The Political Page, Part 2, T+28 -- February 17, 2017

Updates

Later, 8:08 p.m. Central Time: seeing the "Make America Great Again" rally in Florida today -- my immediate thought -- before this is all over, the press and President Trump are going to be great friends, agreeing to disagree, except for a few really, really alt-right reporters. But as in any negotiation, he and they will meet each other half-way. Both gain from the "interchange." Ratings have probably never been higher for talk shows, on both sides.

Original Post

 

The seven stages of grief:

• disbelief
• denial
• bargaining
• guilt
• anger
• depression
• acceptance

Four years may not be long enough for some people to get through all seven stages; if not, another four years might be necessary. LOL.

I think most members of the mainstream media and some of the left (but not the alt-left) are moving through the seven stages in lock-step, but if we see some real success stories in the American economy by 2020, one can imagine some members of the mainstream media (like, perhaps, some reporters for The WSJ) will move to the seventh stage.

Professional politicians, on both sides of the aisle, were able to move through steps 1 and 2 very, very quickly. These professionals quickly moved into "bargaining" ("Schumer obstructionism").

My hunch is that most on the left (and all alt-left folks) will get to the sixth stage and then find themselves in a "never-ending stage-5-through-stage-6 loop."

Where we are now:

• disbelief -- some, particularly those in Hollywood and in DC, are still in disbelief
• denial -- by the end of February, 2017, most will be past this stage
• bargaining -- manifested by "Schumer obstructionism"
• guilt -- Lena Dunham, "Girls" -- TV series -- in Rolling Stone magazine and guilt about her role in Hillary's loss; most alt-left will never experience this stage, going directly to the next stage
• anger -- most alt-left moved quickly from disbelief and denial to anger; professional alt-left politicians remain mired in "Schumer obstructionism"
• depression -- the "cupcakes" and "snowflakes" went from stage 1 to stage 6 overnight.
• acceptance -- ah, the true alt-left will never get here; some mainstream reporters might