Tuesday, October 25, 2016

A One-Sided Debate


Last week, on Thursday the 13th, I was scheduled to participate in a political debate with Dr. Ken White at Kennesaw State University.  This was to be our second pre-election rumble.  Four years earlier we squared off, with me representing Romney and him Obama.
That event had been a great success.  As might be expected, the standing room only crowd came away believing the speaker upholding their favored position had won.  This was okay with me because I had a blast.
Nonetheless I did not intend a repeat performance.  During the spring, I was a Never Trump man.  He struck me as a shallow narcissist.  I was not even sure I could vote for him in November.  How then could I honestly make a case for him?
Yet in September, Ken asked if I was willing to give it another go.  Much to my surprise, I agreed.  By this time, I had become a Never Hillary person and hence was prepared to do what I could to prevent her victory. 
So far so good.  Ken got us a room, prepared a schedule of questions, and recruited a moderator.  I was now raring to go.  But then, the day before the debate, it was suddenly called off.  I seems that Ken and the moderator objected to an AJC article that suggested the Cobb County Tea Party was a “sponsor.”
For more details about what transpired, the reader is referred to my upcoming column in Monday’s Marietta Daily Journal and to my blog (professionalized.blogspot.com).
I was so upset that this was done without consulting me I decided to go ahead with a one-sided debate.  Rather than leave non-campus attendees in the lurch, I showed up to explain what occurred and to let them know what I had planned to say.
The debate had been intended to begin with introductions and proceed to segments on domestic, international, and character issues.  My expectation was that Dr. White would pummel Trump about the recent sexual revelations.  I, however, did not propose to take the bait.
My idea was to agree that Trump was a sleazy amateur, but to counter that she was a corrupt traitor.   He might have said vulgar things, whereas she sold influence to the highest bidder.  She had also exposed sensitive national secrets to our enemies on a private server she should have known to be vulnerable to espionage.
As it happened, a lively discussion did ensue.  The folks who came were well informed and therefore asked wonderful questions and made insightful comments.  Most agreed that Hillary would perpetuate Barack Obama’s mistakes and probably make many of her own.
What we did not discuss, because it was only then being divulged on Wiki-leaks, was the extent of Hillary’s cover-up.  The more we learn about this operation, the clearer it becomes that it puts Nixon’s Watergate machinations to shame.
Let me mention just one aspect of this growing scandal.  Recently a State Department spokesman claimed that emails, which reveal President Obama knew about the private server, were withheld because of “executive privilege.”  Despite the fact that they were asked for by congress, they were not disclosed.
In fact, executive privilege does not exist unless it is asserted and this never occurred.  Had the State Department invoked this to explain why it was not opening its files, this would have been regarded as evidence there was something to hide.  It would have been the equivalent of Obama pleading the Fifth Amendment.
Hillary, once upon a time, bemoaned the existence of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”  It is now obvious that there is a vast left-wing conspiracy.  Hillary and her minions are charter members, but so are the president, his staff, the administrators of many federal agencies, and the editors and reporters at the mainstream media.
Given the mountain of data that has been released demonstrating a broad array of players actively planned either to withhold or distort information, can we doubt the existence of an intentional cover-up?  Nixon must be turning in his grave considering how relentlessly he was hounded out of office for misdeeds of much less consequence.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University


No comments:

Post a Comment