Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda? No. Only One Thing Matters in the End.
Having received the green light to implement the MAMA Project (“Make America Macho Again), let’s reflect on a thought from ad legend David Ogilvy: “The consumer is not an idiot. She’s your wife.” That was in the 1960’s, just before feminism started to find its way to the mainstream. While the remark may have been innocuous in intent (but probably not), Ogilvy was still dead wrong if he was referring to the wisdom of all consumers.
Democrats can point fingers all they like. Could they have done things differently? Found a better candidate? Of course. But that’s not why they lost.
Trump tells everyone who he is every chance he gets. His apologists and enablers twist themselves in knots to talk about how he really didn’t mean it when he said Liz Cheney should face a firing squad, or that Haitians are eating dogs and cats. They fully understand that he’s a pathological liar, convicted felon, seditionist, philandering husband, Christian nationalist (with no Christian values), misogynist, cheater, banner of books and wannabe suppressor of the media. Anyone that doesn’t dote on him is “the enemy from within” and should be jailed or executed. And I’m leaving so much out! The right wing can claim otherwise, but his words speak for themselves.
We should not fail to understand that all of the above are features, not bugs of Trump’s appeal. He grabs women “by the pussy! Sleeps with a porn star when his wife is home with his infant son! Talks about a pro golfer’s penis size! Don’t you love it? That’s our kind of guy.
But wait! Sure, he’s a creep, but what about policy? Someone I know well recently related that despite Trump being “a scumbag, his policies are better, and Kamala scares me.”
Not that he could name a Trump policy, but if he could, I wonder which ones he’d like. Trump wants to lower taxes on the rich while raising them on the poor and middle class. Just like Mexico was going to pay for the wall, China, not the American consumer, will pay his 10% to 100% or more tariffs. He’ll enable dictators, screw our allies, and round up those millions of immigrants who are pouring out of jails and insane asylums to rape our (white) women and turn our kids trans.
He’s putting RFK Jr. in charge of national health policy. Can’t wait to see the billboards advocating public health in the years to come, like “Let’s Bring Back Polio and Measles and Smallpox” or “Embrace Ignorance” or “Fuck Science.”
The icing on the cake? Deny health care and abortion rights to women, all while encouraging them to fulfill their “natural” roles as sex objects, homemakers, caretakers, and baby-making machines.
The facts don’t matter. What we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears is irrelevant.
Why?
There are several baked-in problems including the electoral college, right wing media spreading outright lies, social media algorithms, a population of “educated” and uneducated people who refuse to read or think.
And then there’s the Democrats’ basic inability to communicate and persuade, despite that they start with a huge advantage. A solid majority of Americans favor abortion and most other Democratic policies. And they still can’t win. Democrats couldn’t sell winter coats in Alaska.
Regardless, it all pales in comparison compared to the racism and misogyny of the American people. Why else would anyone vote for someone so despicable?
Many pundits from across the political spectrum, like columnist Bret Stephens, chafe at this thought. In his most recent column, “A Party of Prigs and Pontificators Suffer a Humiliating Defeat,” the conservative Never Trumper squarely places the blame on elite, “woke,” liberals. There is a grain of truth in what he said, but it’s still just a distraction.
Kamala never had a chance. Many of us convinced ourselves that Americans were ready for a woman – and a black/East Asian, cat-lady, childless woman married to a Jew at that – to be president. Not today my friend. American men voted in big numbers to prevent that. Not just white men, but Black and Hispanic men too.
Seems like machismo trumps race.
It turns out that Ogilvy was wrong on one count and right on another. Sometimes consumers are idiots. Unfortunately, this is no consumer gadget we just bought. There will be no sending Trump back to Amazon.
But the great adman was prescient about the ongoing need for men – and many women – to put women in their place.
A pundit I can’t recall, commenting recently on Trump’s infamous “I’ll protect women whether they want it or not,” was spot on when she said:
“Trump has always excelled in giving women what they don’t want.”
Such a wonderful role model for our sons and daughters.
As our nation heads toward Christian Nationalism, it’s only fitting to end with a quote from Galatians 6:7:
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
