Here’s my latest column from Real Clear Politics, which looks at the cultural phenomenon of Kanye West’s political flirtation with Donald Trump and asks whether we really know what it means yet — or whether it is really over (like the mainstream media tells us it is).
‘Kanye, we hardly knew ye’
By Frank Miele
There are some powerful forces that come to Earth to change and shape our lives in mysterious ways and are gone almost as quickly as they came. The thousand days of John Kennedy’s presidency were known as that brief shining moment of Camelot. When he was taken from us, the cry went out: Johnny, we hardly knew ye.”
Kennedy was like a comet burning across the sky of our shared destiny, and we all thought he was gone too soon. But of all the bright comets that have seared the American political heavens, Kanye West certainly burned out the quickest. Or so it seems.
It was just two months ago when Kanye was hailed by many conservative pundits, including this one, as a prophet of the new black experience — a Moses who would lead his people out of the serfdom of the Democratic plantation. Of course, it was all expressed in hyperbole — the language of the modern political culture. No one really thought Kanye (or Ye as he prefers to be known) could single-handedly part the blue sea of black voters just by wearing a red MAGA hat, but cultural icons have a sway that can’t quite be explained. Just ask Oprah!
So it did seem like the potential was there for a significant shift in black voters, especially when Kanye met in the Oval Office last month with his political idol, President Donald J. Trump, and hugged him while expounding on the virtues of being your own man.
But then Kanye pulled up short at the end of October, threw away his MAGA hat, and dissed his erstwhile hero. Or did he? On Oct. 30, he tweeted the following:
“My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative !!!”
This was widely interpreted in the mainstream media as a rebuke of Trump, but the one thing that was missing from the outspoken rapper’s unpredictable Twitter feed was anything that conclusively stated a newfound opposition to Donald Trump.
Read the rest at Real Clear Politics, and please leave your comments here and there!
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/11/12/kanye_we_hardly_knew_ye_138622.html
Dear Mr. Miele,
Your article about the Kanye-Trump alliance is clear, without bias, and allows your reader to see the common sense beliefs which Mr. West shares with President Trump. I often think of how upbeat our country would be if the media did not march to the unified anti-Trump drumbeat. It is a constant bombardment of Democrat truly obnoxious people putting out the exact same words of criticism and charges day after day, hour after hour in order to beat the American people on the head over and over again. Then, as usual, the Republican “leadership” says, “Oh, ok, we’ll have a special counsel and clear up this misunderstanding,” and the rest is history. The democrats live off the blood of the Republican mistakes and obvious weaknesses.
There are so many examples, but these are a few that caused drastic changes:. “Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians to win the election.” “Trump could not possibly have won when Hillary was supposed to, so he must have colluded with the Russians.” “There must be a special counsel to look into the Russian collusion.” (It wasn’t even alledged any more, it was a fore gone conclusion that it was collusion.) “Sessions must recuse himself.” “Trump plans on firing Robert Mueller. We can’t let Trump fire Robert Mueller.” Do you see where this is going? The mouth pieces for the Democrat party kept up a steady drumbeat which was fed hourly to the air waves by their friend and former colleagues in the media who just plain hate that someone like Trump, who will not bow to them and kiss up to them and fear them and do what they say, was elected President. Dear God I pray each day at least some of the Dems who criticize and persecute Trump and anyone who voted for him, are exposed for their own wrongdoing. Do you mean Nadler is like Caesar’s wife? Or Pelosi and her income have not depended upon insider information? (Where is Peter Schweizer?) Or Schumer and his wife the librarian? Gary Hart famously challenged the press to find something on him because he was so boring. How about Adam Schiff? Is he honestly as squeaky clean as he would have us believe? The democrats took lies and applied them to Kavanaugh. Similar to the “Crucible,” when Arthur Miller wrote about the lying girls accusing all the people who offended them as witches. Until they accused the Judge’s wife. Then he knew it was a fraud. (This can certainly be applied to the tactics the Dems took even at the Sessions confirmation hearings when Cory Booker accused sessions of racism even though he had sat with Sessions on many committees and knew better. The democrats’ torment of anything resembling republican values sure smacks of Miller’s thinly veiled allusion to Joe MacCarthy vs anyone he suspects of communism. As we saw, Booker was just practicing his craft on Sessions so he could reach his Spartacus moment with Kavanaugh. But that was also the Crucible moment when everyone saw through the accusations against Kavanaugh as bogus and made up for two purposes. (1) Get Kavanaugh gone and if that doesn’t work, (2) delay until a new Democrat-led senate was in place. Dishonorable of the Dems but I have not seen many signs of democrats with honor. And they are not insulted that I feel that way. They don’t care.) When will the American people who actively dislike Trump finally see the constant fraud being perpetrated upon them? (Did I phrase that correctly?). Fraud. And I like to think Kanye speaks from his heart and is not a fraud. He does, however, have the entertainment business against him when he puts on his conservative values. (His wife started a campaign saying he was “harassing” her to have 7 children. In this day and age, those are not words anyone should throw out there. And that’s the point. And that’s why she did it. Not good.)
Sincerely,
Joe Morrisco
Washington, D.C. 20003
Bedminster, NJ 07931
Your article describing Michael Avanatti is really, really good. He has many skeletons and enemies. Both the skeletons and his enemies will laugh when he goes one vicious step too far. But the media loves him because their viewership depends upon giving their dwindling viewers some sleaze and his unorthodox behavior fits their lack of ethics. Joe Morrisco