The Trump tax return controversy is not that big of a deal
Donald Trump and his team are masters at controlling the media narrative. Presidents have always been subjects of great scrutiny, and Trump is great for ratings, so we’ve seen more coverage of him and all his controversies than any past president.
The dangerous side effect of all this coverage, though, is that Donald Trump begins to control our thoughts, actions, and even policy decisions.
Yesterday, as my day was winding down, I checked my email and saw this in my inbox:
My initial reaction to this was decidedly negative. I has never heard of this senator, so first I wondered how my name had gotten on his email list even though I’ve never cast a single vote in his district. Then I got mad because he’s invoking tax day, when we will be forced to give our money to the government, as a way to get more of my money. Needless to say, this was a bad first impression.
To be fair, Senator McGuire is not as much of a schmuck as I assumed he would be based on his email. As I learned after a bit of research, he has a great record with fighting for Cannabis legislation that will benefit the NorCal growing community. He also served on the Sonoma County board of supervisors while I was living in Santa Rosa, and I remember seeing a lot of improvements countywide.
My biggest problem with the message is that this plays perfectly into Trump’s agenda-setting strategy. The way our president and controls the media, and as a result controls us, is by deliberately creating and maintaining controversy. By getting us to focus on issues like the tax returns, he prevents us from focusing on issues that are far more relevant to our own local communities.
If we keep living in a constant state of reactionary outrage to Trump’s actions, we will have a hard time being proactive about things that will truly benefit the world. Trump is never going to release his returns, because the controversy will keep media attention focused on him.
If McGuire had emailed me about reforming Prop. 13 to adequately fund California’s public education system, or helping the solar revolution keep its momentum, I would probably be more open to supporting him.
This legislation that McGuire and Weiner have introduced seems overly reactionary. Furthermore, if the bill does pass I doubt it will effect any future elections. Senators from both California and New York have proposed bills like this, but even if Trump’s name had not been on the ballot in those states in the 2016 election, he would have won anyway.
I’m still going back-and forth about this bill, weighing it’s implications for privacy and transparency. Does legally mandated transparency have the same gravity as voluntary transparency? Could this trickle down and open the door for legislation that requires similar disclosures from senators, mayors or city clerks? Is it even constitutionally viable to create such a requirement?
If Trump’s tax returns were released, I doubt it would have had any effect on the election’s outcome. Trump supporters share a dedication to their orange-tinted messiah that transcends all facts and reason. Trump tells people what they want to hear, so they align themselves without any awareness of potential consequences.
Even if the returns had been released, they’d been negative, and the mainstream media had reported on them — and there’s no question that they would have — I can‘t imagine anyone’s opinion would have been swayed. Again, rationality and factual arguments have much less impact on our political narrative than image and controversy do.
Some people are hoping that a leaker from the IRS will make the returns public. This seems unlikely, and I don’t want it to happen. If we are exposed to too many leaks, the next time something on the scale of PRISM is leaked, it will matter less because we will be tired of leaks.
A leak would also lessen the impact of the disclosure. The central issue here is that Trump broke from tradition with his decision to keep the returns secret. A leak would not be a victory, it would just be a source for a week’s worth of media coverage and further distraction.
Perhaps if Democrats put enough legislative pressure on Trump to release the returns he might change his mind. That would be a victory.
The more Trump acts like a politician, the less his core followers will like him. Being different was his primary appeal, so maybe the key to defeating Trump is making him fall into political norms.
His team knows this, though, and they will do everything in their power to keep his outsider image going, even though he is as much of an insider as you could possibly be now.
Either way, in a few weeks when the media start reporting on the tax return controversy because tax day is coming up, remember this article. Remember that Agenda-setting is a primary tactic of the Trump administration and that we need to arm ourselves to not fall victim to its effects.
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If you agree or disagree with me, I’d love to hear why. And if you want to see more from me, follow me here, on Twitter @JeremyCummings3 or on Instagram @so.tall.im.in.space. Stay woke, my friends.
