Governing by chaos and confusion

Happy New Year! fellow American citizens.

New York Times reporter Matt Flegenheimer writes about the news cycle being "accelerated to Trump speed" and the problem that brings both for news organizations as well as governing officials.  One ordinarily huge news story is promptly shoved off stage by the next.   It's almost impossible for observers to keep track, as major events -- tragic and otherwise -- whiz by.   Flegenheimer writes:

"One year out, this may be Mr. Trump's greatest trick:  His torrent of news-making has scrambled American's grasp of time and memory, producing a sort of sensory overload that can make even seismic events -- of his creation or otherwise -- disappear from the collective consciousness and public view."

Revered veteran journalist Tom Brokow said:  "Las Vegas and the church in Texas have fallen off the map -- two of the most heinous mass murders in recent American history. . .  It's astonishing.  It should be one of the defining stories not just of the year but of our time."

And yet, when you first read "Las Vegas and the church in Texas," did it take a moment to orient yourself to -- 'oh, yes, the mass shootings?'  It did me.  One can easily name dozens of what would, in the past, have been stories that stick in the mind.   Think of Trump's feuds with Gold Star families just over a year ago.   Seems like ancient history, doesn't it?   What about Trump's bad behavior at his first summit with European leaders?  And his feud with the (woman) mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico over insufficient hurricane relief efforts.   Still, a million American citizens are without electric power there, months later.   Who's thinking about that? -- outside Puerto Rico, of course.

This is not to blame Trump for everything that happens.   But his style of commanding that the spotlight be on him -- and his talent for doing something to ensure that it comes back to him, no matter what -- are disorienting to our collective daily agenda.

Flegenheimer suggests that this "has had far-reaching effects, shaping not only Mr. Trump's public image but also the ways in which lawmakers, journalists and others in his ecosystem are compelled to operate.

"It is not exactly that 'nothing matters', to borrow social media's favorite nihilistic buzz phrase of the Trump age.

"It is that nothing matters long enough to matter."

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (CN) says that he sees his task, under Trump's presidency, as a "triage" mission, "newly overwhelming" every day.   He adds that it makes it harder to focus attention, when there "doesn't seem that there's much more than 24 hours' room for any story."

Many people are hoping that closing this first year will give us a chance to take a deep breath, get our bearings, and begin 2018 on a new footing -- less distracted and more adapted to the "Trump speed" news cycle.    Forget it, says Matt Negrin, a producer at The Daily Show.  "2018 is going to be 10 times worse."

And he may be right.   It's my sense that, as the pressure on Trump increases from the Mueller investigation -- and it will -- that his response will be even more chaos, more confusion.   Our hope can only be that it doesn't lead to more impulsive action.

Happy New Year!

Ralph