This week’s Mainstream Media Scream features historian and former Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham forecasting certain doom for President Trump and declaring that the Constitution is designed to protect against demagogues.
“It took three years to get Andrew Johnson,” Meacham declared on Sunday’s Meet the Press of the impeached president in predicting how the political system will catch up with Trump and oust him from office over his supposed misdeeds.
The author of a new book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, recalled how “the presidents who get in trouble in the fullness of time are those who think they can put a fast one past the people,” and thus Trump’s dishonesty “will have a cumulative effect.”
Trump is the worst president ever, Meacham maintained “the Founders would have been stunned that it took this long to get a president like this. They designed this document for demagogues.”
From the May 6 Meet the Press on NBC, picking up after the Boston Herald’s Kimberly Atkins rued how “a lot of people” believe the FBI and other institutions are improperly taking on the president and Trump is not losing support because “people are getting tired of this” narrative hostile to Trump:
JON MEACHAM: It took four years to get McCarthy. It took three years to get Andrew Johnson. It’s a dark moment. But I really do think at a certain point, you’re right, people are not thinking as much about this as the political class. The reason he’s president is a lot of people didn’t believe what even more conventional presidents have said recently, right?
He’s president because, of the ten national tickets, eight had a Clinton or a Bush on them. They were basically saying to Washington, ‘If you’re going to act like a reality TV show, I guess we’ll send you, we’ll send you a real one.’ And so, I think the polls, I’m skeptical of. I do know this, historically. And I think we all know it intuitively. The presidents who get in trouble in the fullness of time are those who think they can put a fast one past the people. And I think this will have a cumulative effect.
……
CHUCK TODD, referring to Meacham’ book: I have to say, Jon, every moment in here is infused with race, actually.
JON MEACHAM: Absolutely.
CHUCK TODD: Every moment, every rough moment we’ve had, and in some ways it’s some version of race.
JON MEACHAM: Unquestionably. Because it’s our original sin. The Constitution itself, which is otherwise the document that has sort of saved us, because it’s a human document. It recognizes that appetite and ambition. The Founders would have been stunned that it took this long to get a president like this. They designed this document for demagogues. If you said 2016, they would have thought, ‘Hey, pretty good.’ Doesn’t mean that it’s easy. But I think the most important–
CHUCK TODD: Someone might have thought Andrew Jackson had qualified for that, but that‘s okay.
JON MEACHAM: Well, that’s a different story for a different Sunday. But remember, what the document says is that we are on a journey to a more perfect Union, not a perfect one.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our weekly pick: “A perfect example of media arrogance on display: We know Trump is an arrogant, incompetent demagogue and the people who support him will realize our prescience. But, sadly for the country, it will take years for them to recognize what’s so obvious to us smart journalists.”
Rating: Three out of five screams.
