{"id":54137,"date":"2019-07-20T11:08:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T15:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/?p=54137"},"modified":"2019-07-20T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T15:08:28","slug":"is-donald-trump-now-the-most-trusted-man-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/is-donald-trump-now-the-most-trusted-man-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Donald Trump Now the Most Trusted Man In America?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before I get into it, I know the meaning of trust has eroded over the past several decades. The particular admixture of credence, confidence, and faith we invest in certain individuals who earn it \u2013 at least among the public \u2013 has seen a decline, noted in the first world from the United States to New Zealand. Then there\u2019s the coextensive problem of a deepening dearth of such individuals, at least in our country.<\/p>\n

Where have you gone Uncle Walter? A nation lifts its bloodshot eyes to you…<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Walter Cronkite \u2013 1985 Rob Bogaerts \/ Anefo [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl]<\/figcaption><\/figure>I\u2019m not saying Trump has somehow become akin to Walter Cronkite, who, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s polls was, far and away, precisely the man with that designation. Most famously perhaps, it was only after Cronkite announced to the listening public on his broadcast as lead anchor for CBS News his doubts about not just the conduct of the Vietnam War, but its legitimacy, that the tide of public opinion for the first time began to turn against our government and the pursuit of the war. It had reached high tide in positive public support of the conflict, but this too began at first to ebb, and then retreat utterly from our shores.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not even saying he\u2019s like the typical neighborhood pastor, who, as one of the nation\u2019s clergy, in the past, was among the most trusted members of our society. They may still be, in individual instances, and certainly there are whole intact communities for whom the church is the defining social construct and context for meaning, spiritually and in the quotidian.<\/p>\n

However, recent polls by Gallup and an organization called NORC \u2013 the National Opinion Research Center \u2013 3 out of 4 Americans rarely or never consult clergy. Trump does comparatively better, with a recent aggregate approval rating as compiled by FiveThirtyEight of nearly 43%. It\u2019s doubtless erroneous (and laughable) to call it trust, but he certainly has tapped a national mood among a significant number of followers, when a phrase he uses in one of his Tweets about a member of Congress becomes a chant and catchphrase for an arena full of rally attendees just two days later.<\/p>\n

The factors that contribute to his disapproval rating of over 52% are the stuff of suspicion and wariness: his mendacity, his outrageous public behavior, his lack of discipline and gravitas. All qualities that would have rocked the confidence of the American people as a whole had any been demonstrated by \u201cUncle Walter\u201d back in the day. And even Trump\u2019s adherents openly cite and recognize his shortcomings, but they approve his positions on the issues and conflicts he so breezily tweets about on a daily basis. He is, whether instinctively or deliberately for strategic reasons, the spokesman, if not now the avatar, of opinions and attitudes held by a significant number of Americans.<\/p>\n

Members of the electorate have always been reluctant to articulate all of these opinions, and thereby have been hard to identify, quantify, and validate by polling. Trump legitimizes those positions by openly espousing hard views on always sensitive facets of the American character: the degree of openness and acceptance of our people and our society to other than unquestionable exemplars of the majority demographic of white, working and middle-class, established, and native-born \u2013 or, more accurately, anyone who identifies with such a categorization. He makes it all right not only to embrace these views as beliefs, but vociferously to ensure they are recorded for posterity, and accorded the status of news for broadcast to the world.<\/p>\n

Fifty-one years ago, Walter Cronkite visited Vietnam and witnessed the condition of the city of Hue, virtually annihilated during the so-called Tet Offensive. The result was a rare moment of editorializing about a war that Cronkite personally had supported, even while doing his utmost to ensure the reporting of it by his News division would be balanced and unbiased. What he saw, which, as fact, annuled what President Johnson had been reporting to the American people, led Cronkite to reverse his views on the war, and to announce formally, \u201cWe Are Mired in Stalemate.\u201d And from that broadcast can be measured a turn in the tide of the public opinion of the United States as a whole, which previously had endorsed the prosecution of the war.<\/p>\n

President Johnson\u2019s equally famous reaction to the Cronkite reversal, and the likely impact on the political climate leading up to the presidential elections later the same year, led him to announce he would not seek a second term of his own, saying \u201cIf I\u2019ve lost Cronkite, I\u2019ve lost Middle America.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the same Middle America that is fueling the uptick in approval ratings of President Trump, that is, since his renunciation of the four Congresswomen of color, and the one in particular, Ilhan Omar, who is a naturalized citizen, formerly of Somalia, whom he has publicly vilified and exhorted to go back to where she came from\u2014the ultimate shibboleth thrown in scorn at\u00a0 the immigrant seeking a new life in America.<\/p>\n

Whatever the evolved mutation from a position of trusted reporter to a position of evocative rabble-rouser of a man undeniably and virtually universally in the public eye because of the power of mass media (which certainly now includes, if it is not dominated by, the internet), it takes a Cronkite or a Trump to crystalize feelings and attitudes otherwise previously inchoate and perhaps even subconscious in the minds of many.<\/p>\n

If so, and however I may have misidentified or mischaracterized the transmutation of the nature and the agency of the process in the course of the last 50 years, the phenomenon remains the same. And the reasons I fear are immutable. The American people are not disposed either to introspection or to contemplation with the goal of insight into what the increasingly ubiquitous vehicles of reportage of the world in which they live maintain as a live feed\u2014however circumscribed an existence they attempt to fashion for themselves. When a voice of authority\u2014or of some other order of authenticity that resonates with the innermost needs and fears of people in a fog of self-imposed cluelessness\u2014speaks, the greatest comfort derives from joining the chorus of assent. However horrible the consequences.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before I get into it, I know the meaning of trust has eroded over the past several decades. The particular […]<\/p>\n

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I get into it, I know the meaning of trust has eroded over the past several decades. The particular […]","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ZrXL-e5b","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55090,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/trump-as-of-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":54137,"position":0},"title":"Trump as of Today","author":"Howard","date":"2024 October 6","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Times today, there\u2019s an analysis of possible signs of encroaching loss of cognitive ability in the former president. Essentially, the signs are a broadening and intensification of tendencies that have been there at least since the famous walk down the gold escalator that defined the identifying trope and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54120,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/shorts-and-briefs-2-july-2019-when-youre-smiling\/","url_meta":{"origin":54137,"position":1},"title":"Shorts and Briefs | 2 July 2019 | When You’re Smiling","author":"Howard","date":"2019 July 2","format":false,"excerpt":"\"ThankYouSoMuch Mr. President_#02,\" Raffaello De Vito, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Trump Thoughts Today This happens sometimes when I am surfing and I do my daily check as a lurker on Facebook. I saw two links in particular that caught my eye, to news stories in standard mainstream media sources.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","block_context":{"text":"Current Events","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/current-events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":197,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/about-sam-wang-the-pec-and-nate-silver-and-538\/","url_meta":{"origin":54137,"position":2},"title":"About Sam Wang, the PEC, and Nate Silver and 538","author":"Howard","date":"2016 June 9","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone with a serious interest in electoral politics ignores the Princeton Election Consortium and one of its founders, Sam Wang (disclosure: he is the son-in-law of close friends of close friends; the only way I would ever have heard of him, without stumbling on him) and speculates about November at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Correlation (Cumulative) Presidential Election Outcome 1964-2008","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Correlation-Presidential-cumulative-1964-2008_correction-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":54148,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/whose-job-is-it-to-undo-the-damage\/","url_meta":{"origin":54137,"position":3},"title":"Whose Job Is It To Undo the Damage?","author":"Howard","date":"2019 July 28","format":false,"excerpt":"It was James Madison who was the great champion of separation of powers, that is, an active and robust separation, so that each branch of government with its several well-defined assigned powers is itself always potent, equally so compared to the others, so the overall result is a state of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":156,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/austrian-far-right-candidate-norbert-hofer-narrowly-loses-presidential-vote\/","url_meta":{"origin":54137,"position":4},"title":"Austrian Far-Right Candidate Norbert Hofer Narrowly Loses Presidential Vote","author":"Howard","date":"2016 May 23","format":false,"excerpt":"How is it with a minuscule distance between total votes for political opponents, as often a plurality as a majority, the media make such a fuss about who won or lost\u2014when the story continues to be about the divide that must be joined and reconciled? How is it Donald Trump,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/24Austria-web2-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/24Austria-web2-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/24Austria-web2-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050%2C549&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/24Austria-web2-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050%2C549&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/24Austria-web2-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050%2C549&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55063,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/some-thoughts-after-brexit\/","url_meta":{"origin":54137,"position":5},"title":"Looking backward: Some Thoughts in 2016 After Brexit","author":"Howard","date":"2024 May 6","format":false,"excerpt":"I don\u2019t feel bad for Britain. I feel bad for my British friends. There are not a lot of them, but of those there are, all argued and hoped fervently for a victory for the \u201cremain\u201d vote. It was not to be. I don\u2019t feel bad for the Britain of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}