Director of Mobilization Planning and Requirements in one COG exercise there were only 17 people in the U.S. who had access to the most highly classified information in our Government.
The number one target of foreign collectors, “spies,” is our plans in the event of a Nuclear strike on America.
In the event of an attempt to decapitate the leadership of America with a nuclear strike, there is a constitutional line of succession to become President and Military Commander-In-Chief. Depending on the effectiveness of the strike, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was positioned behind the VP, Speaker of the House, and then President Pro Tempore of Senate in the presidential succession process.
Each person in the COG chain-of-command must understand the awesome power of our global strategic strike capabilities.
Since General then President Washington at Valley Forge showing undaunted resilience, to President Lincoln’s leadership during the civil war and concluding when it was over, “malice toward none” to FDR holding the country together during both the great depression and then a global conventional war against two extremely effective combat forces, Germany and Japan, America has had some heroic giants as President.
With the advent of global strategic strike against America it is the one event that can destroy us as a national entity. Everything else is second order.
Consequently Secretary Clinton through the use of her private e-mail server in conducting classified government business put us all at risk. Americans, except those in her inner circle, never knew of that risk to our safety and security and the current press through ignorance or other reasons will not report this dereliction of duty.
Secretary Clinton according to the Director of the FBI abrogated the first responsibility of her stewardship in her oath of office, which was to protect our collective security against all enemies foreign and domestic. It should be noted the Director of FBI does not have the code word clearance access to our COG and nuclear launch/targeting op-plans. So when she destroys some 30,000+ e-mails, and dissembled about it we all should trust that some in the FBI have now been read into code word classified programs and told what to look for.
After all it is a very good bet the Russians and People’s Republic of China know.
With her “don’t trust factor” bouncing between 60-70 % having already held the fourth highest Office in our Government her competence has been found to be wanting and inexcusable by her fellow citizens.
We are now at much greater risk the minute she took her oath as Secretary.
But relatively unexamined in the 2016 Presidential process but with a big stake in the outcome is the “Fourth Branch” of Government the MEDIA:
Statistically the mainstream media is held in low regard, and Donald Trump is successfully playing to that factor:
Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media in one poll. And this poll shows that accuracy clearly is the most important component of trust.
Nearly 90 percent of Americans say it’s extremely or very important that the media get their facts correct, according to the study. About 4 in 10 say they can remember a specific incident that eroded their confidence in the media, most often one that dealt with accuracy or a perception that it was one-sided
Many in the media know to their core this downward vector of trust. But it is only an abstract poll while Donald Trump is a real person who is the most high profile individual in American history calling them out.
Our historical vibrant “rockem-sockem” public political fights inside a 1st Amendment protected media and that is a very good thing. In fact, there have been many swipes against the media since the founding of America some justified others a real reach.
However now there is an uncontrolled and unfettered hothouse atmosphere of a 24 hour global news cycle and the here-to-for monopoly by mainstream press is in serious jeopardy of total erosion of confidence. So like a cornered beast the MSM is striking and attacking with little to lose but perhaps still a lot to gain if they land a successful strike.
The current “fourth estate” is now devolving into a symbiotic relationship with the Executive Department and thus creating a de facto ministry of propaganda in conspiring to hurt Donald Trump’s electoral chances at all costs. A major battle is being joined at the Presidential level. President Obama after allowing Hillary Clinton a free pass with her national security violations then calls Donald Trump unfit. Physician heal thyself.
Tragically the result if Donald Trump loses, like the appointment of new Justices to the Supreme Court, the main stream media (MSM) as currently operating will have a lasting pernicious impact on America for a generation.
Their focused successful destruction of Donald Trump will usher in a new era of PC power that we have never seen before. The power of the media to destroy a man running for President will grow because having worked with them on Rules Committee many but not all modern Pols (R&D) are actually self-centered political cowards with the instinct of lemmings.
The key point in this battle for the future of America can be put simply:
Will the media be greatly empowered to be the judge, jury and very public executioner of what and who is acceptable in the great American debate about our lives and future?
Many in the previously “highly respected” media just ask them with all their self-anointing awards are trying to beat Trump and they are working very hard to do just that. We are all witnessing a great domestic battle in early 21st Century America.
If HRC wins without any real examination of her record by the MSM, the MSM will marry up their validated battle proven power to destroy to tremendous wealth “Billionaires for Hillary.”
I really hope “Feel the Burn” voters are paying attention because the DNC figured it all out and put bullying and corrupting the media in play to help Secretary Clinton. Actually it did not appear to be very hard.
Sadly, the DNC perfidy robbed all Americans of the experience to vote in one of the greatest political showdowns in our history; Socialism vs. Free Market Capitalism. It would have been a grand election experiment so truly shame on DNC hacks.
A perfect example of media and money is with the owner of the Washington Post, who is a multi-billionaire and one of the richest men in the world. This billionaire has converted the Post Editorial page into nothing more than his plaything. They have quickly become a collection of angry bloggers that are financially supported in his balance sheet round off column.
http://www.sldforum.com/2016/06/the-2016-presidential-election-the-third-wave/
Now if Secretary Clinton wins she will marry up an ideologically driven group the liberal press, with lemming like pols along with the glitz and power of Hollywood. Very quickly “state sponsored messaging” will hit with such a force that America will have never seen. With the swearing in of President Clinton, America will enter a new era of PC indoctrination like we have never ever experienced.
Eight years of many ideological fellow travelers, in the disguise of independent journalists, making excuses for President Obama and screaming racism at legit critics, will pale in comparison.
It will be VERY 1984 made real and clearly part of the gathering storm and will shape our ability to have realistic and credible solutions to the world as it is and becoming, rather than the world described by the MSM and the world of political correctness.
Excellent article!