Google Joins in Media Promotion of Oprah Presidential Run
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) just gave a big boost to speculation that giant corporations and the billionaire class are promoting an Oprah Winfrey presidential run.
Each day Alphabet’s search engine Google runs a picture called the Doodle, most of which are entertaining and informative. On January 15, 2018, the Doodle shown here features a drawing of a little African American girl; who sort of looks like Oprah, apparently watching Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famed “I Have a Dream” during the 1963 March on Washington.
The problem with the cute and seemingly innocuous picture is that it is totally inaccurate. In a speech at the 50th anniversary of the March in 2013, Winfrey herself admitted that she was unable to attend the original event, The Washington Post reported.
Is Alphabet Fabricating History to Help Oprah’s Presidential Run?
It looks as if Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) is manufacturing history to give an Oprah presidential run a boost.
Such blatant fabrication of facts is disturbing on any level. Associating it with a figure like MLK is utterly disgusting; using King’s memory to promote Oprah’s presidential ambitions is both wrong and tacky. Trying to portray a TV huckster like Oprah as the heir or moral equivalent to Dr. King is insulting on every level.
Such tactics might damage Oprah’s chances by lending credence to the idea that she is nothing but a corporate puppet. That raises the possibility that this is an effort to sabotage Winfrey which is equally disgusting.
Taking our history and turning it into shallow political propaganda is always wrong and it is Un-American. All the people who sacrificed so much for the Civil Rights movement, including Dr. King, himself deserve better.
Why isn’t Bernie in Google’s Picture?
To make matters, a political figure that did attend the 1963 March on Washington and hear Dr. King speak is conspicuously absent from the picture. That figure is U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) who is often described as the most popular politician in America and the leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
It is a matter of record that Sanders; who was active on the fringes of the Civil Rights movement, did participate in the 1963 March on Washington, Mother Jones reported. Sanders’ involvement in the movement was limited but he did hear; or at least witness, the I Have a Dream Speech.
Cynics would say that somebody at Alphabet is promoting Oprah. Possibly because the millionaires and billionaires in Silicon Valley are afraid of Bernie’s plans to increase their taxes. In 2016 Bernie released plans for a $12.3 trillion tax increase based on a 2.2% flat tax. Sanders also praised the high tax levels of the Eisenhower administration in the 50s during his 2016 presidential run.
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin need to be called out on this. One would think that Brin; who came to America as a refugee from Soviet Communism, would be sensitive to such antics. Alphabet’s fabrication is reminiscent of the fake history practiced by the Russian Communist Party.
How Oprah Capitalizes on White Guilt
Alphabet is far from the only company that has been trumpeting Oprah’s presidential chances.
CBS News led its’ January 8, 2018, newscast with a story on Oprah’s Golden Globes speech. NBC broadcast the Golden Globes and streamed them on video to make sure Oprah’s speech reached the masses. The Boston Globe’s editorial board speculated that Winfrey has a lock on the Democratic presidential nomination without providing any evidence.
The masterminds behind this media hype think that Oprah can ride a wave of White Guilt into the White House. White guilt is a powerful force in America, it partially built Oprah’s career, and help propel Barack Obama into the White House.
Note: White Guilt was far from the only factor that elected Obama, he was blessed with two of the worst Republican presidential nominees in recent history; U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts), as opponents.
Is Oprah the New Trump?
The January 15, 2018, Google Doodle gives us a preview of what an Oprah campaign would look like. That is low on substance; utterly lacking in truth, based on white guilt, and motivated by nostalgia, simplistic patriotism, and emotions.
Would such a campaign work, possibly, a very similar effort run by Oprah’s old friend Donald J. Trump succeeded last year. Those who want Winfrey to run think she like Trump can appeal to what Rush Limbaugh calls “low information voters;” especially older people that get all their news and information from TV.
Remember Donald succeeded partially by appealing to Baby Boomer voters for whom television is a big part of their lives. He capitalized on 12 years of The Apprentice; and countless TV appearances, to appeal to voters. Then parlayed his fame into almost $2 billion worth of free media coverage in 2016, Empresa Journal reported.
Oprah has been on TV far longer than Trump and her media connections are greater than the Donald’s. She even had her own short-lived TV network a few years back.
Oprah would be in a position to receive far more free publicity, but she would have a very hard time repeating Trump’s coup. Her opponents would take her seriously and direct the big guns at her from the beginning. Part of the reason Trump won was that he was dismissed as a bad joke right up to election night.
My guess is that opponents; including Trump and Democratic rivals, would probably use every smear in the book against Oprah. The campaign against her would be ugly, dirty, and a national embarrassment.
Why I fear Oprah for President
The Google Doodle should remind us that there are many good reasons to fear Oprah for President including:
- The wave of white guilt would quickly degenerate into an ugly witch hunt in which any non-African American person who criticized “our wonderful Oprah” would be branded a racist. We got a taste of what this would look like last year when Hillary Trolls in the media tried to brand former civil rights activist Bernie Sanders a racist.
- It would make the generation gap wider and uglier. Oprah, like Trump, would appeal to mostly TV loving Baby Boomers. Millennials and Generation Xers (those under 50) who get their information online would be against her and suspicious. We had a taste of this in the Bernie for president movement which was heavily skewed to Millennials (those under 35) and in polls that indicated Trump received very little of the Millennial vote.
- Winfrey may not be as famous as the establishment thinks. I imagine many “journalists” will be shocked when large numbers of people under 30 ask, “just who is this Oprah person anyway?”
- Electing Oprah would involve a high level of chicanery and voter suppression. Mother Jones alleged that voter suppression in Wisconsin played a role in Trump’s victory. Since Trump’s election, there have been numerous charges of fraud and conspiracy the most visible and destructive of which is Russia Gate.
- An Oprah victory, in either the primaries or the general election, would greatly increase popular cynicism about elections, and suspicion of basic institutions. Distrust of the media and government would rise to new highs.
- Violence would be a probable side effect. Trump’s inauguration last year was marred by violence including rioting and the burning of limousines. Since then we have violent clashes between Trump and Anti-Trump protestors around the country, and an attempted mass shooting of Republican U.S. Congressmen by an enraged leftist.
- A likely outcome of an Oprah victory would be violence by both the alt-right and the radical left. Possibly on a far greater scale. Expect Oprah’s inauguration to be marred by riots and protests just like the Donald’s.
- Oprah’s childish manipulation of white guilt and appeals to Civil Rights nostalgia would probably backfire and generate more racism. Winfrey’s sickeningly sweet “black is beautiful and America is wonderful;” message would probably be the best recruiting program the alt-right ever had. It would drive many into the white or black nationalist camp in response.
- Like Trump, Oprah would be incapable of discussing or dealing with the real problems facing America. These include increasing Income Inequality; mass incarceration, immigration, racial divisions, growing poverty, Climate Change, technological unemployment, the failure of the education system, the looming retirement crisis, healthcare costs, lack of foreign policy, pointless military interventions, and the collapse of the social services system to name a few.
Once again we are reminded that Oprah for president is a terrible idea. Hopefully, Winfrey herself will realize that and repeat the wise words of Civil War hero General William Tecumseh Sherman. Here is how Sherman responded when he was asked to run for President in 1884.
“I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected,” Sherman said. Oprah should go on nationwide TV ASAP and repeat Sherman’s simple statement. She should Tweet it each day until the reporters get bored and start pestering Dwayne Johnson again.
If she does not, Ms. Winfrey is the stupidest and most dangerous person in America. Alphabet should not be promoting her “cause.”
