Projection

This is proof you can speak truth to power and still be the one who looks like an ass.

Before I proceed, I will add the standard disclaimers:

1. I did not vote for Donald Trump
2. Sean Spicer has spent much time cultivating his own ass-like appearance.
3. This isn’t helping.

What I object to is the projection going on here, not only on the part of the video-taker but also on the part of the Washington Post.

First projection: “Such a great country that allows you to be here.”

Threatening and racist? Not hardly. Reflective of a person’s rights to free speech? Absolutely. It was more fun to assume Mr. Spicer’s comments were racist, go-home rhetoric. Even in the face of his rebuttal of that characterization Monday. “It’s a free country and the beauty of it is that [people] can act how they want.”

Second projection: “It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better!”

Directly related to this particular incident? Maybe. But Mr. Trump makes pronouncements like this all the time. It’s general enough of a statement, how can anyone pin this to a specific incident? Was this incident the only one showing rudeness to a Trump representative, even this weekend? Probably not.

I sympathize with this woman’s desire to  . . . well, maybe I don’t. She has her right to speak out, that I grant. But you can’t expect civil discourse with someone, expect your truth to penetrate their power, when the first thing you want to score points on is to ask a guy how it feels to work for a fascist. I mean, that’s the kind of question that just makes you want to open up and have a power-listens-to-truth dialogue, isn’t it?

Oh, not really?

Well, you’re right. She was out to score a political point and is getting high fives from her cohorts, especially as the Trump bottom-feeders threaten her online. (They’re part of the “This isn’t helping.”)

I, of course, plan on seeing a lot more of this kind of shinola, rather than anything constructive, for many more months to come.