Sometimes I think our blood has thinned. I listen to pronouncements from our politicians and I wonder if they even hear themselves. I yearn for more of the powerful speeches from years past that inspired us to do great things. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech changed the direction of our nation. President Kennedy’s 1962 speech set us a goal to land a man on the moon and it mobilized us in a way not seen for years.

President G.W. Bush stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center and responded to a worker who complained that he couldn’t hear him by saying, “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”

The crowd responded to President Bush by chanting “USA! USA!” and it was so good to hear. On the night of the attack members of Congress assembled on the steps of the Capitol, locked arms and sang “God Bless America”. When was the last time we’ve seen our congressional representatives patriotically united like that? It’s more likely these days that they’d be voting to eliminate the Pledge of Allegiance and change the national anthem to something from Beyonce or Lady Gaga.

Yes, yes, everyone makes mistakes, and if you spend enough time speaking extemporaneously in public eventually you’re bound to put your foot in your mouth. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was criticized for its sluggish response. President Bush praised FEMA chief Michael Brown by saying, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” That comment was in jarring contrast to the facts on the ground and may be remembered more than the one on 9/14/01.

Say what you will about Barack Obama, he can deliver a rousing speech while reading from a teleprompter. But when we got past his occasional “aw shucks” delivery or soaring rhetoric and looked at the content we found it troublesome. Some of us wanted to know what he meant by “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” We soon found out when he embarked on his ‘apology tour’ and began cozying up to the “Death to America” crowd in Iran. We found out, and we didn’t like it.

In February of 2008 Michelle Obama said, "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback." Here’s a woman who graduated from two Ivy League schools denigrating the very country that provided her with those opportunities.

Trust is a delicate thing. It takes time to earn but is easily lost. Don’t tell us one thing while we’re looking at another, and don’t enjoy the benefits while criticizing the people who provided them.

These instances of tone-deafness seem to be more frequent and more blatant. How unaware must a governor of a proclaimed sanctuary state be to tout imagined strides in subway safety just hours after a sleeping woman was set ablaze and burned to death by an illegal immigrant? How heedless of their own constituents must a mayor or a governor be to declare that their cities or states will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities while their own constituents are being robbed, assaulted, raped, and murdered? How oblivious must a president be to announce additional billions of dollars in foreign aid while hundreds of thousands of Americans have been left homeless from storms and wildfires? At the very least he could have mentioned what actions were being taken to remedy those problems on our own shores. (A big hat tip to the Amish, by the way.)

We've all seen it happen. We’re infuriated when public figures refuse to accept responsibility for their words or actions. We’re ashamed of politicians who are seemingly unable to empathize with others. Where is this lack of self-awareness coming from and where does it lead?

I think it comes from hubris and unaccountability, and the latter may be coming to an end. Every year from 1972 on, Gallup has asked Americans how much they trusted the mass media to report the news accurately. For the last three years 36% of those surveyed responded they have no trust at all in the media. Since the election, CNN and MSNBC have seen their viewership drop by half while ratings at Fox News have remained largely the same. This loss of trust may also be reflected in the make-up of the Brady Press Room beginning in 2025, as incoming Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she plans on welcoming podcasters and social influencers who played such a large role in the election.

Will the losses among their audiences and seats in the press room be enough to wake up the mainstream media?

Time will tell.

Image: AT via Magic Studio