I did not laugh along with Bill Maher’s notoriously sheep-like Californian audience, but neither did I agree, at least not immediately, with Ann Coulter. When Ms. Coulter, without hesitation, told Bill Maher that of the declared Republican nominees, Donald J. Trump stood the best chance of winning the party nomination, I paid attention. I was not dumbfounded or gobsmacked, like Maher’s terminally liberal panel, nor was I cackling like a buffoon as his audience invariably does. But, my curiosity was definitely peaked. My engagement in the 2016 elections began on that day, June 19, 2015, on Real Time with Bill Maher, thanks to Ann Coulter.
The next pivotal moment occurred in the first Republican Primary debate, hosted by Fox News.
When Megyn Kelly highlighted The Donald’s various crude, harsh and “highly inappropriate” verbal smackdowns of Rosie O’Donnell in the first Republican debate, I remember sitting up in my chair. I remember thinking, this could be it. This question would wreck 99% of politicians by forcing a pathetic-looking, groveling apology, or a flat-out denial…
Let’s relive it, shall we?
Megyn Kelly: “One of the things people love about you [Trump] is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. But that is not without its downsides, in particular when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, [crowd giggles] slobs, and disgusting animals—”
Donald Trump: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.” [crowd roars]
I had never seen the wind sucked so swiftly out of someone’s sail in my twenty-five years on this planet. Megyn Kelly was instantly deflated, like a sad balloon. In what has become, for many Trumpkins, a favorite and critical moment of the 2016 Presidential race, Donald Trump surprised everyone in the audience, including moderator and Fox News nemesis, Megyn Kelly.
I don’t think anybody saw it coming. I expected an apology from Mr. Trump, or a misdirection, or literally, literally anything except what he did, which was to deliver one of the leanest one-liners ever heard in US politics. (“Because you’d be in jail” is a close second.) Donald Trump, in current year, mined comedy gold from a question that would have toppled or handicapped a lesser candidate. As a persuasive tactic, Donald’s response was pitch-perfect because he put out the fire, won the crowd and delivered one of multiple blows to the suffocating reign of political correctness in the United States.
Bare in mind that this is no moral or ethical defense of Trump’s language or conduct, but merely a recognition that the tactic was a highly effective one, especially when aimed at his rivals. Trump leveled personal insults, attacks and interruptions that his Republican rivals were simply unable to handle, because no one had ever done it before. Were the GOP primary race a basketball game, team Trump ran a non-stop, full-court press. Mr. Trump did not abide by the traditional rules of decorum and his rivals were unable to adapt. Some of these attacks were repulsive beyond dispute, such as the attacks on Ted Cruz’s wife, and many believe that his attacks on illegal immigrants, a Mexican judge and several women disqualified Trump as a candidate from the outset.
That being said, Trump won the Republican nomination chiefly by bucking political correctness, by bucking establishment protocol and by appealing to a voter bloc that felt disconnected, hopeless and ostracized: Middle America.
Donald Trump went on to win the presidency of the United States in an electoral landslide by cutting out media intermediaries and connecting with his voting base in person. Trump rallies blasted previous records. Trump signs far outnumbered Hillary’s. Clinton was only able to compete in the rally race by enlisting the help of her dutiful celebrity friends, including Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Katy Perry among others. What seems obvious to many (myself included) is that Hillary Clinton took her support for granted. Donald Trump earned his by holding rallies three times a day and sometimes more. Hillary lost hers by expecting a higher degree of loyalty than existed. She expected her support to be given, not earned.
The results of this election amount to a staggering defeat, against all oddsmakers, of the epitome candidate of the establishment, Hillary Clinton, at the hands of the epitome anti-establishment candidate, Donald Trump. Polls gave Mr. Trump a 0-2% chance of victory right up until the night of the election, in which he broke the rust belt backbone of the Democratic party to win the presidency. Pundits generally agree that the Clinton dynasty has been finished, and that is a good thing for all Americans. During the primary season, Donald Trump eviscerated the GOP favorite and shoe-in, Jeb! Bush, effectively ending the Bush dynasty, which is also a great thing for all Americans.
What is most interesting, at least to me, about Donald Trump’s victory is the media “free agents” that supported him directly or indirectly. When the history of this election is compiled, it would be disingenuous, bordering on academic treason, to not dedicate a chapter to Julian Assange and his whistleblowing non-profit press, WikiLeaks. Additionally, behind Trump was a secret team of virtual unknowns, or at least underknown actors like new media pioneer Mike Cernovich, flamboyant culture critic and Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannoppolous, Charles C. Johnson of GotNews, YouTube stars like Paul Joseph Watson plus a tireless army of Twitter, 4Chan and Reddit trolls and posters that helped disseminate crucial Wikileaks revelations as well as relentlessly persecute the Democratic opposition with weaponized memes, a new type of satirical, rough but effective image-based online political warfare. Charles Johnson was quoted recently saying this: “…It feels pretty good to meme a president into the White House.” The hordes of effective online supporters for Donald Trump should not have been underestimated, and if the Democrats learned their lesson, will not be underestimated ever again.
Contrary to pundits worldwide and to the protests across the United States, there is common ground to be found post-election, whether for Trump or against, Democrat or Republican. For one, political correctness, which has stifled public debate in the spheres of politics and higher education especially, has been dealt a well-deserved haymaker. Silencing the opposition is not how to beat the opposition, but how to motivate and strengthen it. Chipping away at the predominant notion that opposition can simply be shutdown and silenced is certainly not just a win for the Republicans, but is a win for many disaffected Liberals who feel alienated from their own party.
The massive disturbances in both the Democratic and Republican establishments resulting from the hostile takeover of the GOP by a rogue billionaire to the revelations of duplicity on the parts of CNN and the DNC should provide a legitimate opportunity for positive changes to both parties and to our national media. A reorganization of Democratic brass is incipient and will offer opportunities to shuffle the deck and perhaps in two or four years, the Democrats may again pick a winning hand.
The Republicans, on the very same note, will undergo as great or greater changes to its top brass, since it was effectively taken over by a political outsider with a different agenda than the GOP elites. Maybe, after the most splintering, vicious campaign in living memory has finally ended, both major parties of the United States just may begin to better resemble its citizens who live and work here and simply want the best for their country.
callmesteiner 