Dakota Beacon

When did we all lose control of our elections to the media?  This week we watched a couple of so-called town halls, each of which featured one of the presidential candidates.  One was a snoozer with Democrat political operative George Stephanopoulous and an audience peopled with other verified Democrat activists.  Despite the news aflame with revelations of the Hunter/Joe Biden international scandal, not one person asked Biden to react.  It was a quiet, friendly, non-confrontational sleeping pill. The impression was that of a couple of old friends catching up..  The other was a shrill encounter between a freshly-recovered Donald Trump and the high-volume, aggressive attack dog, Samantha Guthrie, who (surprise!) is not a Republican operative. She resembled a shrill, shrieking bird on a tree branch more than anything else, an impression bolstered by the high stools set up for the event.  (In fact, her husband is a former highly placed Al Gore worker.  Not that she left any doubt.)

Although reportedly more people watched Joe Bide's, I admit, I watched the Trump town hall because I figured (and I was right) that there would be more of a show there.  He acquitted himself well.  Unfortunately it was a fairly predictable script.  First we had the round concentrating on COVID and Trump’s recent successful and complete recovery, basically attempting once again to blame Trump for the “pandemic” and portray him as “irresponsible” for doing the job of the U.S. President with all that the job entails.  It didn’t take long, however, for Guthrie to charge head-long into the old “white supremacy” harangue.  Again, she badgered Trump on this question.  Where do they get this stuff?  Is it just because you can’t oppose a Democrat without being some kind of racist?  Again and again, Trump has rejected racism - which includes “white supremacy” of course.  There exists no statement or act in his past which would indicate even a hint of racist thought.  Why, then, is it a persistent question with every one of these far-left interrogators?  So she trotted it out again on Thursday.  When he clearly said - again - that he opposes white supremacy - she said it was a “bit of a dodge”.  WHAT?!  “A dodge”?  How is that a “dodge”?  When he reasserted his position she says, “You just seem a little hesitant”.  WHAT?!  

She raised the matter of income tax, an area she would appear not to understand (although no doubt she does - this woman knows better).  In all, she wasted about half of the hour allotted to the town hall putting out the Democrat talking points and badgering Trump.  She repeatedly cut off his answers and talked over him, interrupting constantly.  It turns out, that her mic was turned up, Trump’s was turned down.  That always helps if you’re planning in advance not to let the other person’s answers be heard.  

In all, from what I saw, Trump handled the shrill Guthrie fairly well.  He might have been more aggressive on the “white supremacy” non-issue by saying, “I am known for not being a racist.  I could ask the audience for a show of hands on this, but I won’t because if they are picked up on camera they might end up losing their jobs for supporting what I am saying.”  He might have whacked her on Q-Anon by saying something like this:  “I don’t know anything about Q-Anon.  I’ve heard the name but I don’t know anything about them.  I have not seen anyone in a Q-Anon tee shirt out burning down buildings in our cities, or clubbing anyone on the street or looting.  I have seen plenty of activists from the left doing exactly that and so has everyone in this audience, I guarantee it.”  No doubt she would have tried to cut this off, too, but he could have made that point.  By the way, do YOU know anything about Q-Anon?  I don’t.  Is there any reason why someone who already has a full schedule should be sniffing out Q-Anon?  Frankly, I’m not very worried about Q-Anon in the bigger picture, where our foreign policy is on the auction block with the Biden criminals, or where our homes and businesses and cities are under violent attack (Portland is still witnessing all-night riots) and where a virus has been used to destroy not only our nation’s economy but our human rights as well.  Q-Anon is way down on my list.

The contrast with Biden’s social hour was resounding.  Not much to hear there, no interruptions.  A very demure Stephanopoulous served as the perfect party host.  When asked about the court packing, he tried a couple of times to probe for a response, each time he came up empty-handed, but the implication is crystal clear:  If elected Democrats will pack the court.  It was also fairly apparent that Biden is not in command of not only the Democrat Party but his own campaign on this one, having opposed court-packing quite front and center in the past.  Court packing is an issue of principle - not something that changes with today's trending news stories.  Like the Bill of Rights it is a foundation of our system, not a policy decision.  Another reason to make sure you cast your vote on down-ballot candidates.  Don’t support any Democrats.  

All of this brings me to wonder why we need so much involvement with the media.  Why could Trump and Biden not have hired an emcee to take questions from an audience and once they make the introductions just butt the hell out of it?  Why do we need a Samantha Guthrie to play the shrieking harpy, trying to move in “for the kill” on every question, talking over answers?  First of all, it is uncivil.  What is wrong with re-introducing civility into our process?  Why have Stephanopoulous running interference or soft-pedaling every question?  Why not just say, “Here is Democrat Candidate Joe Biden/Republican Candidate Donald Trump to answer your questions for the next hour”?  

I’m convinced that if it were not for unnecessary interference by the “Debate Commission” we could have had an actual debate.  Why do we even have a “debate commission”?  I outlined a better plan a week or so ago:  Each candidate select some journalist to ask questions, give each person equal time to answer and each questionner equal number of questions.  Then have at it.  All they need to do is settle on a location and nominate their own journalists.  We don’t need a Chris Wallace, we don’t need a Steve Scully.  We need a fair process that we can all agree to.  If someone wants to hold a town hall, let him do it.  Why does it come into the hands of the media to arrange and control?  This is ridiculous.  We should get ourselves out of voter nursery school and grow up.

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