Politics - News Analysis

National Archives Doctors Photos to Protect Trump’s Feelings

This is the level of fear and control Trump has instilled down through every department.

 

  • Since this post was published earlier today, the outcry has caused the National Archives to reverse course and not alter the photographs. Nevertheless, it is worth reading this story as published to learn how the matter stood prior to having the decision reversed. Jason

 

In a move accelerating our pace toward a Saddam-like government, ruled by an insecure, feckless, mad-man, the National Archives doctored photos so as to make them less insulting and offensive to Trump. By so doing, the National Archives fictionalized the events photographed. It is a move one expects from some banana republic, a corrupt oil-soaked Middle East nation, or Russia. And it has not gone unnoticed.

Presidential historian David Brinkley is furious:

“I could not believe the National Archives did such a thing,” Brinkley began. “It’s such a venerable institution and we all trust it. It’s the depository of our national heirlooms and leavings and here it is doctoring photos to make Donald Trump look good. I mean to the idea you take the women’s march of 2017 which was largely anti-Trump march and start changing signs like one sign said ‘God hates Trump,’ they just blurred out the word Trump so the protester sign says ‘God hates.’ That was replicated many times, it’s an idiotic idea to have altered that photograph. I am pleased a retraction has come our way. ”

Brinkley wasn’t sure whether or not the changes were ordered by Trump. It is almost a non-issue. It is perhaps worse if Trump did not order the photos be doctored. If Trump was not directly involved, it means that Trump’s personal obsession and values have infused every department. He is to be treated more as a deity than a person temporarily occupying the office. It also means that each federal employee right down to the curators at the national archives live in abject fear of Trump.

Saddam, MBS and Putin instill a mix of fear and reverence within the people of their nations, sapping power from the citizenry at large. Brinkley summed up the dangers:

“At all costs, we can’t have a photograph on our display that says something negative about him,” he added sarcastically. “We have to remember this is a president we are dealing with on his inauguration lied about his crowd size and blew up the Interior Department because they weren’t showing a photo that he wanted. This idea of air-brushing anything negative about Donald Trump out of our current government institutions is starting to happen more and more. It’s all the reason why we have to say knock it off, ever louder.”

Very few fascist governments take full power overnight. Most often, it is a creeping movement, a step here, a change there, and then one day the citizens look around and realize that the entire nation changed over just 2-3 years, bearing little resemblance to the free republic we assumed would last forever.

But republics don’t run themselves. It takes people dedicated to the hard work of self-government. It is definitely easier on the citizenry to submit, let someone else do it, grant all power to a unitary executive. But history has shown that such actions never end well. Self-government requires attention and work, even with respect to small details, Douglas Brinkley knows this.

Sanitizing our history to please the dear leader is akin to the canary in the coal mine. It is a strong signal that something is very wrong, and without quick action, our democracy and republic will suffer the same fate as the canary. Oh, and it should be said, even though maintaining democratic self-government is hard work, it is far easier than reviving one that was lost.

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Peace, y’all

Jason

[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

 

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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