“GENTLEMEN, DON’T REPORT WHAT (THE PRESIDENT) SAID; REPORT WHAT (YOU HAVE DETERMINED) HE MEANT”

1/26/17

The entire Chicago political/social/religious establishment (They tend to meld in this town.) is up in arms, hopping mad about what they assume to be President Trump’s plans to send in the National Guard to combat the contumacious criminal carnage that is killing the world’s greatest city.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has been in charge during the recent skyrocketing in crime in Chicago, says of the idea of sending in the National Guard “I’m against it straight up…We’re going through a process of re-invigorating community policing….It’s antithetical to the spirit of what community policing is.”

Governor Bruce Rauner says “We continue to believe it’s not the right thing for us to send in the National Guard.   That would be a mistake.”

Alderman Toni Foulkes, who presides over Englewood, one of the focal points of the Chicago crime wave, says “For my communities, it would be an actual bloodbath.”    The irony of her 16^th ward’s already qualifying as at least something of a bloodbath seems to escape Alderman Foulkes.   But I digress.

Ray Lopez, alderman of the once upon a time relatively quiescent 15^th Ward, says “The National Guard is using a hammer to kill a fly.  We don’t need tanks rolling down Ashland Avenue.  I don’t need tanks rolling down Archer Avenue.”

Even newly minted Cardinal Blasé Cupich, now very much part of the city’s ruling establishment, decries “The problem is surely much more complex than that kind of a solution…We have to make sure we don’t over-simplify this issue by just saying that it’s a matter of control by military or police forces.”   To his credit, the Cardinal did say that Chicago has “really wonderful police.”   Messrs. Rauner, Emanuel, and Lopez, and Ms. Foulkes, said nothing of the kind.   But, again, I digress.

Regardless of what one feels about the advisability of “sending in the Guard,” there is something seriously wrong with all of the above comments, to wit…

President Trump said nothing about “sending in the National Guard.”

The President did say that he would “send in the Feds,” but that could mean a lot of things…the DEA, the FBI, the IRS (Remember what put Al Capone away.), and the ATF, are all likely vehicles for further federal involvement in Chicago’s crime problems, and I’m sure that list is not exhaustive.   But Mr. Trump did not specify what he meant by “send(ing) in the Feds,” and one suspects even he didn’t know what he meant.   However, that didn’t stop Mr. Trump’s opponents in the press, and in politics, from immediately assuming, for purposes that might seem obvious, that Mr. Trump meant that he would send in the Guard…and thus a convenient strawman was assembled.

This is par for the course in the media’s and the political establishment’s treatment of Mr. Trump.    They read what is convenient for their agenda, and, by extension, least flattering to Mr. Trump, into each of the President’s comments or actions.   For example, we have been told since the inception of his campaign that Mr. Trump is “anti-immigrant,” even though he is married to an immigrant and his businesses depend on immigrants as employees, customers, and investors, because he wants to re-establish a meaningful border and confirm the nation’s right to decide who will come here and who won’t.  

One of the late, great Richard J. Daley’s press spokesmen (I think it was Frank Sullivan, but could have b been Earl Bush.) once advised the media “Don’t report what the Mayor said; report what he meant.”   Apparently, over forty years later, the press, and the Chicago establishment, is taking that advice regarding their coverage of Mr. Trump.    However, only they apparently get to decide what Mr. Trump meant.