Mainstream media in America is spinning
on its head trying to stop Donald Trump from becoming President of
the United States. Mainstream media in Canada and abroad are watching
the attempt in the way people would watch an agonizingly slow-motion
train wreck.
My question is: who decided it's the
media's job to overtly campaign in a presidential race in this way?
Granted, Donald Trump really is the
worst choice possible to lead the world's largest economy and command
the world's most powerful military. Full stop. But beyond informing
voters of their choices — and, yes, suggesting a better option —
it's up to voters to choose who will lead them, not the media.
The picture I get comes from old-time
farming, when families supplied their own larders. People would
select a broody hen, and have it sit on a few duck eggs to hatch
them. The little ducklings would follow the hen around until they
caught sight of water and they'd happily toddle in. The hen would
pace back and forth on the shoreline, clucking like only a mother hen can, while the ducklings did what ducklings do naturally.
That's what mainstream media is doing
right now. Clucking on the shoreline while their duckling readers
flock to Donald Trump.
We're talking about the big guys here —
Washington Post, New York Times, National Review, The Atlantic, and
Huffington Post to name a few. In Canada, it's the Globe and Mail,
National Post, CBC News and more. All are wondering aloud how a
certified bozo like Donald Trump could possibly become President of
the United States. In Europe, if anyone pays attention at all to the
U.S. primaries circus, they are horrified (but they have other, real,
problems to worry about).
All are worried about the disaster that
must certainly follow the moment American voters decide they'd rather
have a serial liar, a proud hatemonger, an unrepentant misogynist, a
wannabe war criminal and economic buffoon as president, rather than
the candidates selected for them by the elites in the backrooms, and
the billionaires that fund them to enrich themselves.
Oscar winners, hyperventilating as they
clutch their golden statues, exhort America to Stop Trump! while the
ushers direct them offstage. TV comedian/commentator John Oliver set
himself up for a lawsuit to begin the minute Trump is elected and
“loosens” American libel laws — the Constitution be damned.
Everyone who is anyone wants to Stop
Trump and everyone else doesn't seem to be listening. Cluck. Cluck.
It's become an online game to discover
the worst transgressions ever committed by The Donald. My personal
favourite (so far) is his agreeing with shock radio host Howard Stern
that, yes, he could have “nailed” Diana, Princess of Wales. “She
was supermodel beautiful ... she had the height ... she had the
magnificent skin.”
Do voters know what it says about a
person who can sexually objectify dead royalty? Eeww.
Do voters know what ignoring all this
says about them? About all the other candidates?
The worse things seem, the worse things
get. But still, it's the voters who decide. Perhaps the mother hens
in the media should check their clucking, lest the duckling voters
cast their votes both in open defiance of party big shots, and the
media big shots together.
People like Hollywood metaphors, so
here's the one with Donald Trump. America is the female lead, who
wakes up in a garishly glitzy hotel room the morning after the
election. She looks across purple fake-satin sheets at Trump and realizes
she has made The. Biggest. Mistake. Ever. A dark, pathetic spiral
ensues.
In the end, the voters decide. In the
end, you get the government you deserve.
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