What Really Happened?

Thucydides, perhaps the greatest historian of them all, admitted to his readers that, try as he had tried, he’d found it impossible to learn and report what really happened. And he was talking about the Peloponnesian War, in which he served as a general. He even caught the plague. And after the war he traveled all over Greece, interviewing people who’d participated in the war.

And his conclusion: “I’ve done the best I could.” But people’s memories play tricks on them, people lie and then forget they’re lying–and, well, history is hard.

I’ve read a lot about that last Democrat “debate,” and that’s what brought old Thucydides so vividly to mind.

Here we had a widely televised event. Millions of people saw and heard exactly the same thing. At the same time.

And yet the reporting of the event has run the gamut from “A total disaster for Bloomberg–he’s finished!” to “masterful performance by a great candidate!” And all points in between. Good luck, Thucydides, trying to find out what really happened.

What the various reporters and commentators said had very much to do with what they wanted their audience to think. With what agenda they were pushing. It would be nice if we could rely on our free and independent press for honest, accurate, fair, unbiased news reporting. [Allow three full minutes for a storm of sardonic belly-laughs] But that would be like relying on things to fall up instead of down.

The ones who stayed neutral for a while were waiting for their checks to clear.

One thing we can rely on is the certainty that the Democrats are not our friends. Under no circumstances should we vote for one of them. Ever.

I don’t care how they try to package Bloomberg. He’s got that “D” after his name, and really, that’s all I need to know.