Tuesday, June 18, 2019

A PASSIONATE CULT FOLLOWING IS NOT A NATIONAL CONSENSUS

The president tweeted this yesterday:



Today, on the radio, Rush Limbaugh and Vice President Lickspittle took that guitar reference and ran with it:
RUSH: I’m told that there are more people that are lined up to get into your rally tonight than go to Disney World on a daily basis.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: (laughing) It’s just amazing. The president and I were talking about it this morning. And, you know, no guitars, no music. You know, no Epcot. (laughing) People have been lined up for a couple days now. God bless every single one of them....

RUSH: You know, it really is — you make jokes about it — no guitars, no this or that. What —

THE VICE PRESIDENT: (laughing)

RUSH: No, let me explain that. It’s just a guy at a microphone, a guy at a podium.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: (laughing)

RUSH: It normally takes a band and a warmup act to draw 25,000 people, 20,000, at 16 or 18 bucks to get in. You’re doing it with just a guy and a microphone and his vision of the country.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: (laughing)

RUSH: It really is amazing.
I bring this up because Trump probably will have a big crowd tonight, and will be rapturously received, and tomorrow the media, particularly The New York Times, will probably respond with an awestruck sense that maybe Trump is The Voice Of America, and maybe all the polls are wrong again.

But while we're talking about "no guitars," and "just a guy at a microphone" drawing a big crowd, I'm reminded of the identity of the first comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden -- capacity nearly 20,000 -- two nights in a row. Richard Pryor? George Carlin? Jerry Seinfeld? Nope -- it wasn't one of those guys.

It was Andrew Dice Clay, in 1990.

Then what happened? People began to object to his sexist, rapey shtick.
... by the second half of 1990 he had been branded with a scarlet “C,” for controversial. MTV banned him after he recited his trademark lewd nursery rhymes at the 1989 Video Music Awards.

Nora Dunn, a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, and Sinead O’Connor refused to appear on the episode he hosted in May 1990. His manager dropped him; a three-picture deal with Mr. Diller was canceled.
You can say he was blackballed; you can say he was the victim of "cancel culture" and "political correctness run amok."

But if you're old enough to remember the era, you know that once he faltered in his bid for mainstream acceptance, the masses weren't clamoring to have him back. The mass audience still wanted (and still wants) to hear the music of Michael Jackson despite his sexual offenses. There's strong support for R. Kelly as well. I'm not saying that's a good thing. I'm saying that some people are too popular to cancel.

Clay wasn't. And Trump won't be, assuming we're finally rid of him next year. As I said yesterday, Trump fans love Trump, but the rest of us don't -- and we outnumber them.

So don't let easily impressed MSM journalists tell you that tonight means anything. It means Trump leads a crazed cult. It doesn't mean America as a whole wants him as president.

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