Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Oprah 2020? Are we going to do this every single time?

After the Golden Globes, Oprah gave a stirring speech railing against misogyny and we all needed to hear that. It was a great speech. But really? President? I woke up to a sea of calls for her to run for President and petitions like this for her to run. We do NOT want that.

Remember the Zuckerberg hubbub?

He did some philanthropy stuff in Texas and got the rumor mill grinding. I'm not sure if that was exactly the start, but I found an article from January 2017 to that effect. We were all hoping to ring in the new year with female leadership and renewed push for equality in all sectors on the heels of 8 years of our first African American president. When that didn't happen, maybe people were grasping at straws and looking for a person acting more like a leader than what the electoral college gave us- which would have been almost anyone else- but many people all at once, at that time, fixated on Zuckerberg. . .

Now, part of this negativity or so called hyperbolic hate I'm about to unleash on Oprah, she doesn't deserve personally. The idea I'm attacking is that of looking to celebrities to solve our problems and believing they care about you or know about you because you watch them on TV five days a week or heard a great motivational speech they made. We worship celebrities in this country and we need to think bigger and be introspective, especially when it comes to the office of president. Don't limit yourself to entertainers because one is now president. We can reset the bar. This is still a democracy more or less. We know- if we read a little and think- what qualifications a president needs or what level of humanity we would like to see in a world leader.


On Zuckerberg, don't forget the environment he came from, lest we forget- you don't want to bring that to the White House:



Back to Oprah, this week's celebrity prez fantasy. . . and my week of Facebook micro blogging.


No no no no no no no no noooooo.

We can't afford to lower the bar. You do not want a celebrity. Yes, anything is better than the steaming pile of garbage in office now. Don't compare the future president to THAT.

Maybe you do want a celebrity. Maybe we are a nation of vapid idiots incapable of rational thought or any introspection whatsoever.

I give up if we are seduced by every person who gets up and puts words together in a semi coherent fashion without lying every other sentence. Every person who gives a moving speech is now qualified to be president.

Unsubscribe.

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The quote here really sums it up.
Oprah Winfrey for President: Have We All Gone Bonkers? https://theintercept.com/2018/01/08/oprah-winfrey-president-2020-trump/

As CNBC’s Christina Wilkie, in a rare dissent on Twitter, put it: “I love to watch Oprah saying inspirational things on television. But also I love to watch people who have political experience being elected to national office.”

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 And thank you Twitter for reacting to Ivanka Trump, first daughter who sometimes doubles as first lady or advisor. She loved Oprah's speech and people gave her a pretty hard time for not seeing the irony given her dad's treatment of women.

 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-oprah-speech-praise_us_5a5434aee4b01e1a4b18c4af

 Also good - on her confusing "role" from Trevor Noah - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtHi4hWunaQ

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 This headline is quite succinct- people are missing the point of Oprah's speech. Bravo.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/people-are-completely-missing-the-point-of-oprahs-amazing-golden-globes-speech.html

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 I posted this from the angle of really, people, don't promote her for president. Do you see what her advisers and cabinet would look like??? I get that Obama was considered a lightweight, but he lived outside the US, had two years as a US senator and was a constitutional law professor. She wouldn't be prepared, she doesn't have a resume.

 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/oprah-presidential-case-marred-by-promotion-dr-oz-jenny-mccarthy-others.html

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 And last, from 2015, but she's probably still a great neoliberal thinker and we don't want that--

 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/09/oprah-winfrey-neoliberal-capitalist-thinkers

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 I wouldn't choose her for president, but congratulations to her of the Lifetime Achievement Award. 
It was a great speech. And here it is.
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/08/entertainment/oprah-globes-speech-transcript/index.html
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