In 1976 one of the finest movie satires ever was made, it was called Network. With an all-star cast led by William Holden and Faye Dunaway, and including Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty, it centered around a network news anchor who was about to be fired. Peter Finch played the newscaster, Howard Beale, and took home the Oscar that year for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The film garnered Best Picture in 1977. In the film, Beale is given his two weeks notice, and after threatening suicide on air, is given one last show to say goodbye with dignity. Instead, he speaks candidly, emotionally and profanely about what he is feeling, and his ratings go through the roof. He yells at the end, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
As I've watched the rise of Donald Trump to front runner status in the Republican Party Presidential Race, I've been trying to make sense as to why this billionaire, former reality TV star, has connected with so many people. Even his opponents acknowledge he's hit on a nerve in our culture. Tonight, it came to me as to why Trump is so popular. Donald Trump is Howard Beale.
He speaks from with no filter in utter bluntness; emotionally with little detail and often illogically; he hurls insults at any who oppose him; and people love him. Donald Trump is screaming the mantle that so many in our nation feel, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore," and Trump has become their voice.
People are angry with Washington, with elected leaders who stand for nothing and get rich. With leaders who say one thing in the election cycle and do another when they take office and vote. People are angry we have a sieve for a Southern border, and Donald Trump says he'll build a wall. Heck, he could pay for it! People are angry their wages are stuck in neutral and Trump trumps his "art" of making the deal as a businessman and says he'll beat China and others in trade negotiations which suppress wages. People are angry that third rate nations like Iran seemingly squeeze us at the negotiating table; angry we can't call a terrorist a terrorist; angry that freedom of speech is being squelched by political correctness; angry that baby parts are being sold for profit; and you know what? People have a right to be angry about many if not all these things! Donald Trump has come out with the attitude that these politicians are all stupid and you need a guy like me to fix these things, and people are eating it up.
His latest dust up with FOX anchor Megyn Kelly has led Trump to his crudest level yet. He feels FOX targeted him unfairly, and he may be right, and he's lashed out on Twitter and in interviews with his usual, filter less banter. FOX apparently was flooded with tweets, Facebook responses and emails trashing them for their unfairness to Trump, and Trump is playing to that, and might actually gain in the polls, even acting like a 12 year old who had their cell phone taken away for the weekend. The debate itself drew the largest ratings of any political debate ever, any non-sports cable show ever, as 24 million people tuned in. They tuned because of Trump! People watched to see just what he would say, just as they did Howard Beale in Network. It was theatre at it's finest, and Trump didn't disappoint.
Network was a satire, but this is playing out in real life! I'm not sure that's a good thing, but it doesn't have to be a bad thing. Trump, crass and boorish as he is, speaks the truth in at least one regard, maybe more. When he says one of our nations biggest problems is political correctness, he's absolutely right! The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech, it does not guarantee us the right not to be offended by another persons words. Now words have consequences, and in the past, society policed that by correcting or ignoring the offender. Nowadays, we run playing the victim card crying we've been offended, and freedom of speech is limited if not erased. That is most definitely not a good thing! Maybe through this Trump candidacy the oppression of political correctness can be lifted, at least for a while.
In Network, Howard Beale struck that chord with a fed up public. Donald Trump is doing exactly the same thing. Things didn't end to well for Beale in the movie, and my suspicion is they won't for Trump either. Now, I pray he doesn't meet Beale's fate(he was murdered on air), and hope that's not morbid even to mention. But eventually, if this continues, Trump will go to far. Beale was known as the "Mad Prophet of the Airwaves," and Trump certainly could be called the "Mad Prophet of the 2016 Election." He's speaking to peoples frustrations and they are responding with remarkable loyalty. They are fed up! They aren't going to take it anymore! And until someone else learns that and Trump's mantle is passed to them, they aren't likely going anywhere soon.
I'm not a Trump supporter, but I do hope this nerve that he has so vividly exposed is responded to. We need truth and we need honesty, and people are craving that from their leaders and they do not feel they are getting it. If our leaders were to respond to that, Trump will have done a great good for the country.
