BAYNARD WOODS Baynard Woods is a DC correspondent blogging the first 100 days of Trump for NUVO.net.
REFLECTIONS FROM THE OPPOSITION S BY BAYNARD WOODS // EDITORS@NUVO.NET
hortly after Steve Bannon laid out his vision of nationalism and the deconstruction of government on the first day of CPAC, I was writing a story over a beer at the National Press Club. On the television was Sean Spicer, who said the regime would likely start enforcing federal anti-pot laws in states that had voted for recreational marijuana. Never mind that he had just invoked “state’s rights” as a rationale for refusing to protect trans students; never mind, that worldclass racist Jeff Sessions would be the one to enforce this; or the fact that we all need medical marijuana to deal with the insanity of having an incipient authoritarian in the oval office. But Spicer cited the opioid crisis to justify a crackdown. “Trump seems insistent on throwing the marijuana market back into the hands of criminals, wiping out tax-paying jobs and eliminating billions of dollars in taxes,” executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance Ethan Nadelmann wrote over email. But I had my own response. I ate a cannabis cough drop while we were in Washington. D.C. where recreational weed is legal — as long as you neither buy nor sell it — to get ready for Trump’s speech. I wanted to personally protest this disastrous decision but I also wanted to make sure I felt the real horror of CPAC here. The best thing about weed is it makes you question your own ethical decisions, often in a devastating fashion. The result was as horrifying as you might imagine. I tried to tweet some funny shit. But it was not funny. There is nothing funny about it. It is going to be a nightmare. At best, we are ruined by their incompetence; at worst, they actually succeed. I am a white male and I am horrified by what is happening here. I can’t imagine how it must feel for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community to know that this is our new reality. I am sorry.
// BY DONKEY HOTEY
I was sitting in the back as press, which a movement and something else to those was one of Trump’s main targets because outside of it. we are still able to question him, even if he He talked about protecting the flag more refuses to answer. It is clear here: they think than once. I’d guess he’s laying the groundwe sow discord. work to come back to the idea he tweeted The crowd, of course, loved it when the in December, threatening to imprison and president attacked us. strip the citizenship from anyone who “A few days ago I called the burns a flag. fake news the enemy of the As I was tweeting about It is clear here: Trump’s speech, I saw a story people and they are, the enemy of the people,” Trump said. on the 17 states passing laws they think we The press, he said, “doesn’t that would prevent protest sow discord. represent the people, it never since Trump’s election. will represent the people and An hour or so later, Wayne we are going to do something about it.” LaPierre said that “violence in the name He didn’t say what they planned to do, of politics” is the definition of terrorism. but he gave some hints. “And those who incite it and engage in During Trump’s speech, he said “No one it need to be prosecuted and punished, loves the first amendment more than me.” period,” he said, speaking specifically of The crowd laughed. It was not intended protests on the left. to be taken seriously, just as when he said There’s a thing on the right that prohe wanted to protect the environment, he testers are paid $1500 a week. I’ve covered was not booed because that, too, was not a a lot of protests. The protesters are not serious statement. paid. Hell, I don’t even make $1500 a week As with both Bolsheviks and Nazis, a as a reporter. But most of these CPACspeech means one thing to members of tivists seem pretty well-heeled, so maybe
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that’s where they get the idea. But, LaPierre’s call for prosecution seemed to extend to “the leftist media” which, he said, “is responsible for blowing the winds of violence as well.” He spoke of the “media’s deliberate lies aimed at destroying our freedom.” This is a constant refrain here. Bannon calling us “the opposition party.” Cracking down on the press is only the first step to cracking down on all opposition. Trump railed against anonymous sources — notice how he is always citing “a friend,” a “very reliable source” or “everyone” himself — saying we shouldn’t be able to use them. I don’t like anonymous sources either, but with proper vetting, they are essential. Remember Watergate? A pretty good reason to want to stop anonymous sources is if you are a secretive and paranoid president. For that matter, I don’t like most cable news. The “anchors” are like Trump — they are essentially reality TV stars. But it’s not cable Trump hates. He seems obsessed with it. He gave the nod to FOX and Breitbart, without mentioning them, stressing that he did not hate the entire press, only the “dishonest media” or “fake news.” So the stage was set for silencing reports that the president doesn’t like as a way to silence all opposition. It only took a couple hours. Only hours after Trump’s speech, as I was still writing this, the White House banned the New York Times, CNN, and Politico from a scheduled briefing, while allowing Brietbart, FOX and other conservative outlets to attend. The AP and Time boycotted the briefing in protest. All of this matters not because we are heroes — me least of all — but because, if we do it right, we can “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” The president and his cronies are pretty comfortable about now. We have a lot of work to do. N For more opinion pieces visit nuvo.net/voices