Anti-Trump hatred will simply galvanise voters
‘Love you ’merica!’’ It was the common refrain joyfully verbalised, ringing out from Reunion Tower’s observation deck on Thursday night in Dallas, as a blaze of starbursts painted the skies. I joined the heaving scrum of Texans atop the tower to enjoy an eagle’s view on the July 4th fireworks display. Shortly afterwards, I watched the live television coverage of the even more extravagant Macy’s Fireworks Display in New York City.
That this venerable shared experience still commands prime-time nationwide TV coverage, on NBC, struck me as a refreshingly wholesome throwback to television’s more innocent age.
Independence Day in the USA left me in awe of their unabashed outpouring of star-spangled patriotism. As Kiwis, we’re patriotically incontinent, with no day quite like it. But July 4 also offered a soothing, albeit brief, break in transmission from the uncivil war gripping Trump’s America.
Spending the past month in the United States offered a stark and dispiriting insight into how the partisan divide continues to plumb new lows. The internet has allowed us to filter out opposing points of view and cluster tribally, within our own bubbles of social media. Given that dynamic, you’d think traditional or mainstream media would strive to raise the bar of objectivity even higher, as a trusted point of difference in hard news.
But even the most impartial consumer of news would surely conclude that the overwhelming majority of major news outlets have jettisoned any true semblance of objectivity in their political coverage, slavishly complying with an anti-Trump liberal progressive editorial agenda.
It may not be as brazen as CNN or MSNBC, who unapologetically operate like Leftist spin-machines for the NeverTrumpers, but whether you pick up the Washington Post or New York Times, or watch the network news on ABC or CBS, the underlying bias is ever-present.
What you are left with is a state of perpetual and hysterical outrage, as the outlets leap from one over-excited, hyperbolic sensation to the next, in the rush to refuel their overheated news cycles. Trump’s confrontational and counter-punching style certainly invites a fair bit of blowback. And rightly so. He is not the type of leader who summons us to our better angels.
But the coarseness of political discourse from Trump’s critics, is out of control and over the top. While I was in the USA, the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was sent packing from the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia, simply because she works for Trump. The restaurant owner is a bigoted fool, but a slew of TV pundits promptly lined up to spew the most gutterlevel vitriol towards all women who work in the Trump administration.
I think Huckabee Sanders is a remarkably inspirational woman, who has taken on a formidably difficult assignment and acquits herself with grit and class. But not according to Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who thundered that Sanders deserves ‘‘a life sentence of public harassment and has no right to live a life of no fuss, no muss’’. Charming.
Not to be outdone, Democrat Republican Maxine Waters unleashed with the madness of a cut snake, urging every Trump staffer to be targeted. ‘‘If you see anybody from that Cabinet (in public), you create a crowd and tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.’’
The appalling optics over the family separation policy of illegal immigrants was a shameful homegoal for the Trump administration, even though their broader determination to secure the border is well-founded. Trump finally reversed course, not that it stopped that insufferably smug B-list celebrity, Peter Fonda from tweeting, ‘‘We should rip Barron Trump from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage with paedophiles and see if his mother will stand up against the massive giant a... hole she is married to.’’
This pathological loathing, now directed at his 12-year-old son, is simply despicable. Then there was Robert De Niro, charging on to the stage at the Tony Awards, like an untethered raging bull. ‘‘I’m gonna say one thing,’’ he growled. ‘‘F... Trump!’’
The assembled luvvies duly leapt to their feet like performing seals, joyfully clapping in massecstasy. And I also managed to catch that feral feminist Samantha Bee calling Ivanka Trump a ‘‘c...’’ on her TV show. Maybe the liberal Left misplaced that memo from Michelle Obama: ‘‘When they go low, we go high.’’
This Friday morning, Trump jets into Britain. What a pity that the mayor of the world’s greatest city, London’s Sadiq Khan, has also stooped into the sewer. His approval to allow a giant inflatable Baby Trump blimp to fly over Parliament Square is pure cringe.
In my conversations through the American heartland, all this unhinged hatred is simply galvanising tepid Trump voters from 2016, the moderate middle, to rally to his defence. The debased onslaught of offensive attacks may well prove to power Trump’s re-election. Oh, the irony.
Even the most impartial consumer of news would surely conclude that the overwhelming majority of major news outlets have jettisoned any true semblance of objectivity.