WE’RE ALL SERVING
OUR APPRENTICESHIP
I wouldn’t have thought it possible. A self-absorbed, billionaire reality-TV star who had been known primarily for a snotty attitude toward earnest young people seeking to please him (on “The Apprentice”) has been made to look positively sympathetic.
More than that, Donald Trump appears more and more like a martyr, the victim of a grand conspiracy.
Having concluded that The-Donald-in-the-White-House is an unthinkable scenario, the Republican Party leadership and our left-leaning media may nonetheless make Donald Trump the next President of the United States.
Look around you. Everyone’s feeling that he’s being treated unfairly (even if they don’t particularly want to feel that way). Even those who are glad he didn’t get Colorado’s 34 delegates will admit (grudgingly) that it looked very much like a bait-and-switch gambit and very dirty pool.
A wave of righteous indignation is lifting Trump’s already astounding wild-man campaign to unimagined heights of popularity.
Whether or not The Donald prevails in Cleveland — and there are plenty of good reasons to hope he doesn’t — this country owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for the truths he has revealed about the manipulation of our political system. He’s beamed a harsh and disillusioning light on the incestuous interplay between the parties, the media, and the money interests.
People’s eyes are being opened — and not just Republican eyes.
The appeal of Bernie Sanders is largely a reflection of the same disgust driving Trump’s success. Contrary to what the Left would have us believe, there is no great groundswell for Socialism. With the exception of those young people who have no memory of the Soviet Union or the Cold War — and who prance about in their chic $40.00 Che Guevara T-shirts — most people pulling for Sanders are simply registering a protest. As I noted in a recent post…
“Republicans and Democrats are grappling with mirror images of the same dilemma. GOP leaders feel their turf has been invaded by an outsider (Trump) who’s beyond their control and owes them nothing, but is wildly popular among the Republican rank and file. Democrat leaders, on the other hand, are committed to a candidate (Clinton) who’s deeply vested in the labor unions, in lefty corporate circles, and in other key segments of the party’s financial base, but in whom most of the electorate has very little interest.”
I’m convinced that Bernie would never have gained so much traction if The Donald hadn’t whipped up grassroots fervor as effectively as he has. When “The Bern” eventually burns out, a lot of Sanders folk will migrate to Trump. Not necessarily because they think he’s the best candidate, — and certainly not because they suspect he’s a closet lefty — but because they want to keep sticking it to the “Establishment.”
Meanwhile, the GOP continues along its suicidal path.
So panicked are the party’s leaders that they’re openly stealing votes and delegates, prepping for a totally rigged convention. In the process they insult and alienate Republican voters, the very core of their constituency, with reckless abandon.
In much the same way, our once-great mainstream media proceed toward self-destruction. The most prominent outlets have abandoned even the pretext of journalistic balance and detachment — as evident in the recent Boston Globe April Fools front-page send-up of a Trump presidency.
This is turning out to be a very instructive campaign year — and in its perverse way, a whole lot more entertaining than any TV show. Thanks to Donald Trump, we’re all serving an apprenticeship in coming to grips with reality.
Keep tuning in.
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Update
A day after putting up this post, I came across an online graphic that makes a very similar point (I have no idea who created it)…
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If you haven’t seen the fake Boston Globe Trump “reportage,” here’s a link (it takes a little time to load, but be patient)…
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2797782/Ideas-Trump-front-page.pdf
Such bias-laden high-jinx may help to explain why trust in the media continues to fall. As reported by Associated Press…
“Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions”…
The Donald ain’t no fool. He’s capitalizing very effectively on the patent unfairness of “Establishment” tactics. In a recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal he wrote…
“The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will. On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy.
“Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision to substitute their will for America’s will in this presidential election?”
Read the piece at…
http://www.wsj.com/articles/let-me-ask-america-a-question-1460675882
Meanwhile, some people continue to cling desperately to their delusions about what has the grassroots all upset. Writing in The New York Times, Lynn Vavreck, professor of political science at U.C.L.A., insists that it’s really all just about race…
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/upshot/american-anger-its-not-the-economy-its-the-other-party.html
…even though a recent Gallup survey indicates that while concern about race relations has risen, the issue still ranks low in comparison to other current concerns…
http://www.gallup.com/poll/190574/worries-race-relations-reach-new-high.aspx
Update
Conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Joseph Farah think The Donald has very cleverly adopted a win-by-losing strategy, maximizing the sympathy gained because of all the Never Trump maneuvering. If so, he may be a much more gifted political strategist than people (including myself) have credited him with being. Or else, he’s getting — and following — some very shrewd advice…
http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/rush-farah-explain-trumps-victim-strategy/
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