Amid the COVID-19 battle raging non-stop in our nation, it is easy to overlook an equally important battle—the 2020 election in November. Mr. Trump has already been put behind the 8-ball of this pandemic; no matter what actions he takes, there will be myriad criticism that his actions have irrevocably harmed our nation and he is, therefore, unfit for another term.
Two of my conservative male friends conspicuously condemn Donald J. Trump for being unpresidential. Especially during these COVID-19 troubled times.
Yes, President Donald J. Trump is decidedly churlish, hyperbolic, frequently less refined than Mitt Romney, disrespectful to his political and media critics and when compared to recent lightweight role-models in the Oval Office like Bush and Obama, often comports himself in an “unpresidential” manner, whatever that means. New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks condemned Trump’s taking the low manners of professional wrestling and interjecting them into the allegedly respectable arena of presidential politics.
But U.S. presidents are respectable only to those with whom they agree.
As the star of Emmy-nominated reality TV show, The Apprentice, occasional guest on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) broadcasts, and the 2013 recipient of the WWE Hall of Fame Award, many on the left are repulsed by President Trump. Republican critics, of course, prefer to forget the movie scion Ronald Regan’s flirtation with the tacky “Bedtime for Bonzo” before his successful stints as governor of California and the 40th President of our country. Both preternatural showmen, and far from being bad presidents, they have been effective, almost transcendent. Both were members of the Democratic Party before becoming Republicans and received continuous derision from the MSM and Democrats. We should take such repudiation as an unvarnished commendation!
Let’s examine professional wrestling for a moment. Professional wrestling is essentially a morality play, a scripted drama, where right usually, but not always, triumphs over wrong. Eli Bosnick, comedian, magician and podcaster, argues that wrestling is the battle of good v. evil. So what is wrong with that in politics? Despite the gloss of respectability, politics and professional wrestling are actually twin children of different mothers.
For many, professional wrestling is today’s battle between good and evil, no less appealing to Americans than to Greek publics in the 5th Century BC. For example, Medea by Euripides, focused on betrayal and revenge and is not dissimilar to Donald Trump’s winning the Presidency, then having the House of Representatives and the MSM try to impeachment him. Trying to be nice while being effective has not been an option for the President, and his revenge by skillfully winning a second presidential term would most assuredly bring our country back from the Obama malaise.
As a 12-year old, I would ride my bike over to visit my grandmother, a refined and practical lady. When I arrived, more often than not she was in front of the television set, locked into professional wrestling. She would shout when the bad guy, say Lord Carlton, was winning by committing illegal choke holds, or hitting the good guy Classy Freddy Blassie when his back was turned. To her it was the archetypal battle between good and evil and she was all in.
Since Donald Trump was sworn into office, we have had a WWE-type morality play unfurl on our TV screens, newspapers and online media with the Democratic Party. The MSM and the occasional disloyal Republicans, like John McCain, have done their best to keep him from accomplishing the job he was elected to do. Trump’s professional wrestling performance art embraces right over wrong with theatrics that engage his voting audience. Professional wrestling, like Donald Trump, knows the power of storytelling through drama and this does not a bad president make.
Mr. Trump traded his favorite catchphrase “You’re fired!” on The Apprentice for a promise to our nation to “Make America Great Again.” He quickly realized that the MSM wouldn’t see anything his way, after eight long years of cow-towing to and lionizing Barack Obama and his dishonest policies. Trump labeled the media apologists’ false stories about him and his policies as “fake news”—an iconic term that has stuck with most Americans and hopefully put journalism in its place.
Until Covid-19 forced a national social distancing quarantine, Trump held unprecedented public rallies on the eve of Democratic state primaries, while the Democratic presidential dwarfs were selling unsuccessfully, socialism, social justice and government run health care to American voters. The largest Democratic candidate rallies had but a fraction of the attendance at any Trump rally.
Not unlike professional wrestling, politicians are adept at saying horrible things about their opponents. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Vince McMahon of the Democratic Party, screamed “The worst thing to be in many Democratic primaries is a white male candidate!” Of course, that wasn’t racist to her party or the media. The black, Hispanic, gay and female contenders dutifully preened their minority varnish throughout the primaries. In the end, the finalist who emerged on March 1st, 2020 was Joe Biden—a septuagenarian white candidate who on any given day appears able to hide his own Easter eggs. The Democratic primary minority contenders have now become pretenders to the vice-presidential throne, unctuously curtsying to this old white male candidate, forgetting that race was such an important issue only a few months ago.
There is now palpable glee in Democratic circles with the pandemic and the attendant constriction of the roaring U.S. economy and unprecedented jobless rate. Whatever actions Trump takes will axiomatically be responsible for killing thousands of innocent people, especially minorities.
The real difference in our 2020 presidential election is that one candidate has proven he is remarkably good in the political ring, takes no grief from his opponents or the media, counterpunches skillfully when on the ropes, and will do whatever it takes to win another four years. As Evan Sayet has said—"He Fights!” Presidential decorum, whatever that is, be damned!
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