How a Reality TV star punked the President of the United States
As much he may be reviled, laughed at or even worshiped, Donald Trump won a scuffle with the President of the United States. If I’d told you a year ago, that the President of the United States would be forced to do anything by a reality TV personality would you have believed me? Worse yet, Trump forced Obama to do something that he’d already done. By releasing his long form birth certificate (he already had released the short form) Obama gave credence to one of the most preposterous conspiracy theories in American history. The problem is the president really had no choice.
Obama found himself in a classic Catch-22, ignore Trump and only give credence to his claims, respond and stoop to his level of absurdity. When I say Obama was punked, I mean he caved, he and the Donald played a game of chicken and he lost.
The problem is not that Obama gave in because as I’ve said he really had no choice, the true heart of the problem is what our politics have devolved into. At this point a liberal writer would devolve into cries of racism, throwing the race card onto the table as if it were the ace of spades. I’m not a liberal. I’m a conservative (or at least I used to be.)
Much like Jesus said of the poor, conspiracy theorist will always be among us. There will always be a grassy knoll. an illuminati, truthers, birthers etc..What has been disturbing is how mainstream they’ve become. When I first got became following politics roughly 15 years ago, this kind of thing was dismissed quickly and it certainly wasn’t covered by major news organizations.
Donald Trump says Obama is not a US citizen. So…. I think the NBA is fixed who cares? How is it newsworthy that a reality tv star has an opinion about politics? How is it newsworthy that a man who’s been teasing a presidential run since 1988, decides to play the media again? Since when did thinking of doing something become news? Wouldn’t the news be when he actually announced?
The media ate it up; it had all the elements of they love, a high profile person who’s a great sound bite, race, politics and a chance to make republicans look like simpletons. It’s where we are now, the Twitterfication of the world, everything has to be 120 characters, or less, the pithy catchy sound bite. Our culture has become so inundated with information that to truly break through the clutter, one must be instead of ignoring this behavior, the media plays into it, even celebrates it.
No major conservative pushed the birther nonsense, not Beck, Hannity, Rush, or even Ann Coulter, who’s spoken out against it the moment it reared its head. While those people mentioned above are responsible for the current environment that the country finds itself in, they have little to do with this story.
This is the product of a lazy media, more willing to present caricatures and play to stereotypes, than actually report on the news.
