Frank's Musings

Upon Donald Trump’s election to the Presidency of the U.S. I said that it really didn’t matter who occupied the White House.  The Constitution and centuries of history had placed the country in the care of a government of institutions.  What some call the “deep state” run by career civil servants prevents radical political elements of society from quickly making drastic changes in the public policy. 



However, there appears to be a large segment of American society that has become disaffected by any interference in their style of life by government agencies.  Moreover, they are not interested in taking an active role in managing the affairs of state.  They have become too lazy, relying on the media to feed their minds and, perforce, make decisions for them.



The Trump Administration has taught us that any democracy is vulnerable to hijacking by an opportunistic, narrowly focused and exclusive group when the contented majority relaxes its grip on society’s direction.  You only have to look at what happened to the Weimar Republic. 



It isn’t Trump who has corrupted the altruistic philosophy of the American constitutional system.  He is only the attention-grabbing and media-centric tool that an individualistic and self-enriching segment of the country have used to adapt the U.S. electoral mechanism to install an easily managed administration of the government.  It is necessary to diminish the reliance of the public on information and opinions spoon-fed by inadequately countered media-savvy right-wing  pundits.



The current and likely Democratic opponent of Donald Trump in the next general election has shown his ability to lead a U.S. government that returns to our democratic principles.  However, it is not clear that he is sufficiently effective as a dominating presence in the channels of communication that a winning majority of the voting American public allow their political decisions to be shaped by.  It apparently is not enough a qualification to be elected President to be the most qualified for the job; one must also be able to manipulate public media to shame a winning majority of voters into rejecting a candidate who places his  personal interests above those of the general public.



If Joe Biden is to accomplish that goal, he must do at least two things:  He must enlist and follow the advice of a successful public relations/campaign manager, and he must rely on that person’s judgment to choose a running mate who counterweights his weaknesses, e.g.in  sex, age, and readiness for succession. In fact, hiring that campaign manager is actually Mr. Biden’s most important task at hand.