What Now?
I Would if I Could
I would if I could, but can’t.
If there’s one thing President Trump has succeeded in, it’s inspiring and challenging the nation’s pen men (okay, and pen women) to accurately – if not – kindly, describe his (lack of) thinking, awry decisions, ham-fisted opinions and accusations.
I’ve tried hard to exceed the creative wordsmithing of our columnists, pundits and commentators, but…I would if I could.
Instead, I’ve decided on an award. It’s called the Trump-Tirade Brevity Award (TTBA). In earlier columns and blogs, I’ve presented dictionary-sized lists from our national writers, but by now, they’ve run out of lists. Yet, must continue in non-stop search for shorter, stronger descriptions of what our ever-alarming president presents to us by way of governing.
Jonathan Blitzer has earned first prize, with his four-word description of President Trump: “incompetence with malevolence.”
Second prize goes to Charles M. Blow, whose phraseology has earned the TTBA for succinct brevity along with alarming alliteration: “His (Trump’s) veniality and vulgarity seeks only to exploit white racial anxiety and hostility, in the most vulgar of terms.”
Exquisite!
The New York Times gets third, even as the challenge grows to get all issues – from Stormy – now highly receding, to border immigration, appropriately covered. Hmm.
This one could actually have tied for first TTBA prize: “When did caging kids become the ‘art of the deal’?”
I don’t have any TTBA award for the President, unless we want to recognize his twitter offerings, such as labeling the non-FOX media, “…the enemy of the American people.” Short and sweet, yet, but highly un-original. We’ve heard that before; it’s downright historic: Hitler, Mao and Lenin, for starters, who weaponized the phrase to attack whoever questioned their authority. Senator John McCain, thankfully still participating at this writing, noted that, “…attacking the legitimacy of the free press is how dictators get started.”
I grudgingly give Trump his own TTBA for “Pocahontas” – what The New York Times called his one-word “mocking, sarcastic, racially incendiary jibe” at Senator Elizabeth Warren. Unfortunately, memorable.
I’d stop here for brevity’s sake myself, and would if I could. But I can’t.
Category: Entertainment, Life Style
