With
regard
to
June’s
widely publicized and widely
criticized, summit with North
Korean dictator Kim Jong-un,
President Donald Trump had
this to say about his totalitarian
counterpart: “I made a deal with
him; I shook hands with him.
I really believe he means it.”
Beyond the narcissistic bluster
of such a statement, made in the
aftermath of a “deal” that saw
the United States trade regional
military presence for nothing
more than a promise, such
faith in a regime as martially
motivated as Kim’s captures
the stunning gullibility of our
president.
Stateside, President Trump
recently reminded us of his
equally
innate
knack
for
dishonesty;
paying
no
heed
to his own administration’s
endorsement
of
its
family-
separation policy at the southern
border, nor to his own party’s
legislative majority, he labeled
the cruel policy a “law” of the
Democrats’ doing and charged
the
Democrats
with
the
responsibility of changing it.
While these egregious displays of
poor leadership are by all means
disheartening,
the
minimal
fallout stemming from them –
that is, the ability of Trump to
continue
leading
confidently
after making these statements –
makes obvious the great power
Trump wields over his party.
To be sure, Trump’s general
popularity
is
by
all
means
reflective of his divisive tactics:
Poll-wise, Trump fares, and has
fared, worse than other modern
presidents. Frequent jabs at
Trump’s policies and behavior
in national media do, however,
hinder widespread recognition
of the ironclad grip he has on the
GOP: Approval ratings of Trump
among Republicans have peaked
at 88 percent, up significantly
since last year.
As made evident by Trump’s
domineering
hold
over
the
Republican
Party,
the
myth
of
the
“regular
Republican”
as anything but a negligible
minority is just that. Those
Republicans – sold on free trade,
wary of Russia, and willing to
sacrifice
short-term
political
gain for the maintenance of
democratic
civility,
among
other things – do not represent
the devout holdouts of the
Republican Party that have stuck
it out. Rather, they constitute
politically vagrant conservatives
whose party’s shift towards
obnoxious populism and near-
absolute alignment with Trump
happened blisteringly quick.
America’s
Trump
contingent, therefore, is both
overwhelmingly
Republican
yet
proudly
distanced
from
Republican tenets of yesteryear.
Beyond the usual socio-economic
divisions that traditionally help
define political preferences, the
most salient issues for Trump’s
congregation are indeed those
pertaining to race and culture.
From here, typically lukewarm
political allegiance has been
exchanged for fervent devotion,
of
which
the
irredeemably
race-obsessed maverick at the
forefront of the new GOP is the
subject. As a result, Trump’s
base, more so than other political
cohorts, finds singularity in a
very select and vocal slice of the
news media.
We grossly underestimate the
power of this “Trump-ist” media,
yet it serves as the lifeline for the
Trump presidency and its often-
disastrous
survival.
Trump’s
mandate to rule, after all, is
only as solid as the continued
support of his Republican base.
Trump-friendly media, namely
the hegemonic Fox News, is
the linchpin of this mandate,
providing
dedicated
Trump
voters with pro-Trump coverage
on a scale unmatched by liberal
media counterparts, and going
beyond validation of existing
beliefs
by
impeding
access
to new ones. It is an age-old
relationship between viewers
largely informed by media and
politicians keenly sensitive to the
opinions of these viewers, only
without the diversity of media
sources found in most other
cases.
One
would
reason,
then,
that stemming this flow of
unabashedly
dogmatic
and
sycophantic coverage with apt
and
well-received
criticism
could curtail its allure. This
could
then
soften
Trump’s
dominion over the Republican
electorate and, suddenly, getting
away with ludicrous statements
would be a bit costlier for the
president.
4
Thursday, July 26, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
F
or a good portion of my early
adolescence, my primary goal
was to be just like Miley in
the Disney Channel show Hannah
Montana. In the show, Miley is an
awkward, unpopular high school
student who has a huge secret: she’s
actually international pop superstar
Hannah
Montana.
Somehow,
nobody at her school knows her
secret identity because, when she
performs as Hannah, she wears a
blonde wig. In fifth grade, I had my
pop star alter ego all figured out. I
had given her a name and sketched
a wig in my journal. I was ready for
fame.
Retrospectively, it makes perfect
sense that I would resonate with a
character like Miley. I was the tall-
est girl in my school, I was clumsy
and unathletic, always embarrassing
myself in gym class, and my social
skills were exceptionally lacking.
Simply put, I was the weird girl in
school. I wanted desperately to fit in.
Miley appealed to me because
the show always made it abundant-
ly clear that she wasn’t well-liked
in school. In the pilot episode, the
popular girls, Amber and Ashley,
tell Miley she has to sit at “the loser
table” at lunch. Scenes like that made
me identify with Miley; she wasn’t
some untouchable celebrity, she was
a girl like me. But, unlike me, Miley
rose above her circumstances. She
became a famous singer, and when-
ever Amber and Ashley made fun of
her, she could look them in the eyes
with the knowledge that she was
more successful than they’d ever be.
I wonder how my middle school
career would’ve turned out if Miley’s
glamorous alter ego Hannah Mon-
tana was a famous author, not a
famous singer. Why? Because I was
good at writing, and I actually enjoyed
it enough that, had I set the goal of
writing a book, I would’ve been will-
ing to put in the necessary work to
achieve that goal. But, in my mind,
writing was nerdy and unglamorous;
it was the kind of thing that would
make me less popular than I already
was.
Can you blame my younger self for
wanting to be a pop star? I certainly
can’t. Even today, I tend to idolize the
characters I see on my TV screen.
Has anyone ever watched Legally
Blonde and not been inspired to start
studying for the LSAT?
However, my story tells a valuable
lesson about the power of female role
models on television, and representa-
tion in general. According to a study
by Dr. Amy I. Nathanson, an assistant
professor of journalism and commu-
nication at Ohio State University, girls
who watch more TV are more likely to
have an interest in traditionally femi-
nine jobs, such as that of secretary,
dancer, model...or teen pop sensation.
This makes perfect sense. From ages
11 to 13, CNN reports that children
“feel self-conscious about physical
changes and feel pressure to conform
to cultural gender norms.” When
you’re an insecure middle school
student and a character like Hannah
Montana looks glamorous and beau-
tiful every time she steps onstage, of
course you’re going to aspire to be like
her. But what if Miley’s alter ego was
a glamorous, world-famous, beloved
engineer? How many more women
would be enrolled in the College of
Engineering right now?
Representation doesn’t just mean
representation of a broad range of
careers for females. Frankly, I was
extremely lucky in middle school
because I had a role model on televi-
sion at all. I was raised in a sociocul-
tural context in which I was able to
identify simply as a “girl”, and there-
fore felt that I could view all female
characters as role models. Others,
depending on the circumstances in
which they were raised, might iden-
tify not simply by their gender, but
by their race, ability, socioeconomic
status, etc.
Stereotypes still largely prevail in
television, and probably still affect the
career goals of insecure young girls.
The good news? The entertainment
world is getting better. Every day,
more kids’ shows come out featur-
ing more characters of color, more
women in STEM, more sensitive men
and career-oriented women. I’d like
to think that, as students at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, we’re a part of
that; we’re the role models we didn’t
have when we were younger. I just
wish that I could go back and tell my
eleven-year-old self to dream a little
bigger than international pop super-
star.
ETHAN KESSLER | COLUMN
EMMA CHANG
Editorial Page Editor
EMMA RICHTER
Managing Editor
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
Ashley Zhang
Sam Weinberger
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
ASIF BECHER
Editor in Chief
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
HANNAH HARHSE| COLUMN
Career representation is important
Hannah Harshe can be reached at
hharhse@umich.edu.
Eyes wide shut
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