I was watching 60 Minutes on Election Day evening because watching early returns are not good for one. And there were stories about war, pestilence, and America’s toxic political mood, which prompted “viewers to invoke divine intervention.” It showed, as though we didn’t already know, that we are a fractured people, unfriending political opponents.
I can’t help but think how much America really wanted Trump all along. The Daily Kos blamed his rise on the (deliberate) failure of TV news, and one could make that case. Hey, it’s all infotainment!
But the comedians wanted him too. Just this past weekend, John Oliver made an impassioned final plea for Americans to reject Donald Trump, during which he shows himself, back on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, begging Trump to run.
And when he DID run, Stewart, before he retired in August 2015, thought DJT quite amusing. The news organizations loved the boffo ratings of the Republican debates, which were four TIMES greater in the summer of 2015 than four years earlier. It was all great theater, I suppose, but I never thought it was all that humorous.
Finally, on the late, lamented Nightly Show in December 2015, they were doing a skit when a couple of the actors, Mike Yard and Ricky Velez, told host Larry Wilmore that doing Trump schtick just wasn’t funny anymore. I noticed recently that someone was complaining that the comedians were all bashing Trump more than Hillary; I figured it was penance.
The 16 Republicans who ran against him were largely intimidated that he might slap a nickname on them. The guy’s been in the public eye since the 1970s; where was their opposition research?
And now the media who wanted him, have him, ironically a guy who has promised to be a threat to press freedom, who inspires claims of Lügenpresse (lying press), and gins up his followers to intimidate specific reporters.
Yeah, yeah, maybe Bernie could have won, and easily, I think, because he had passionate followers, one of the reasons I supported him in the primaries. And maybe the FBI director James Comey’s announcement of a new investigation less than two weeks before the election sunk her.
I admit I don’t understand why these angry people think Donald Trump, of all people, is the fellow to fix things. But the people wanted someone who insults people and abuses women and hypocritically attacks others for the same misdeeds he’s been criticized for, whose rhetoric encourages extremism, and who eschews science. The people have spoken.
Obviously, I think “the people” are wrong. I realized it fully last April, when my daughter expressed interest in seeing Donald Trump when he was in Albany. She didn’t support him, just wanted to see him. And I vetoed it, not for political reasons, but because I worried for her safety and mine. THAT’S who we just elected President. (NOW will he release his income tax returns?)
This is a blow I have to muse upon a bit more.
ADDENDUM: I wrote on Facebook yesterday:
Ah, it’s November 8. According to Wikipedia, what happened on this date?
1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Montezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.
1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
1923 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
Anything interesting happening today?
What Do We Tell The Children? “Tell them, first, that we will protect them.”