Trump has no ground to stand on and no army, but his comments are still worrying.
To quote a tweet from the comedian Patton Oswalt, “Imagine being so hated that on the day you announce that the LEADER OF ISIS HAS BEEN KILLED ON YOUR ORDERS a stadium full of baseball fans still boos you.” Such is the reality for the president, as what was supposed to be a fun outing quickly took a turn for the worst when his presence at the World Series was officially revealed per a subtle jumbotron appearance.
It was all smiles for the first few moments of the big screen display, until the president noticed what the fan reaction was. His face visibly changed from a good grin to a defeated look of disappointment when the scattered chants of “lock him up” reached his ears amidst the deafening sea of boos. While we may never know whether the question crossed his mind, we can ask ourselves, what does a president have to do to get booed after what should have been a great achievement?
First, let’s consider the audience: it is certainly no secret that the president is a favorite of white America. He consistently polls highest among white people than any other race by a sizeable margin, and he often hesitates to say such phrases such as “Nazis are bad” in situations like the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Not only does baseball have one of the whitest fan bases across professional sports, but it is also the most accepting of mullets and chewing tobacco. To be concise, this is about as close to a niche market as can be found. Additionally, World Series tickets are expensive, general admission go for around $500 a piece, so the odds that some of the people that were in the park were rich enough to actually benefit from the president’s tax bill are pretty good, so he was definitely in, what should have been, the right place.
Lest we forget, though, that this came on the evening of what is likely to be the president’s greatest bipartisan achievement of his presidency. Killing the leader of IS is really the only part of the current administration that both political parties can seem to agree is a good thing. Yet, in the midst of this crowning achievement, he was surrounded by a world of execration. By that standard, he’s really bad, and it isn’t really anyone’s fault but his own. He has never even pretended to make an attempt to tie Americans together. Rather, he does nothing but pander to his own fan base and ruthlessly demonize anyone who dare criticize him, as if he, in the infinite wisdom he believes he has, would ever be capable of making a mistake.
Furthermore, he hasn’t actually passed a whole lot of legislation to make himself appear any better to people that vote conservative. Other than the tax bill passed in the first session of his presidency, he has spent the majority of his time golfing or attacking immigrants. Even the people who thought his policy was worth his dangerous rhetoric are running out of reasons to defend the man.
There’s simply nothing good to be coming out of this administration. It has been nothing but a constant spew of vitriol against the likes of the “do-nothing dems” and anybody else who doesn’t support him. Unless there’s something to be gained by electing a Twitter troll to serve in the Oval Office, he provides no benevolent service to the nation.
What does a president have to do to be that hated? Nothing. He has to sit in his office, maybe watch a little Sean Hannity, tweet in all-caps and do absolutely nothing. If he was slamming through some bills and passing legislation that people liked, he might not have been met with such a harsh response. People might still be embarrassed of their president being an oafish and childlike pumpkin that yells in a manner comparable to a racist grandparent at Thanksgiving, but they might let it slide in favor of some laws they liked. However, the president is losing his partisan hold while he cannot produce any results. Therefore, he shows up to the World Series and gets booed back into his seat.
