It doesn’t surprise me that Donald Trump “earned” twice as much free media as Hillary Clinton, any more than the men’s U.S. Soccer team “earns” more than twice as much as the women’s team. What’s shocking is that more people don’t see the connection between the two, and the danger it presents to all of us.
The New York Times reported that the media has given Donald Trump close to $2 billion in media attention and therefore he has hardly had to spend any of his much-bragged about personal fortune.
So the privileged pompous blowhard gets all the breaks and the spotlight. What else is new?
And Trump supporters? They are getting what they paid for, too – nothing. Unlike all the other candidates, Trump doesn’t fundraise, and that’s good because most of his supporters wouldn’t donate. These mostly uneducated, angry and resentful white guys are mad as hell because they can’t have it all – and we’re supposed to feel sorry for them?
Please.
These guys are outraged because they can’t get a good job. They are furious that they have to compete with people from all around the world of every color and gender. They can’t make ends meet, let alone put away money for the future.
Boo hoo.
Here’s some unsolicited advice to the pitchfork and torch crowd. Grow up. Maybe you never deserved the jobs and social capital you lost in the first place. Maybe your pay now looks like what 99 percent of others’ do in this country. Maybe the breaks you got because you shaved, got a haircut and drank beer were too generous.
Oh, you’re mad, too, because the people you send to Washington don’t respond to your needs? You don’t have a voice? Your feelings are hurt because nobody respects you anymore?
Cry me a river.
Welcome to the world the rest of us have been occupying from day one. Sit down with any smart, hardworking woman who makes 70 percent of her male counterparts and talk about your rage. Ask Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn and Alex Morgan of the U.S. Soccer Team how they felt when they were told by the U.S. Soccer Federation that their demand for equal pay was an “irrational request.”
Ask Michelle Fields, the reporter who was assaulted by Trump’s campaign manager, how she felt when Trump said she was “making it up” and “delusional” while the videotape evidence was playing.
The so-called Trump phenomena is one that too many of us have experienced in our professional and personal lives before. For eternity we’ve sat through endless meetings with Trump-types talking ad nauseum about things they don’t know much about. We’ve endured receiving mountains of unsolicited advice from Trumpers completely unaware how condescending, patronizing and stupid they sound giving it. We’ve patiently put up with petty trust-fund posers pretending to be princely – and now with Donald Trump broadcast on the airwaves 24/7, you all can feel our pain.
If anything good has come out of Trumpism it’s that some people are learning for the first time what it looks like when the world is not your oyster. Others are experiencing the pain and frustration of discrimination for the first time.
The “angry white male” demographic fueling the Trump campaign gives good men like my husband, father and son a bad name. The ignorant, racist bullies at Trump rallies cast a stain on the American fabric and does injustice to my many friends and colleagues who bear no resemblance in their hearts and minds. They aren’t dumb, mad or entitled and shouldn’t be stereotyped. It’s unfair. Nobody should be judged on skin color, age and gender alone.
Like the obnoxious misbehaving kid who sucks up the teacher’s attention in your kid’s class, Donald Trump is getting most of the attention by the media, and everyone seeking to be informed is disappointed. Perhaps the New York Times should include in its reporting on all the free media and exposure Trump is getting the fact that men are the ones generating 62 percent of the “news,” and that its very own publication has one of the largest gender gaps with women receiving just 32 percent of the bylines.
That’s something newsworthy to shout about.
Cynthia Dill is a civil rights lawyer and former state senator. She can be contacted at:
dillesquire@gmail.com
Twitter: dillesquire
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