If you follow me on twitter you know I'm not a big fan of awards shows in general, but
all the talk post Golden Globes is about Oprah Winfrey potentially running for president
in 2020.
Mainstream media is in love with the idea of Oprah for President, and CNN, the NY Times,
Time Magazine, and others have all run think pieces on her chances in just three years
from now.
Hollywood of course is also love with the idea.. the conscience of lefty hollywood Jimmy
Kimmel has already said that he's on board with Oprah 2020, and NBC even tweeted from
their official account that Oprah is our next president...though they eventually deleted
the tweet.
Make no doubt, the elite class that was dealt a swift blow by the election of Trump in 2016
will quickly fall in line if Oprah decides to make a run.
Oprah has a remarkable life story -- she grew up in a Milwaukee boarding house in extreme
poverty, surviving absolutely horrific physical and sexual abuse, including being raped by
her cousin when she was only 9 years old.
From these unimaginably difficult beginnings, Oprah eventually made it into local news in
Chicago and then onto her syndicated talk show which not only changed the TV landscape
but had a cultural relevance unlike almost anything in the pre-internet age.
Every politician, pop culture figure and ordinary person doing something extraordinary seemed
to make it to Oprah's couch.
Since she ended the talk show 7 years ago, Oprah's had many professional ups and downs
continuing to navigate hollywood, starting her TV network OWN which hasn't really caught
on, charity work, and of course always making time to eat bread with very excited strangers
around a fancy table in a forest.
As for Oprah's politics, I'm not sure anyone other Oprah herself has a full view of them.
She was a big Obama supporter during his two campaigns and I have no doubt she's falls
on the Democrat-progressive side of things.
How she falls specifically on every issue I'm not totally sure, but we seem to be veering
towards a cliff where the issues will have almost nothing to do with who gets elected.
The cult of personality we're building around politicians and what that means for the health
of our society in the long term is quickly becoming a massive problem that is hidden
in plain sight.
I'm pretty sure I don't have to say much on the cult of personality that is Donald Trump.
Make no mistake whether you love or hate Donald Trump, we elected a reality TV star, a man
created by and now hated by the mainstream media.
Trump's rise used all the tools of the media against itself and that's why right now the
media is endlessly looking to destroy him...they want their narrative and control back.
Notice the shift in TV coverage and articles about Trump in the last two weeks or so, it's
shifted from endless Russia stories to Trump's mental health.
In most cases, the people writing these stories are the same people who said that stories
about Hillary's health were conspiracy theories...even after she collapsed and was dragged into an
SUV by security guards that autumn day in New York City.
So what we have right now is a cult of personality, Trump, versus the cult of media.
This has made a lot of people a lot of money.
As long as they keep churning out articles and think pieces, true or not, people get
paid.
To this end, Trump is their perfect foil, he has no shortage of Tweets to send out and
people to mock, so we've got a match made in hell playing our right in front of our
eyes.
Now back to Oprah for a moment.
Oprah is basically the exact reverse of Trump, even at the identity politics level: she is
a black woman and he is a white man.
She grew up poor, he grew up rich.
But more important than this, she says all the right things, talks about love and spirituality,
and is loved by the Hollywood and media class as one of their own.
Trump, on the other hand is their perfect enemy, as if they had written the script themselves.
Alas, Trump was one of their own until he became too powerful and now he is enemy number
one because they've lost control of the narrative.
Their hope is they can win some of that narrative back with another celebrity who will play
by their rules but I think this is shortsighted at best and disastrous at worst.
Just imagine what kinda of insane polarizing, sensationalized lunacy this potential matchup
will lead to as we head into 2020.
It'll be great for clicks and ratings, but it'll be terrible for ideas and debate.
You thought Hillary v. Trump was polarizing?
Just wait until Trump and Oprah battle it out in the Thunderdome on prime time TV.
Sadly, it doesn't look like we'll ever turn back to being governed as our founders intended,
with a limited federal government and strong states that empower people to control their
lives at the local level.
While Trump has done some good work in limited the power of the federal government, he's
obviously happy to govern by executive action as congress cedes more and more of their duties
to the executive branch, instead of the legislative branch where laws are supposed to be written.
His justice department too, is happy to step on the 10th Amendment and allow the federal
government to trample on states rights, just look at Attorney General Jeff Sessions decision
to allow the feds to crack down on states ability to legalize marijuana.
So to sum up, we’ll have a president that will most likely be a celebrity, whether it's
Trump or Oprah or Mark Cuban or The Rock, along with a executive branch that will continue
growing and growing in power.
This cult of personality will continually put people into office not on what they believe
and whether they understand or even care how government is supposed to work, but rather
by what they make us feel and how they can manipulate us into thinking exactly as they
do.
That feeling, coupled with that growing power of the office of the president is a recipe
for the authoritarian control we should all be wary of.
The only way to fight the tide of this celebrity induced Idiocracy is to get involved now before
it's too late.
Either that, or get ready to bow to Supreme Leader Justin Bieber in 2024.