Shakaboona from SCI Rockview. “Donald Trump, Genius or Idiot?”
Many political pundits were in awe of how Donald Trump manipulated the media like a maestro to have his message delivered and face plastered on every news station in America during the Republican primaries. Trump, a real estate mogul and reality TV star, took a strategic gamble by substituting paid political ads on TV for his uncanny ability to maneuver the media to center the news cameras on him. By making himself available to news reporters on a daily basis and making ridiculous statements on his campaign trail, Trump cornered the political media coverage market and obtained free political campaign ads in the Republican primaries.
Trump’s asymmetrical style of political campaigning in the Republican primaries, of manipulating the media to cover him and provide free political ads, could be said was a stroke of genius. The more politically incorrect and controversial statements Trump made, the more the media covered him. Trump even bragged about not spending a dollar on political TV ads, like his Republican opponents did in every state. However, what may have been a stroke of genius in the Republican primaries may well be a stroke of death in the general elections. Why? Just two words: diverse demographics. If Trump continues to stoke the racial flames and spread fear in America for media coverage and free political campaign ads within the context of a diverse general population, he will lose the general elections and lose big.
Trump, to the exclusion of nonwhite voters, is attempting to propel himself into the White House by tapping into the latent white nationalist sentiments running through the veins of America. Trump is testing the idea of whether a candidate for president can get elected into office based solely on the votes of Caucasian Americans. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party are spending tens of millions of dollars in political TV ads targeting the diverse American general population, getting her message out, and defining Trump as a loose cannon.
When the dust settles and the sun has set on the 2016 presidential elections, Donald Trump will go down at the annals of history as either a political genius that outsmarted everyone or an idiot that thought he could win the presidency by appealing to white nationalist sentiments and by insulting women, African Americans, Latino Americans, immigrants, Muslim Americans, and the handicapped. From the belly of the beast at Prison Radio, I am Shakaboona. Thank you for listening.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
