The Message Of The Message
By
Leonard Zwelling
In this piece by Frank Bruni, it is pointed out, quite
correctly, I believe, that the message being delivered may be more important
than the package in which it comes. This may be much to the chagrin of
Tiffany’s and their famous light blue boxes, but it may be so of political candidates,
too.
There can be no less attractive packages than Donald Trump
and Bernie Sanders. One is a narcissistic old fat guy who looks like he’s
waiting for his first heart attack and the other is a screaming even older white
guy who just had a heart attack and always seems to be on the verge of having another.
That’s who we want to be president?
The Democratic debates have descended into yelling matches
among a bunch of old white guys, two white gals and a young gay mayor. No one
has managed to get above the fray for fear they won’t be heard. So instead,
they yell at each other trying for zingers that will make the news at eleven.
This is clearly no way to pick a president.
As a friend and blog reader correctly points out, what we
need is a woman president. We need a person capable of balancing ten things at
once (like caring for two kids, baking cookies, driving carpools, and serving
on the PTA as well as being CEO of a Fortune 500 company) not two guys with a
combined age of over 150 who will resort to insulting each other as America
holds its collective nose and votes for one of them—probably Trump.
And it won’t help if the Democratic nominee is Biden either.
He’s so far past his use by date, he’s aged cheese or vinegar.
America is in a difficult place. Either it re-elects the
worst president in history from the point of view of American greatness and international
respect or it elects a democratic socialist, which I find completely impossible
to fathom. If Bernie is the one nominated, then Trump wins every state but New
York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and maybe California, although I am not at all
sure about the latter.
What is so remarkable is that neither of these men, Trump or
Bernie, is in the least bit likeable.
Hillary Clinton echoed what I detected when I was on Capitol
Hill and served on the staff of the Senate committee of which Bernie was a
member. No one did like him. No one did work with him. Hell, he wasn’t even a
real Democrat. Hell, he still isn’t. I’m not sure why they let him run in their
primaries. Bernie sounds like the next words out of his mouth will be “get off
my lawn.” He makes John McCain sound like a Buddhist monk. Bernie yells and
screams and gesticulates and makes himself a generalized pain in the butt. The
kids (those under 30) think this is great and love the fact that he will
deliver them from their staggering college debts, but he really has no good
idea how to implement his health care plan and could never get Congress to
raise taxes to pay for all the stuff he wants to give away.
Trump is one of the singularly least attractive politicians
I have ever encountered and he treats people dreadfully, has loyalty only to
those crooks who give him fealty, and is not averse to using his power to free
real criminals. That’s a president? Give me a break.
As Frank Bruni points out, the likeability factor cannot be
at play all that much in this year’s contest for the White House. The Democrats
get on stage and act like spoiled children throwing tantrums at one another and
expecting voters to forget all of this and pull the lever for them. Why? Only
Mayor Pete and Senator Klobuchar have the demeanors to lead. He’s way too
inexperienced in politics to galvanize a nation against Trump, and as Bruni
points out, Amy is simply too low key, seeming to be running for local office
or treasurer of the bridge club.
Evidently the next president is likely to be a thoroughly
unlikeable white man who people either fear or just plain don’t like. Great.
And I thought relationships mattered in politics. Silly me!
Trump’s message is to “keep America great.” Bernie wants a
revolution. John Lennon commented about the latter fifty years ago. “You ain’t
gonna make it with anyone any how.” Those are the messages. The fact that Trump
is likely to get re-elected and Bernie might be the Democratic nominee means
that the package enveloping the message is clearly without import.
