I pledged over a year ago to eschew commenting on this presidential campaign because nobody can do so without compromising his dignity. I trust the reason for this is self-evident.
I have essentially honored my pledge, despite constant entreaties from friends, real and virtual. But sometimes the entreaty was too much. Such was the case on Wednesday, after I published a commentary on the World Economic Forum instead of the New Hampshire primary.
I hereby oblige.
Donald Trump is nothing more than the P.T. Barnum of business: a huckster who thrives on the maxim that ‘there’s a sucker born every minute’…
Sadly, far too many people think Trump would make a good president. They are the suckers to whom he could sell swampland in the Florida Everglades as beachfront property, or discredited degrees from his Trump University as even better than accredited degrees from Harvard.
(“Trump for President? Don’t Be a Sucker,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 8, 2011)
This quote shows that I was pooh-poohing the prospect of Donald Trump becoming president of the United States even before he formally launched his big-top campaign. Which is clearly at odds with the media hailing his win on Tuesday as if he had won not just the Republican nomination but the presidency itself. In fact, his win merely showed that 35 percent of Republicans in one lily-white state are gullible enough to vote for Trump. This, no matter how much (or how often) he proves himself unsuited to be president.
In this sense, Trump’s supporters are, for the most part, the same poor, uninsured white folks who are so “angry” with Obama, they support rich, insured politicians who are hell-bent on repealing the healthcare Obama provided for them. They are the same blue-collar, white folks who act as if they have more in common with a white-collar billionaire like Trump than with fellow blue-collar blacks and Hispanics.
And, alas, they are the same people who made Honey Boo Boo’s redneck blatherings and Snooki’s moronic antics must-see (reality) TV, signaling America’s descent into the cultural abyss where bombastic hucksters like Trump now thrive.
Only willful ignorance, born of rabid partisanship or liberated racism, explains why so many refuse to acknowledge Obama’s accomplishments. And only willful ignorance in spades explains why so many think a race-baiting megalomaniac like Donald Trump would make a better president.
(“Failure to Communicate the Ironic Regret of Obama Presidency,” The iPINIONS Journal, December 22, 2015)
Clearly, notwithstanding the ignorant fulminations of these Trump supporters, two terms fairly explain their rabid political activism against self-interest: old-fashioned racism and new-fangled xenophobia.
To be fair, though, I hasten to point out that 65 percent of New Hampshire Republicans voted for other candidates. What’s more, there’s this firewall, which Trump will find far more impenetrable than any wall he can build on the southern border:
Trump is the most unpopular candidate of either party when the entire U.S. population is taken into account – and that he has a higher unfavorable rating than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election when we began to track favorability using the current format.
(Gallup, January 30, 2016)
Not to mention that more New Hampshirites voted for Bernie Sanders to be the Democratic nominee than those who voted for the top two Republican finishers, Trump and John Kasich, combined. Surely this belies presumptions about a lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters this year.
Unfortunately, saturation coverage of Trump’s traveling circus is proving good business for him and the media in equal measure. This is why reporters are as loath to point out these facts as used car salesmen are to point out defects in their lemons.
Of course, Trump is as Trump does. Accordingly, he’s leading the chorus of reporters and pundits now singing hosannas to him. Neither he nor the media could care any less that his win amounts to much ado about nothing.
Still, there’s no denying his campaign’s unprecedented displays of buffoonery and vulgarity. But this says far more about the media’s race to the bottom for ratings than The Donald’s dumbing down of presidential politics.
My pet peeve these days is the malpractice inherent in TV journalists wasting hours every day with idle-minded speculation about the 2016 presidential election – three years before any such speculation could have any news value or relevance. Their malpractice is made brazenly hypocritical by the fact that these are the same journalists who, just months ago, were presenting snarky, indignant reports about retailers promoting Christmas wares in August – three months before any such promotion would seem appropriate.
(“Journalism Is ‘Having a Very, Very Pathetic Moment,’” The iPINIONS Journal, November 13, 2013)
Frankly, I cannot denounce the media enough for dedicating more coverage to Trump than all other presidential candidates (Republican and Democratic) combined. If Trump were addressing the issues facing the nation, the media could at least defend their coverage as being in the public interest. But, as Jeb Bush has decried to no avail, Trump has just been “insulting his way” to the nomination — issues be damned.
Hence this coverage makes a mockery of the media’s role as the fourth estate. It clearly betrays their constitutional fiduciary to act as the people’s watchdog. But, as my quote about journalism having a pathetic moment attests, I’ve been denouncing the tabloidization and twitterization of all news media to no avail for years.
And don’t get me started on billionaire Trump gloating about getting so much free media it makes his relatively poor rivals, who are spending millions, look like suckers. This, of course, is a textbook example of the system conspiring to make the rich richer and the poor poorer — opposition to which is the galvanizing force behind Bernie’s campaign.
Apropos of which, coverage of the Republican results was such that you’d never know the Democratic candidates created real drama in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
A year ago, Bernie seemed like a frustrated 73-year-old socialist on the precipice of retirement, which promised to be every bit as inconsequential as his 35-year congressional tenure. By contrast, a year ago, Hillary Clinton seemed like the anointed successor to President Obama, having indentured herself to his service after he upset her to win the 2008 Democratic nomination.
Yet Bernie not only fought Hillary to a virtual tie in the Iowa Caucuses last week; he beat her by over 20 points in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. Which is why Hillary and her die-hard reporters can be forgiven fears that history is repeating itself. But I couldn’t be happier.
I would like nothing more than to see Bernie do to Hillary in 2016 what Barack did to her in 2008.
(“Bernie Sanders: The Democrats’ Ron Paul…?” The iPINIONS Journal, July 2, 2015)
Hopefully, as the Trump circus ends its run, inevitably, increased media coverage of this unfolding drama will cause you to feel the Bern too.
Unsurprisingly, Bernie’s detractors are spinning fears about him being too old to revolutionize American politics. But bear in mind that Pope Francis’s detractors were spinning fears about him being too old to revolutionize the Catholic Church … until he began doing so. Note also that Bernie is every bit as entertaining in a positive, intelligent, and inspiring way as Trump is in a negative, ignorant, and mean-spirited way.
Incidentally, I welcome black celebrities like actor Harry Belafonte, former NCAAP director Ben Jealous, and critically acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates to the cause. Not least because they provide a formidable counter to the way black politicians, led by the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, are lining up to support Hillary.
Mind you, it behooves her not to put too much stock in their support. After all, these same black politicians lined up to support her in 2008, until the upstart Obama began showing that fairytales can come true. They dropped Hillary like a hot potato.
I don’t care for celebrity political endorsements. But I’d be a fool not to appreciate the galvanizing impact they could have in our celebrity-obsessed culture.
Only this impact explains British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel making quite a show this week of seeking counsel on the migration crisis, which is threatening to tear the European Union asunder, from actor George Clooney and his wife Amal.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of world affairs that the diplomatic initiatives of a rock star or Hollywood actress are taken more seriously than those of a seasoned statesman. But that is the perverse reality….
(“Celebrity-Obsessed World Has Made Actors and Rock Stars the Statesmen of Our Times,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 23, 2005)
With that, I hereby pledge anew that this will be my last commentary on this presidential horse race (i.e., on how candidates fared in latest caucus or primary), until Republicans and Democrats choose their respective nominees this summer. This pledge shall obtain even if former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg dons a third-party hat, making this year’s presidential campaign even more of a three-ring circus.
Related commentaries:
Trump for president…
Failure to communicate…
Media pathetic…
Bernie Sanders…
Celebrity obsessed…