WHO EVEN WANTS PRESIDENT WINFREY? OR TRUMP IN CHICAGO?
What’s wrong with people?
I’m reading all this speculation about Oprah Winfrey being maybe interested in running for president. Conversation seems to revolve around her views. Is she sincere? Is it a joke? And the logic seems to be, heck, experience doesn’t count for anything, obviously, since Donald Trump was elected president. So why not Oprah? She’s a big rich star too!
Those people are missing the point, entirely. Yes, Trump won. But based on the chaos of the first six weeks of his administration, and the unqualified clowns/ zealots he’s stuffing his Cabinet with, his election isn’t a template for more of the same. It’s a grim cautionary tale, a reminder that while the popular mania might turn on expertise in general and politicians in particular, that electing a president based on lack of government experience is like choosing a surgeon based on scant medical knowledge. Oh, he can put on green scrubs and a paper mask and look the part. And maybe fool some people who judge by appearances. But stick him in front of an open chest cavity and he just stands there, gawping.
Which is sorta what Trump is doing now.
The only actual accomplishment Trump can point to is giving himself an “A.” The rest is bluster. Which is not the bad part. The bad part is that some people believe him. They assume, he’s so smug, so certain, so rich, he must be succeeding, since he says he is. Except he’s not. We just aren’t used to somebody lying so consistently, so thoroughly. It throws us.
Yes, there are similarities. Like Trump, Oprah is a giant airship of inflamed ego. The materialism run amok? The close-your- eyesfollow-me- and- your- dreams- willcome- true magical thinking?
There is a connection between Trump’s enormous vanity and his almost hallucinatory relationship with the truth. Because Trump is an insecure egomaniac, everything has to reflect well on him. He
can’t contemplate an error that might trace back to his door. Hey, Mr. President, the winks and dog- whistles you’ve been tossing at the anti- Semitic far right are resulting in bomb threats to Jewish organizations across the country and, since that gets old, now gunshots at a synagogue in Indiana. Any comment before it escalates further, as it must?
Maybe the Jews are doing it themselves, Trump mused, “to make others look bad.”
Those rascally Jews! A false flag, like the Newtown massacre.
The nation seems divided not so much into Democrats and Republicans anymore but between those who grasp what Trump is and those who don’t. It generally falls along party lines, but not always. U. S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democrat, nevertheless collared Trump on his way to his speech before Congress on Tuesday and invited him to Chicago. Why would Rush do that? What is he think- ing? I phoned Rush, and he didn’t respond, but we can easily guess. The idea was: If only Trump saw the real Chicago, then he wouldn’t slam the city as a slaughterhouse every chance he gets.
Is that your plan, Bobby? Get Trump to the South Side, sit him down with Theaster Gates, show him some Jesse White tumblers and he’ll see the light? A vote of confidence in Trump’s essential goodness that would be almost touching if it weren’t so misplaced. Does Rush think Trump is beating down Chicago because he doesn’t know better? Inviting the president to see Chicago for himself is an undeserved compliment to the man, a bit of “if only the czar knew” misplaced hope. “Gosh, Bobby, thanks for showing me your city, the scales have fallen from my eyes . . .”
Trump doesn’t care. He won’t even come here. And there Rush is, proudly waving Trump’s empty promise.
There is no learning curve here. Inviting Trump to a national park will not stop him from breaking up the EPA. Sitting him down to dinner with a Hispanic family won’t delay his insane wall. Don’t try appealing to a sense of fairness and decency that isn’t there. Rather, recognize the pathology we have brought upon our country and fight it. Being optimistic, respecting authority, appealing to reason — to answer my opening question — are luxuries patriotic Americans can no longer afford.