7/3/17
One would have thought that yours truly would be delighted
that two of my lifelong enthusiasms, politics and professional wrestling, have
been saliently wed by President Trump’s shenanigans on a doctored old WWE tape now
showing Mr. Trump pummeling a villain with “CNN” electronically plastered over
his face at ringside. (Point of
digression, but at least a parenthetical one… “lifelong” is no longer an appropriate
adjective for my enthusiasm for pro grappling; my interest waned about 20 years
ago when the evolution from mindless entertainment to male soap opera for the
intellectually indolent had completed its course. Now my interest is limited to reading the
sad news of the deaths of the titans of the mat from its golden ages, most
recently those of George “The Animal” Steele, Nick Bockwinkel (whose first
match as a young man was against Lou Thesz…talk about a blast from the distant past!),
Dusty Rhodes, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Verne Gagne. By the way, while Dick the Bruiser left this
mortal coil over twenty-five years ago, this post’s other titanic title
character, Bruno Sammartino, still walks among us.) However, I am, like most of you, disgusted
by Mr. Trump’s latest antics and, perhaps not like most of you, surprised by
the depths to which the President has sunk.
After all, as most of you know, I voted for the guy and predicted his
victory when he was left for dead; see the instantly classic TRUMP WILL WIN,AND WIN BIG, ON TUESDAY, 11/4/16 and, no, I will not cease reminding my readers
of that particular bout of prescience.
Like most of the people who voted for the guy, I was prepared for plenty
of silliness in the Trump era, but this is getting ridiculous.
One of the “would be hilarious if it weren’t so important”
aspects of this latest development is the reaction of Mr. Trump’s minions to
this story. They seem to have that
increasingly familiar “What has this buffoon done now?” look on their visages
and then, reluctantly and routinely, launch into some canned explanation along
the lines of “The American people knew what they were getting; this is a
president who hits back.”
Well, yes, we knew what we were getting but, as I said
above, the depths of this trip down the rabbit hole are getting genuinely
troubling. Further, I completely understand
hitting back; protecting the dignity of the office, and refusing to dignify
salvos from the vast peanut gallery we call the press, does not require the
president to become a punching bag for every two-bit media hustler trying to
become, or stay, relevant by taking cheap shots at the man. But does Mr. Trump have to hit back with all
the aplomb and maturity of an eight-year-old?
Surely Mr. Trump is smarter, more savvy, and more mature than to resort
to doctoring old films from a particularly embarrassing period in his show-biz
life and calling people the same names we employed on the playground (parking
lot, really) of St. Walter School circa 1965.
Isn’t he?
All that having been said, the assessment of most of the
media that, by this latest bout of not even sophomoric silliness, Mr. Trump is inciting
people to violence against the press is yet another example of Mr. Trump’s
opponents’ taking things, and especially themselves and the not all that
surprising non-cacophonous bleating that they call reporting, entirely too
seriously. These either disingenuous
or, more troubling, serious expressions of concern doubtless also spring from
the popular impression among sophisticated media types that all Trump
supporters are knuckle dragging, gap toothed back woodsmen just waiting for the
go-ahead to wreak violent havoc on their perceived opponents. Judging from very recent history, it appears
that the violence against which the media aristocrats so piously warn comes
from the nether regions of their portion of the ideological spectrum, but I
digress. In any case, the denizens of
the media, and of most of the Democratic Party, ought to get out more, and by “get
out more,” I don’t mean take a limo ride down Pennsylvania or Park
Avenues. Mr. Trump’s supporters display
fine dental hygiene and arms that reach only about a hand’s length below their
waists. Perhaps their only mutual
identifying characteristic is their disgust with the way business is done in
Washington, D.C. and the laughingly myopic view of the world displayed by the
Washington establishment’s mouthpieces in the popular media. In fact, those who voted for Mr. Trump are
so disgusted that they were willing to elect a carnival barker like Mr. Trump,
and every outlandish bite that Mr. Trump figuratively takes of the chicken’s
head is a further indication of how fed up people were by the way things have
been done in Washington by the Democrats, the Republicans, and the media.
Happy, blessed, and grateful Independence Day to each of
you.
Dear Mark,
ReplyDeleteI saw a FB comment on the page of a Conservative friend, the comment referred to Michelle Obama as "transvestite",I thought that you are correct, many of the president's supporters have good oral hygiene, are not knucker draggers, etc. I also thought about who many of his supporters are, in my opinion, most are upper and lower middle class racists, the upper live in white suburbia, the lower in suburbs and city neighborhoods and were united in their racism,and hatred of Obama, yet would rarely mix socially with each other.
I am proudly Liberal and a Democrat, at 76 I have lived under both parties and I much prefer the goals and vision of Democrats for an inclusive society.
Last evening I watched and felt a respect for Steve Bannon on a point regarding the last Bush administration and what they did to condemn American blood and treasure to perpetual war in the Mid-East. Personally I hold Dick Cheny in dire contempt, a cowardly draft dodger, sending our youth into war when he never wore the uniform of his country. Bannon probably won new fans last evening, I am not one, but I respected his candor. Now as to wrestling can we ever forget "Killer" Kowalsky, The Bouncing Gardini,Lou These, Gorgeous George, and Chief Don Eagle? Of course not.