Oprah Winfrey for President in 2020?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
For undemocratic Dems, it makes as much sense as nominating Bozo the Clown.
At the same time, given America’s deplorable state, why not? Qualifications for the job aren’t necessary.
She and Trump share two attributes. They’re both billionaire entertainers, media celebrities.
Forbes estimates her net worth at $2.8 billion, Trump’s at $3.1 billion – both a lot richer ahead from the GOP tax cut heist.
They’re connected to America’s rich and powerful. They’re establishment figures, notably Trump by serving in the nation’s highest office – Oprah as a longtime media celebrity.
Ahead of the 2003 Iraq war, she disgracefully promoted it on air, including with video clips featuring “experts.”
They included hawkish neocons Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and others, claiming America was “morally” obligated to remove Saddam.
She called his removal a humanitarian mission, omitting vital facts, selling naked aggression to millions of viewers based on bald-faced lies.
She lied for powerful interests she supports. It wasn’t the first or last time. She’s deplorable, one-dimensional, more infomercial than real.
She’s criticized for promoting self-help. Her dubious message to middle-aged women is “(y)ou’re special. You have some flaws, but it’s nothing some luxury lifestyle can’t fix.”
To her credit, she succeeded against long odds, yet uses her celebrity irresponsibly.
She campaigned for Obama, uninformed Amercans sold false promises. She lied saying “(l)ong before it was the popular thing to do, (Obama) stood with clarity and conviction against the war in Iraq.”
He supported it all along, in office terror-bombed seven countries in eight years, exceeding the worst of Bush/Cheney.
She’s concerned about money-making, getting more super-rich than already. On major world and national issues, she plays fast and loose with facts, banishing truth-telling on them from her airwaves.
She didn’t become a billionaire by speaking truth to power. Her skill is reaching and influencing vast audiences on behalf of her corporate sponsors.
She’s orchestrated to stay on script, a manipulator, a made-for-television communicator, delivering wrong messages to dumbed-down viewers, unable to distinguish between facts and fiction, brainwashed to accept rubbish fed them on air.
She’s well-connected, supports imperial wars and force-fed neoliberal harshness, uncaring about human and civil rights for the nation’s disadvantaged most harmed by failure to enforce them.
Reportedly she’s intrigued by the idea of running for president. Maybe she could win. Professor of Entertainment, Media and Society Martin Kaplan said “(t)he name of the game in elections is name recognition, and you get that from celebrity.”
Pollster Ann Selzer explained “(y)ou have to want to do it, because it’s an enormous challenge, an enormous trial, an enormous test of your soul.”
It’s a daily physical ordeal, demanding the willingness to sacrifice all aspects of privacy, only the most committed willing to accept the great sacrifices for a chance to grab the brass ring.
In 2016, Americans elected a billionaire entertainer to the nation’s top job. Would they want to dump Trump for another one in 2020 – getting more of the same with a gender difference?
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
