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Sunday, December 8, 2024 - 05:09 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Nobody knows how the election will turn out, but we can say with confidence that this is the first election where so many trusted authorities in our country have tried to tip the scales so hard. Regardless of the outcome, the partisan unfairness we have seen through this election cycle will further erode what we need most in our country: a renewal of trust. Trust is down in almost every national institution. When the people don't trust government, private business, educational institutions and the media, our country becomes less stable. But those bemoaning the erosion of trust spend little time talking about how much the institutions in question have earned the lower regard they now hold.

Large, powerful institutions have behaved badly in our country for a long time. From the majority of former congressman now becoming corporate and foreign lobbyists instead of returning home, to former presidents of both parties cashing in on ludicrously high-priced foreign speeches and payments, to universities charging our kids astronomical tuitions while their administrators' salaries grow exponentially, to the vast swaths of our entertainment, financial, political and even legal elite who were palling around with serial child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, all the way to the federal law enforcement organizations that refused to hold Epstein accountable for his heinous crimes, it's not surprising that people have lost trust in our national institutions. The QAnon conspiracy is, of course, insane, but it's not hard to understand why people fall for conspiracies when you look at how those at the top of our society have behaved these past years.

In the face of this long-term trend, the most destructive thing to come from this election may be the continuation and even acceleration of the loss of trust Americans have in our nation's formerly trusted institutions.

The New York Times has always been liberal, but it used to have standards. When the Times published their famous "anonymous" op-ed by a "senior administration official" attacking the president, they led everyone to believe that the official was someone very high up. Everyone from Vice President Mike Pence on down was under suspicion. It was marketed as a testament to how dangerous and crazy this president was -- that someone in his own orbit was coming out to undermine him in The New York Times. The problem is the author was not a "senior administration official" at all. The author, Miles Taylor, was a 33-year-old deputy chief of staff to the Homeland Security secretary. He was not close to the president in any way. He wasn't even listed on his own cabinet agency website's leadership page. There are thousands of people who may qualify as a senior administration official the way the Times defined it. It's just not honest to pretend that the op-ed was a true reflection of Trump's senior team. People have a right to expect The New York Times to be honest, even when covering a politician who they clearly don't like.

Last week, the New York Post, America's fourth-largest newspaper by circulation, published a bombshell story on Hunter Biden's email account, including materials that indicated Joe Biden may have been more involved in Hunter's foreign financial dealings than he had let on previously. Twitter responded by blocking the content and then blocking the entire New York Post. Facebook took similar actions. There were some legitimate journalistic questions about the story, but our new technology censors weren't interested in that. They just made sure people didn't see the content.

Later, Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, came forward to offer firsthand testimony on the Bidens. Bobulinski was CEO of a company the Biden's were putting together to raise millions of dollars from a Chinese energy conglomerate with ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Bobulinski, in other words, was in a position to know what was really happening. Bobulinski came forward to say that, contrary to Joe Biden's denials, Joe was well aware of and involved with Hunter's dealings in China. Bobulinski claims that he was personally in meetings with Joe Biden on these topics. Direct testimony by a trusted insider with reason to know the facts is a very strong form of evidence. It's not definitive proof -- he could be lying; he could be being paid off -- but its definitely persuasive. People go to jail all the time over evidence like this, yet the major corporate media outlets in our country have decided to largely ignore it. They aren't giving very good reasons as to why they would ignore this sort of firsthand evidence. The only one that comes to mind is it hurts their favored candidate.

To be clear, I don't think that the Bobulinski testimony or the Hunter Biden emails were about to change the course of the election. Although it sure seems like Joe Biden was caught lying when he said he knows nothing of Hunter's foreign business dealings, we have no proof yet that Joe has broken any laws. And more broadly, voters have -- for good or ill -- written off issues like this, mostly because they view everyone in Washington as compromised, anyway.

The irony is that things weren't looking great for the president, even without the media and the tech companies' interference. The president's powerful opponents probably could have played it straight and still gotten their desired outcome. The left didn't want to take any risks, though, and pressured every institution in America that even considered being fair with strong-arm tactics. As a result, if Trump loses, his supporters will forever hold it against these institutions that abused their authority. Our country will be one step further from the healing we so need. We all lose from that.

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Neil Patel co-founded The Daily Caller, one of America's fastest-growing online news outlets, which regularly breaks news and distributes it to over 15 million monthly readers. Patel also co-founded The Daily Caller News Foundation, a nonprofit news company that trains journalists, produces fact-checks and conducts longer-term investigative reporting. The Daily Caller News Foundation licenses its content free of charge to over 300 news outlets, reaching potentially hundreds of millions of people per month. To find out more about Neil Patel and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com

COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM

 

Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel

Tucker Carlson currently hosts Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (weekdays 8 p.m. ET). He joined the network in 2009 as a contributor.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” features powerful analysis and spirited debates, with guests from across the political and cultural spectrum. Carlson brings his signature style to tackle issues largely uncovered by the media in every corner of the United States, challenging political correctness with a "Campus Craziness" segment and tackling media bias and outrage during "Twitter Storm."

Carlson co-hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend” starting in 2012, until taking on his current role at “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

While at Fox News, Carlson has provided analysis for “America's Election Headquarters” on primary and caucus nights, including in the 2016 and 2012 presidential elections, as well as the 2014 midterm election. He also produced a Fox News special, "Fighting for Our Children's Minds," in 2010.

Prior to working at Fox News, Carlson hosted “Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered” on PBS from 2004 to 2005 and “Tucker” on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. He joined CNN in 2000 as its youngest anchor ever, co-hosting “The Spin Room” and later CNN's “Crossfire,” until its 2005 cancellation. In 2003, he wrote an autobiography about his cable news experience titled "Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News."

Carlson graduated with a B.A. in history from Trinity College in Connecticut.

Neil Patel

In addition to his role as publisher of The Daily Caller, Neil Patel is co-founder and managing director of Bluebird Asset Management, a hedge fund investing in mortgage-backed securities.

Before starting his two companies, Neil served in the White House from 2005 to 2009 as the chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. From 2001 to 2004, Neil was staff secretary to Vice President Cheney. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Neil was assistant general counsel at UUNET Technologies. Earlier in his career, Neil practiced law with Dechert Price & Rhoads. He also served as Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China. 

Neil received his B.A. from Trinity College in Connecticut and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as associate editor of the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.

Neil lives in Washington, D.C., and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife, Amy, their two daughters, Caroline and Bela, and their son, Charlie.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM