If the House Democrats vote to impeach Trump, it will be killed in the Senate. Everyone knows it takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict. That will never happen because the Republicans have a majority. It is glaringly obvious, yet the Democrats seem to be going full steam ahead. Are they really that stupid? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, is there a justifiable reason to push for impeachment?
Here’s the answer: The Democrats are counting on the gullibility of the American voter. If enough voters buy the slanderous accusations against the president, he could lose in 2020. According to Rasmussen Reports, 47 percent of American voters believe what the media tells them about the impeachment hearings. What are they being told? That President Trump has committed numerous impeachable offenses. “It has become extremely difficult to stay informed,” argues chicagodaily.pro, “when nearly all of the coverage is slanted against Trump.”
The Democrats have failed to prove that Trump is guilty of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for impeachment. Not one of their witnesses has presented evidence that would implicate the president. Schiff insists that Trump’s guilt was established by his conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky. The White House has released the transcript of that phone call, proving that there was no “quid pro quo.” Even if there was, it would not prove that Trump misused his office. The assertion that Trump abused his office by investigating a political rival (Biden) is full of hot air. Biden has admitted that he, not Trump, demanded a quid pro quo. Trump is perfectly justified in wanting to investigate what happened.
None of this is reflected in the mainstream media’s coverage. All you have to do is watch CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC—or read the New York Times and the Washington Post—and you will be treated to a 24/7 repetition of Democratic Party propaganda. “For over three years,” says chicagodaily.pro, “Americans have been bombarded with an endless onslaught of fake news, conspiracy theories, rumors, leaks and outright lies from the talking heads as well as the cadre of Obama intelligence officials who now work for CNN and NBC.”
What concerns me is that Rasmussen may be conservative in its estimate of the public’s
gullibility. Most voters don’t check the veracity of the news they are exposed to, either because they are too lazy, too dumb, or simply don’t care. Sadly, Americans are inclined to accept as truth the most ridiculous nonsense that even a five-year-old can see through. “Five percent of the people think,” said Thomas A. Edison, “10 percent of the people think they think, and the other 85 percent would rather die than think.”
The most serious threat to the future of the United States is the gullibility of its citizenry. “We are becoming a culture of people who do not like the truth,” said public relations guru Doug
Poretz, “and are more than willing to accept lies.” Why is the public so susceptible to manipulation by politicians and the media? One answer is that Americans are not as well educated as some might believe. Investigative journalist Brian Ross evaluated a survey of American adult literacy and concluded that only 20 percent have “the capacity to understand the nuances of politics.” More than half “cannot make sense of the complex information patterns that shape public policy.”
Another answer is that most people evaluate information based on its source rather than its integrity. According to Natural News, human beings tend to have “misplaced trust in governments, institutions, mainstream news networks, doctors, scientists or anyone who wears the garb of apparent authority.” How many of us are prepared to challenge what we read on page one of the Times? Smart people are not exempt. “Intelligent people are more likely to trust others,” concludes a recent study from Oxford University.
My personal view is that most people have an aversion to confrontation. Challenging the mainstream viewpoint has gone out of vogue. The prosperity we have grown accustomed to has brought with it a kind of complacency that precludes challenging Don Lemon or Anderson Cooper even when they make the most outlandish statements, as they often do. Regardless of the cause, we are not using our evolved brains to make the informed decisions that are critical to the preservation of the republic.
The good news, according to Rasmussen, is that a majority—53 percent—of voters believe the press is not merely lying but actually working with the Democrats to impeach the president. I hope this is true, but I am inclined to doubt it. Social critic H. L. Mencken is credited with this famous quote: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Ed Brodow is a political commentator, negotiation expert, and author of seven books including his latest, Tyranny of the Minority: How the Left is Destroying America. His articles appear regularly in Newsmax, Daily Caller, American Thinker, Townhall, LifeZette, Media Equalizer, and other online news magazines.
