Sharing My Red Pill

At 27 I discovered the "News" wasn't what I thought it was.

Thank you, Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves, for “The Matrix” in which you introduce the concept of “taking the Red Pill.”  It now represents the choice to see the world realistically, without blinders created to control us.

Before sharing my “Red Pill,” why does it matter?  Many know my columns for criticizing the myopic and ultimately self-destructive “inward turn” of the Idaho Republican Party.  These readers ask how I can be a Donald Trump fan.  Answering that question requires peeking behind blinders at reality.  Read no further if you love your comforting blue pill.

In truth, I am a “fan” of no politician.  Having worked closely with many over my life I testify to the truth of Psalms 146, verse 3,  “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.”  Allow me to share a few examples.

Utah’s Senator Jake Garn, first congressman on a space shuttle, who sacrificed a kidney to save his daughter, a person of deep moral conscience, never-the-less would, in private, curse in ways that would make sailors blush.

New York’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a deep thinker, the first Senator to openly admit Social Security was a massive swindle of future generations.  He would arrive on the Senate floor after 5:00 pm showing clear signs of rhinophyma (a.k.a. whisky nose), and his evening of Manhattans (not the island) was just beginning.

Ronald Reagan, for whom I had the honor of assisting with speechwriting during his last few months in office, was, at that same time, believed throughout the White House to be suffering from a cognitive decline nearly as severe as our current President.

So, no, I am not a Trump fan.  I have never worked with him up close, but I assume doing so would reveal plenty with which to find fault.  That is human nature.

But this is what my Red Pill reveals:  the image of President Trump seen through the lens of mass media is a monumental lie, completely contrived to support an opposing political agenda.

It was the late 1980s.  My boss, then-U.S. Senator Steve Symms chaired the Transportation Subcommittee and believed Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) slowed projects down significantly.  The law requiring EISs, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), was pending reauthorization in his committee.

Symms also distrusted world quasi-governments, Bretton Woods, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc.  He asked, “Do they do EISs?”  My research said “no.”  His directive back to me:  “Fix that!”

Fortunately, the politically powerful Larry Williams, Chair of the Sierra Club’s International Committee, had recently testified in support of extending NEPA to the “extraterritorial actions of the U.S. Government.”  He helped recruit a House Democrat to co-sponsor Symms’ bill, a 2^nd-term California Democrat by the name of Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi made the bill “bipartisan,” but that was about all she did.  She made no headway getting the bill through the House, and nearly bailed herself when EPA Administrator William Reilly, a former Conservation International president, reversed his agency’s position.

The staff at EPA had supported the bill, but Reilly personally intervened.  When I asked “Why?”, I was told that he had a standing Thursday morning racquetball match with James Baker, then-Secretary of the Treasury.

Baker convinced Reilly that Symms wasn’t doing this to protect the environment, but just to hamstring international finance.  I assured Administrator Reilly that Baker was both right and wrong.  Symms truly believed “hamstringing” big unaccountable world governments would help the environment.  Reilly dropped his opposition, but never endorsed the bill.

Former Conservational International President and EPA Administrator, William K. Reilly (left), was convinced international developers didn’t need to do environmental impact statements by then-Secretary of the Interior James Baker (right).

Pelosi only changed her tune after the bill passed the Senate as an amendment to a bigger bill and became Public Law 101-240.  Her office called a press conference with major national networks to explain how “she” had just saved everything from Brazilian rainforests to Polynesian coral reefs.  She invited Symms’ office only because she knew nothing about the bill’s details or how it managed to survive the Senate floor fight.

But the networks didn’t know a Republican was invited.  As cameramen and reporters entered the House press gallery, they gloated how this issue could “lynch those filthy Republicans.”  One reporter accurately called out Bush’s Treasury Secretary as the villain in the story.

“Finally, we can take the shine off that piece of crap Baker and his Republican allies in the Senate,” she said, looking inquisitively in my direction.  She stopped short, realizing my face was unfamiliar.  Pelosi’s staff saw the interaction and immediately introduced me.  The conversation changed in an instant.

CNN Founder Ted Turner (left) with award-winning environmental producer Barbara Pyle, an attendee at the Pelosi “National Environmental Policy on International Financing” press gathering.

These were the talking heads from whom I obtained “the news.”  The Red Pill I was forced to swallow that day was my uncritical acceptance of a narrative from highly biased partisans.  They re-shaped truth, or ignored it outright, when it served their political agenda.

Trump runs against the iron triangle of power in Washington, D.C.  The mainstream networks are one full side of that triangle.  Of course they will not show you the real Trump.

The Red-Pilled must judge Trump purely on success or failure of his policies.  What we’re shown, even captured video, will lack context and portray him in the most negative light possible. 

That, too, is the nature of self-interested humans.

Trent Clark of Soda Springs has served in the leadership of Idaho business, politics, workforce, and humanities education.