Oprah Emerges as Possible Prez and Trump Reveals His Racism

Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globe Awards

In 2004, CBS ran a short-lived drama series called Century City. It starred Viola Davis and Hector Elizondo, was set in the year 2030 and combined elements of science fiction and legal procedural. In one episode, it is revealed that Oprah Winfrey is president and her VP is an openly gay, one-armed, retired general. The show only ran four episodes before it was cancelled and has been forgotten. But it may be remembered for predicting our next president, ten years early. Winfrey gave such a stirring speech at last Sunday night's Golden Globes Awards upon receiving the Cecil B. De Mille Lifetime Achievement Award that it sparked calls for her to ran for Chief Executive in 2020.


The election of Donald Trump, which many thought would never happen, has made the possibility of another TV celebrity as president seem not that far-fetched. The advantage of Winfrey is that she is not a politician--a quality many disenchanted voters love. In fact, she transcends politics. People, particularly women, who switched from Obama to Trump would switch back to the Democrats if Oprah were leading the ticket. She has a story and a brand. That's what Trump was selling--a story and a brand of making money. Enough gullible Americans bought it. Hillary Clinton was selling "I'm not Donald Trump and it's my turn now." But that wasn't enough. Oprah's brand is helping ordinary people live their best lives. She would never call anyone a deplorable (bad mistake on Hillary's part.) Winfrey's story is she was born into a low-income, broken family in a rural part of the country, unlike Trump who emerged from the womb with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. Oprah rose to become a cultural force, our secular pope. Trump is a laughing-stock and a national embarassment. She runs a media empire and she could run the government. Hey, if Trump can do it, so can she. And what's more--she can win. I want to win.

Progressive Americans are so thirsty for leadership that Winfrey's speech filled them with hope. Plus early in the week, Trumpy appeared to be actually not crazy--probably in response to the Wolff book. But then he reverted back to old self and totally revealed his racism. While meeting with Senators to iron out an immigration deal, he called Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries shitholes and asked why we can't have more Norweigians coming to live here. That's about as blantantly racist as you can get, I'd say.

Tucker Carlson and other Fox news apologists have leapt to Orange Boy's defense, saying "But those places really ARE shitholes. He was just speaking the truth. These snowflake liberals just can't handle salty language. What a bunch of limp-wristed libtards." No, Tucker and friends, you are twisting the situation. Trump's criticism was not just of poorer countries but of their people who are mostly black and brown. He was saying he didn't want any more black or brown people in his lily-white, retro vision of America. He wanted more Nordic, blonde, white people. Norway probably came to his tiny mind because he had just met with its Prime Minister the previous day. But, think about it, why would anyone from Norway emigrate to the US? They are seventh in the world on the standard-of-living list and we are 19th.

Carlson and his slimy ilk are arguing Trump was just making an argument for merit-based immigration. But he didn't say that. Trump was lumping ALL Haitians, Africans and El Salvadorians into the category of unworthiness, not even stopping to think that maybe many of these people would be and are a credit to our country. They come from poor, struggling nations and want to make good, to have a better life. So many of them come here, work hard, contribute to the economy. In Trump's mind, if you come from a shithole country, you are dirty (I won't say shitty, but I bet that's what he would say) and shouldn't be part of our nice, white, picket-fence America. If he had said "I want the best people for America, no matter where they come from," then I would say he had a legitimate argument. But he didn't. He said in essence, "We have enough black and brown people. Why can't we have more white people?" This is why his approval ratings remain low, no matter how well the stock market is doing. He keeps saying hateful things like this.

Trump has finally revealed his true colors, pardon the pun, and Oprah has shown hers. If it's a choice between the two, I would vote for Oprah without a moment's hesitation.