Buzzing Flies and Cow Patties

Threat Against Democracy (TAD).  I like to tell a story about the risks one takes when walking through a cow pasture.  There are at least two – buzzing flies are everywhere and there are cow patties on the ground.  If you don’t keep your priorities straight, you can get so engrossed batting the flies away that you don’t watch where you’re stepping and you find yourself standing in cow dung.

That’s kind of what it’s been like watching the Trump administration since the inauguration.  

Take, for example, Kellyanne Conway’s response when she was called out about the so-called Bowling Green Massacre.  “Honest mistakes abound” she said.  She didn’t say “I made a mistake” though.  

Or the disconnect between administration officials comments about our relationship with Mexico and the Trump’s own statements.  

The scary information that Reince Priebus attempted to influence the FBI, while still being debated, is a troubling part of the pattern.  

Watching Propaganda Secretary Spicer try to explain away Trump’s description of immigration actions as military wasn’t pretty either.  But his actions to keep mainstream media out of a press gaggle were worse.  

Steve Bannon’s statement about the deconstruction of the administrative state was additional evidence of the intentions of the administration. 

And there are so many more.  

Are these individual incidents cow dung or flies?  Whether you swat at them individually or take them all together, it’s clear what we’re standing in.

Are our form of government and our basic liberties at risk?  Yes, and more than just a TAD.

Please share if you are concerned, too.