This Just In – MTV gave a great deal to our society. Michael Jackson’s Thriller video was an instant classic -indispensable at this time of year. We came to know Prince and many other great artists through their videos.
Perhaps forgotten is that MTV broke new ground in the political world when Bill Clinton appeared in 1994 in a town hall forum closing with the burning question: “Mr. President the world wants to know… boxers or briefs? “
He appeared slightly sheepish before answering, “usually briefs.” It’s silly, for sure, but it’s also just a relatable human thing. That might be why it didn’t work very well this week when Melania Trump was asked on ABC’s The View about her husband’s sleepwear.
She smiled and gestured that she was zipping her lips. Perhaps a truthful answer would have been, “How would I know?”
These kinds of things happen during campaigns, often orchestrated to reach certain voters and keep the candidates in the headlines. That’s understandable. Clinton’s appearance in ’94 was not during his first run for the presidency, but he wanted young voters to stay with him.
Campaigns can be quite a grind by this point and the closer the race, the tougher it is to break through.
I get that, but in the last week we have witnessed the most shameful, cruel and inhumane conduct on the part of several Republicans that the President of the United States was compelled to call it out.
A brazen campaign of disinformation has permeated our state in a time of immense tragedy and human vulnerability. Trump has bombarded social media with lies about FEMA wanting to seize the homes of flood victims and is using emergency FEMA payments of $750 to do it.
Orange County Local (a Facebook group that claims to be about local issues) is full of TikTok videos with crying people claiming that their relatives were tricked into signing away their property rights for a desperately needed $750. “Don’t sign it!” They urge. “It’s a loan and if you don’t pay it back, they’ll take your house. Don’t be tricked!”
People are believing this stuff, because of where it originates-the GOP nominee for president.
The actual president had to take the time yesterday, as landfall for Hurricane Milton was imminent, to address the nation to explain that FEMA is not tricking anyone out of their property rights.
He also had to break this story: the federal government cannot control the weather … despite the assertion to the contrary by Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Green – the GOP’s dumbest member of the House of Representatives.
It’s a sickening way to manipulate voters into hating/mistrusting the federal government, to enrage vulnerable, often desperate people. The GOP is willing to foment resentment toward the government to keep or gain power to run that government …right into the ground.
As North Carolinians of every political stripe are banding together to help our neighbors in a local state and federal response that has been well run by all objective accounts, the GOP finds itself feeling very desperate.
Events like these are what prove the worth of our social contract. Community, compassion, public safety and the reality that there ARE events that are nonpartisan (storms, pandemics) … these are a critical part of civic life.
Neighbors helping each other on every scale -small, medium and large—this is what we do.
There’s nothing silly about Trump’s disinformation campaign. It’s vicious. It’s cruel. It’s a tremendous service to our enemies. It’s demoralizing to the thousands of people who are working exhaustively to rescue people, clear roads, safely restore power and otherwise feed and care for storm victims. They don’t deserve this.
President Biden put it best: “It’s stupid. It’s got to stop.”
President Joe Biden eats a milkshake from Cook Out. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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