Politics November 10, 2016
Donald J. Trump dealt Hillary Clinton and the Democrats a humiliating blow Tuesday night; he also single-handedly took down the mainstream media (NYT, CNN, Washington Post), the intelligentsia (including many high level academics at America’s elite universities), most educated women, a good bit of the Republican party, the Obamas, the fashion industry (including the likes of Anna Wintour) as well as Hollywood (Beyonce, Madonna, Jay-Z, Springsteen, the list goes on). Not to mention all the so-called experts, pundits, pollsters and the like who predicted victory for Hillary if not a landslide.
Now I happen to put The New York Times on a pedestal as the world’s greatest newspaper. “All The News That’s Fit To Print” it is. One of the few bastions of great writing that remains in the shrinking world of print news coverage. That said, they ought to be ashamed of themselves for the stunningly biased, even contrived anti-Trump coverage the Times and its brethren of the big media world conducted. Even as one of the Times’ biggest fans, I was offended by the sometimes two and even three negative Trump articles per day they have been running on or near the front page, for more than six months.
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This lack of balanced coverage is a rare embarrassment for the NYT. It would not have surprised me to see a headline like “Trump’s Second Grade Teacher Confirms He Ate The Apple At Recess.” It got that bad in my view. Thus when I title this piece “NYT Eats Crow,” it really means that they and many other major national media ought to be offering their sincere apologies to the President-elect. And to his credit, he took all the negative press and shoved it back down their respective throats, finding the secret sauce to get working class Americans to take its revenge on the media as well as the Establishment in total.
Outwardly, it appears Trump is not beholden to any special interest groups as he funded a good chunk of his own efficient and relatively low-spending campaign and given that he isn’t a lifetime politician and was the scion of a New York real estate family, his list of favors for career advancement is probably limited. Unlike Hillary, he owes few in Congress much less the usual cadre of industry-specific lobbyists, major donors, and “friends.” This along with the solid Republican majority in both the House and Senate, an impending Supreme Court nominee could be deemed as absolute power or at least a version of power rarely seen in the U.S. executive office.
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As a booster of all things that create opportunity for women, this consolidation of power makes me very nervous. What will become of the previously growing interest in shattering the glass ceiling in a variety of industries? Hillary’s ascension was bringing forth a new openness on the part of the Establishment to the concept of women in top executive and political positions. I am hesitant to say this but Citizen Trump’s ability to whip the working class into a frenzy using hostility, criticism and sensationalism reminds me of Hitler’s ascension. Will this old-school populism, which is also sweeping through a good bit of Europe not coincidentally, mean a return to traditional women are better seen and not heard, women should earn less than men, along with the other stereotypes? With this newfound power, can we rely on Trump to use it responsibly? Will he promote women and stop grabbing us by the you-know-what?
READ MORE: Why Women Voted for Trump and Where Do We Go From Here?
On Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert confirmed on the Late Late Show that President-elect Trump is the new reality, and no it is not a collective bad dream. Most analysts spent the day on air and off, admitting the error of their ways and trying to rationalize how it happened. Myself included, by the way. It almost feels like Trump himself is perhaps the only person with a true grasp of just how powerful his reach now is.
Here’s hoping that he will “forget” to de-fund Planned Parenthood and related reproductive rights organizations. The Trump we saw during his acceptance speech seemed lucid, rational and maybe just maybe, conciliatory. As if perhaps his resounding victory was enough of a touche’ to the doubters. Please continue to do all you can to support those who champion women’s rights and opportunity. And with luck, may this include the President-elect and his running mate.
