The Politicization of Everything

Earlier this month, Miss America announced that it would no longer hold swimsuit competitions or evening gown beginning with this year’s competition; which will take place on September 9 in Atlantic City.  Instead, the contestants will walk on stage in clothing that “makes them feel confident, expresses their personal style, and shows how they hope to advance the role of Miss America.”  The plan to scrub the swimsuit competition would obviously fail if all of the women agreed that bikinis “make them feel confident.” The contestants will participate in a back-and-forth with the judges focusing on highlighting “her achievements and goals in life and how she will use her talents, passion, and ambition to perform the role of Miss America.” 

If people wanted to watch a Talent show, they would tune into “America’s Got Talent” or the “X-Factor.”  The free market will ultimately decide the fate of Miss America.  Those who hope to see beautiful women storming the stage in swimsuits can always turn on the Miss USA pageant, which does not take place until next year.  Miss America can compare the ratings of the two pageants and see if their decision paid off. 

Even before Miss America’s decision, beauty pageants had already become political.  At the 2009 Miss USA Pageant, radical leftist judge Perez Hilton asked Miss California Carrie Prejean for her thoughts on same-sex marriage.  She gave an answer that he deemed unsatisfactory, as evidenced by his decision to call her a “dumb b****.”  Donald Trump, then the head of the Miss USA pageant, came to her defense as did staunch gay marriage advocate Gavin Newsom, who hopes to become the next Governor of California.

Six years later, after Donald Trump had become the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President, loads of contestants had political questions directed at them at the Miss America Pageant 2016.  For example, the judges asked Miss South Carolina about gun control while Miss Louisiana fielded a question about the “Black Lives Matter” movement.    

Ten days after the 2016 Presidential Election, Vice President-elect Mike Pence attended a performance of “Hamilton” in New York City, where the Trump-Pence ticket captured less than 20 percent of the popular vote. The cast addressed the Vice President, showering him with left-wing talking points as he attempted to enjoy the Broadway performance: “We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new Administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.”  Did it ever to occur to the left that every American, including politicians who had just spent the past four months working on a grueling Presidential campaign, would occasionally like a break from politics and political lectures? 

In honor of Pride Month, many companies have changed the logos on their Facebook pages in order to incorporate a rainbow, which has evolved from a covenant between God and every living creature to the symbol of the increasingly fascistic LGBTQ movement. While companies have a right to make their political views heard, if only the court of public opinion gave the same courtesy to conservative businesses that they give to liberal businesses.  For instance, Memories’ Pizza, a small business in Indiana, faced mass backlash from the SJW mob after its owners answered “no” when asked if they would hypothetically cater a same-sex wedding.     

The SJW mob recently went after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for posting a photo on his Twitter account showing that he had saved 10 percent on a Chick-Fil-A order.  The left went nuts over Dorsey’s decision to patronize the fast food restaurant during Pride Month because its CEO Dan Cathy dared to express the belief in the “biblical definition of the family unit.”  Dorsey has since tried to get back into the left’s good graces by repeatedly using the hashtag #KeepFamiliesTogether.  Liberal mayors have tried to stop Chick-Fil-A from opening up branches in their cities because of Cathy’s views.  Very few conservative mayors have come out and encouraged Starbucks not to open up branches in their cities because its CEO, Howard Schultz, has come down on the opposite side of the same-sex marriage debate. 

In 2016, Doritos came out with a Super Bowl ad showing a heavily pregnant woman having an ultrasound as her husband enjoys Doritos.  The ultrasound monitor shows the baby (not the clump of cells) reaching in the same direction as the Dorito as his father continues to play a game of cat-and-mouse with the baby as Eventually, the mother grabs the Dorito from her husband and throws it across the room; leading to the baby making his way out of her womb.  This upset the pink hat-wearing feminists at NARAL who tweeted out “that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactics of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads a clueless and moms as uptights.”  A Huffington Post blogger also claimed that “Doritos’ Super Bowl Ad is making us rethink ever eating Doritos again.”  The left’s entire argument rests on the premise that an unborn baby does not deserve the same legal rights and protections of humans living outside of the womb; they do not appreciate the fact that the Doritos ad undercut their argument.  The ad makes it quite difficult to argue for the acceptability of third-trimester abortions.  

NARAL also got upset about an ad pointing out that births spike in cities of winning Super Bowl teams nine months after the big game in an NFL-sponsored ad titled “Football is family.”  The Ohio branch of NARAL reacted to the ad this way: “More Super Bowl babies ?!?!  Get thee an IUD!”  And people still say it’s conservatives that don’t have a sense of humor.  

Speaking of the NFL, most Americans tune into watch football or sports in general to escape from today’s extremely polarized political climate.  However, these people have found themselves out of luck as many football players, beginning with Colin Kaepernick, have taken a knee during the National Anthem in an effort to raise awareness for police brutality.  After President Trump suggested that the NFL team owners should throw players who kneel for the National Anthem off the field during a rally in Alabama, the #takeaknee began trending on Twitter.  After many football players kneeled on the Sunday following the Alabama rally, many fans responded by burning their NFL paraphernalia, turning to college football or giving up on the sport altogether.  Once again, it looks like the free market has forced the NFL to act.  The NFL came forward with a new policy that requires NFL players who choose to assemble on the field to stand for the National Anthem but allows players to remain in the locker room if they so choose.

Those looking to Hollywood to escape from politics have also found themselves out of luck for quite awhile now.  Michelle Obama made an appearance at the 2013 Academy Awards to announce the Best Picture winner; effectively proving that Hollywood has taken on the role of the propaganda arm for the Democratic Party.  While Bill O’Reilly pointed out at the time that the overlords of Hollywood would have not likely extended such an offer to a Republican First Lady as Laura Bush, they might actually consider doing that now that Mrs. Bush has written an op-ed critical of the Trump Administration.  Queen Latifah performed gay marriages onstage during the 2014 Grammy Awards.  During an acceptance speech at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards, Meryl Streep went on a tirade against then President-elect Trump.  Robert De Niro uttered the phrase “F*** Trump” at last Week’s Tony Awards and apologized for the President’s behavior during a trip to Canada the very next day.

Once again, celebrities have the right to make political statements.  Unfortunately, the “free speech advocates” who always leap to the defense of liberal celebrities do not always give the same courtesy to their conservative counterparts.  R. Lee Ermey, who had played a ruthless drill sergeant turned therapist in the always creative GEICO commercials made a statement at a Toys for Tots Rally that he says led the insurance company to fire him: “We should all rise up, and we should stop this administration from what they’re doing because they’re destroying this country.  They’re driving us into bankruptcy so they can impose socialism on us, and that’s exactly what they’re doing and I’m sick and damn tired of it and I know you are too.”    

For the past half century or so, Americans have tuned into late night TV seeking entertainment.  For the past year or so, they’ve gotten lectures instead.  The three late night programs on the “alphabet soup” networks insulted politicians in both parties equally.  As two of the three longtime late night TV hosts have departed over the past couple of years, most of the late night comedy shows have begun following the mold of the late night political shows on Comedy Central such as “The Daily Show,” which focus almost exclusively on trashing Republicans and conservatives.  Rather than entertainment, late night TV viewers instead get lectures on universal healthcare and open borders.  Some Americans don’t seem to mind it, as evidenced by Colbert’s audience, many of whom had previously watched him on the Comedy Central program “The Colbert Report,” that laughs at everything he says.  At least one of the late night hosts doesn’t seem to care that he has alienated conservatives; Jimmy Kimmel made this clear during an interview with CBS News.  Prior to the late night TV revolution that has taken place in the age of Trump, Kimmel’s show primarily focused on actually making people laugh by playing “man-on-the-street” segments called “Lie Witness News” where he would send out producers to question Americans on false news stories.  The hilarity of the segments came when the people seemed to believe the stories.

Now that every industry has become a turf war between the left and the right, Americans who truly want to escape from politics have few other options besides unplugging their TVs and cell phones and living off the grid. The Cultural Revolution has led to the politicization of everything, where Americans cannot escape from intense debates on public policy. Welcome to 2018.