Without the overwhelming support of black voters, the Democratic Party is on very shaky ground. Having taken that support for granted for most of the past six decades, Democrats feel it slipping away. As a result, they are growing increasingly desperate to paint President Donald Trump as a racist and, of course, their blustering, bobble-headed ball boys in the media are doing all they can to help foster this perception.
The Stephen King of politics, journalist Bob Woodward, has written yet another book on the horrors of the Trump presidency and one of the many quotes from this nail-biting effort now doing the rounds is a remark the president made about the “pain” of black people.
The Question, the Answer, and the Twist
The Hill, which may be going downhill, recently published an article about this very remark. During an interview with the president, Woodward asked:
“Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent as it put me and I think lots of white privileged people in a cave and that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain particularly Black people feel in this country?”
As the journalist began to ask a follow-up question, Mr. Trump cut him off with the response: “No. You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”
Of course, The Hill headlined the article: “Trump said he didn’t have responsibility to understand pain of Black Americans: ‘No, I don’t feel that at all.'” Headlines are everything, of course, since most social media users see them but often do not read the articles – to their shame. That works well for media outlets trying to sway public opinion, of course; they can write a headline that, without further context, creates an inaccurate impression or even implies something that is untrue.
To what was Trump referring, then, when he said that he didn’t “feel that at all”? Was he saying he didn’t feel the pain that, apparently, all black people feel? If so, it was the correct answer. After all, white people are supposedly privileged and could not possibly understand the pain spoken of by Woodward. Moreover, Woodward himself should not be able to feel that pain, since he is perhaps one of the poster-children for white privilege, if such a thing exists.
Was it perhaps that the president meant he does not feel the need to even try to understand the pain? If so, right answer again. What does it achieve to try to comprehend a pain that one is told one could not possibly understand? How would such an endeavor benefit anyone? Would any black American honestly feel better about themselves or their country if they were told that white people are trying to understand their pain – or would they feel insulted?
Bob Woodward Gets Woke
Perhaps Mr. Trump was telling Woodward that he, Donald Trump, does not feel at all that his “privilege” has put him “in a cave.” Perhaps Mr. Trump is correct in his suspicion that the reporter has been drinking far too much Kool-Aid. The fact is, Woodward’s question was textbook “racial justice” gibberish. He almost certainly did not think of the wording of that question himself – every word of it drips with the sort of wokeness that is not natural to Woodward’s generation.
We have heard this story far too many times: a reporter asks the president an inane, gotcha question, the president gives a direct and – quite frankly – easy to understand answer, and a media outlet decides to frame that answer in a way that, to low-information readers, appears offensive or even repulsive.
Little wonder that the Democrats are having a hard time retaining that overwhelming level of support from black voters. The latter have learned, over the past 12 years, that they are being manipulated by left-wing politicians and reporters who then do nothing for them while Trump – who supposedly hates them – actually made their lives better without pandering to them.
~
Read more from Graham J. Noble.
