The Million Dollar Bet that Wasn't

Being amused by something in the news does not always mean that it is funny. I am often amused but saddened at the time. This was the case when I saw many Democrats rejoicing over the results of Senator Elizabeth Warren's DNA test like some type of great victory had been won. The sentiments expressed by many Democrats were something like, “See, Senator Warren was right! She is vindicated! Should President Trump pay up and donate $1 million to Senator Warren’s favorite charity? Will he?”

Uh, no. What the President said was campaign shenanigans not to be taken seriously. He was speaking about what he would offer if he and Senator Warren ever debated, which shows he considers her a possible threat. Though the DNA test showing there was a high probability that she had Native American ancestry generations ago was probably necessary for her presidential candidacy, it was not a major victory, and Senator Warren and the Democrats would be wise to let it go.

The fact is, Senator Warren was unwise to designate herself as a minority in a directory of the Association of American Law Schools based on family stories. Harvard was equally unwise to promote her as a minority in an effort to increase diversity. Even if the designation never helped her career, and all indications are that it did not, hearing family stories of her ancestry is much different than growing up in a situation in which a minority faces socioeconomic hardship and discrimination because of their background. Senator Warren’s family struggled to remain middle class because of unfortunate health issues that affected them economically and had nothing to do with ethnicity.

Her past claim of minority status is certainly not an issue about her fitness for office, but neither is it a strong point to be touted. Her DNA test results were not a victory, just a political necessity to avoid defeat. Big difference. The results should be dismissed, just as the million dollar bet offer.

However, I can’t help but think it will be a continued distraction should Senator Warren announce her candidacy for President. Democrats will extoll the DNA results and Republicans will disparage them. This is, after all, the political atmosphere that exists today, concerned more with shenanigans than substance.

The Trumpian News Cycle

If there were a Pulitzer Prize for controlling the news cycle, without question it would go to President Trump. Either out of sheer brilliance or obscene narcissism, he has the passion and penchant for making sure that he is being talked about in the news. Constantly. Ubiquitously. Unendingly. Without fail. Day in. Day out.

His latest coup to win back his preeminence in the news (Well, not latest. There have been several more. I just can’t keep up.) was his blunt attack on the credibility of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

First, for the sake of clarity, let’s grant that the accusations have not been legally proven.

Second, ouch! Let’s throw discretion to the wind and just get naked as a jaybird, roll around in the mud, and then stroll into church and sit muddy and naked on the pew of the most sensitive topic on America’s radar right now, sexual assault. Nothing out of place there.

Whether you believe the allegations made against Judge Kavanaugh by Dr. Blasey Ford or not, the President’s mocking rant was as insensitive to those who have been victims of sexual assault as it was steeped in ignorance about the subject, an ignorance that so many are working so hard to eradicate. First, by talking about Dr. Blasey Ford’s lapses in memory, President Trump ignored the overwhelming amount of established data indicating that traumatized sexual assault victims can often recall some details of the assault but not other peripheral details. This phenomenon is not only common, it is largely typical pf sexual assault victims. Then, he promoted the stereotypical idea that women who bring such allegations at a later date are liars or troublemakers, ignoring the overwhelming evidence that two thirds of sexual assaults go unreported and a great deal are reported after the fact, simply because women do not want to relive the trauma and face the type of ignorant, hurtful accusations that so often accompany reporting sexual assault. In just a few sentences, President Trump became the poster child, and I mean child, for all the ignorance, sexism, insensitivity, and bullying that has made sexual assault the unreported plague that it is.

Yet, it was a move that played well to his followers in the atmosphere of a campaign-style rally. Really well. Incredibly well. Unbelievably well.

Will President Trump pay any penalty?

Well, it could backfire among moderate and independent voters, particularly women, in the upcoming midterm elections.

It was a move that made some Republicans cringe, which could erode support among Republican lawmakers.

It could give more credibility to the #MeToo movement, and possibly more energy.

However, if the past is any indication, much of the negative backlash will disappear with the next Trump-controlled news cycle. President Trump’s followers will dismiss it without any further thought. Republicans, even those that decry it, will tip-toe around it and then move on with their agenda when the coast clears. Political opponents of President Trump will soon have to move on to address his next attempt to control the news cycle.

Even if it it contributes to some Republicans losing in the mid-term elections and the Democrats gain the majority in the Senate, it won’t affect President Trump. He will say the Republican candidates who lost were too weak, that they were losers, low energy, or did not support him enough. After all, it couldn’t be his fault they lost. His followers will agree, and it appears that his loyal following may be most important thing to President Trump. When he retreats to the warm, secure atmosphere that exists in the confirmation-biased cocoon of his campaign-style rallies, President Trump, like a butterfly, emerges new and transformed, ready to move on to his next battle. And the next news cycle.