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 Continue reading on page 5.