Betsy DeVos – Memphis Flyer

Republican strategist and author Rick Wilson is not a fan of his party’s president, Donald Trump. He’s made a name for himself lately as a cable news analyst, and has coined the catch phrase (also the title of his new book), Everything Trump Touches Dies. That may be a bit harsh, but it’s a good title if you want to sell books, and Wilson makes a good — and entertaining — case for his thesis.

I think an equally strong case could be made that Trump is actually proving the truth of Andy Warhol’s 1970s prediction: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

Rick Wilson

Consider the following list: Michael Flynn, Sally Yates, James Comey, Sean Spicer, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci, Sebastian Gorka, Tom Price, Omarosa Manigault, Rob Porter, Hope Hicks, Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson, Andrew McCabe, H.R. McMaster, Scott Pruitt, Nikki Haley. This is a partial list of folks who were once household names — major newsmakers, for a minute or 15 — but who have now left the orbit of Trump administration. Though some were fired, many made the decision to leave of their own volition.

This list does not include some others who, in most administrations, would have been chased from their posts because of unethical use of taxpayer dollars or other scandalous misbehavior. This list would include Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to name four. All remain in place, for now.

So far, eight Trump cabinet officers have resigned or were fired due to professional or personal misconduct or because they clashed with the president and jumped ship.

It’s mind-numbing to try and merely recall all the dramatic and attention-grabbing incidents — national and international — that have ocurred in the 20 months Trump’s been in office. Not to mention the hundreds of controversial presidential tweets, each infesting — or driving — the national news cycle for a time, until the next distraction takes root.

In some ways, Trump is the perfect president for the short-attention-span, social media-driven world we now inhabit. His impulsive moves and attention-grabbing pronouncements make for a president that’s a kind of human clickbait.

As a result, we are eaten up by trivia, spurred on by a reactive media that follow each new shiny object that pops up. Trump throws biscuits to the hounds, and they follow him dutifully, awaiting their next treat. We watch, for example, as cable news pundit panels spend hours discussing the impact of Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test, a total waste of everyone’s time. The next day, the same panels spend hours discussing Trump’s reaction to Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test. Then Warren responds. And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes.

Meanwhile, thousands of immigrant children are living without hope in camps in the remote Texas desert. Meanwhile, thousands of people are left homeless from hurricane damage in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Meanwhile, our “ally,” Saudi Arabia, (you know, the country where all the 9/11 terrorists came from) openly tortures, assassinates, and dismembers a Washington Post columnist.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, meanwhile …

… Trump takes his endless roadshow tent-revival from one state to another, replaying his greatest hits for his loyal MAGAs, who cheer his lies about building a wall and about Brett Kavanaugh being at the top of his class and countless other prevarications and exaggerations. They applaud his mocking of a sexual assault victim and chant “Lock her up!” about a sitting U.S. senator who is guilty of no crime. Today, the show might be in Mississippi. Tomorrow, it’ll be in Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania or Nevada. Same song, same verse, same ignorance and hypocrisy and hate.

Trump has intentionally divided this country. His “enemies list” is long and expansive. It applies to literally millions of Americans, including all Democrats, the free press, Hispanic immigrants, protesters, Muslims, moderate Republicans, etc. In truth, it includes any person or entity that isn’t buying what the president is selling — which is our country — down the river.

I’ve been saying this for weeks, but I don’t care if it’s repetitive. We need to fix this. We are broken. We need to vote for change in three weeks. If we don’t, our 15 minutes as a country might well be up — and Rick Wilson might be right.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Bob Corker made one thing clear at a town meeting in suburban Arlington on Tuesday — that the venue, Crave Coffee Bar and Bistro, was not yet “the time and the place” for him to express his future plans, rumors about which run from a governor’s race in 2018 to a possible presidential bid two years later.

The Arlington event was set up in much the manner of a meet-and-greet, and other dignitaries present included Mayor Mike Wissman of Arlington, Shelby County Republican chair Lee Mills, and 8th District Congressman David Kustoff.

Jackson Baker

Senator Bob Corker at the Crave Coffee Bar

It was the first step of what the senator’s office billed as a “Travel Across the Volunteer State” and was to be followed by his attendance at a noon event at the Hilton Memphis, where kudos were to be administered to several worthy individuals at the 14th Annual Dunavant Public Servant Award Luncheon.

On the basis of the reception he got from a standing-room-only audience, one that was rather more a contentious town meeting in the current style, you had to wonder how much more of his current job the junior senator from Tennessee would be willing to stand for.

He was asked if he intended to run for a third Senate term in 2018, and he gave the answer cited above. The immediate result was a challenge or two from the crowd as to whether Chattanoogan Corker hadn’t pledged, back in 2006, when he was first elected in a tight race with Democrat Harold Ford Jr., to quit after two terms.

He gave a soft answer, that both he and Ford had said only that they “couldn’t imagine” serving more than two terms, and that seemed to turn away any further potential wrath on that matter.

But Corker had every reason to remain on edge for most of the hour-long encounter in Arlington. The questions he got were rapid-fire, mainly on issues of domestic controversy, and they were evenly mixed between the inquisitive and the downright challenging.

On some of the latter, he seemed to satisfy most of the crowd with his expression of confidence that the pending Senate inquiry into a Trump-Russian connection would go forth to good result. He had less success defending his support for charter-school enthusiast Betsy DeVos as secretary of education.

Corker was also hard-pressed on issues ranging from the prospective defunding of Planned Parentood, the uncertain future of health care, and the shape of tax reform. He did his best to hit a middle distance.

At the end of it all, someone said the obvious, that he, as Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, had not been asked about the current crises in Korea and Syria. He shook his head slowly but gave an indulgent smile. “Unbelievable,” he said.

• Mere hours later, a few miles away in Midtown, former mayor Willie Herenton was having an easier time with his audience, the Rotary Club of Memphis.

Jackson Baker

Herenton at Rotary

The luncheon speaker was welcomed as what he was, a public dignitary from the past. That, in his time as mayor from 1991 to 2009, Herenton caught his share of flack was a fact no one mentioned, save the ex-mayor himself.

Herenton’s subject was his current project, which goes by the name of New Path Campus of Restoration. “Campuses,” actually, because Herenton’s original concept of a single dormitory/instructional facility for troubled African-American youth in north Shelby County has grown to include the idea of three campuses — in downtown Memphis, in Frayser, and in Millington.

As Herenton has explained on earlier occasions, these facilities would be alternatives to the severe and geographically remote locations available to house youthful detainees at the moment. The centers would be financed by savings from traditional incarceration and by state funding for the detainees as students.

More about the appearances of Corker and Herenton at memphisflyer.com.