Time for media to say farewell to ‘Mr Irrelevant’
It’s time, finally, after four years of wanton leadership that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of citizens dying and millions more suffering because of an abdicated reliance on science to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and the heartless attention to the economic devastation it has caused; after unrelenting, unproven conspiracy theories, lies, allegations and undelivered promises, ranging from “rigged” elections to climate change to “fake” news, and, let’s not forget – of high importance locally – to restore the once-vibrant coal industry; to say good riddance to President Donald J. Trump.
Just as our lives over the last four years of his administration were unsheltered, Trump’s future is auguring. We wish you good luck in the mountainous legal battles you can’t escape with a presidential pardon, continued good health after getting the drug cocktail and world-class medical care that enabled you to beat COVID but that millions of us suffering from the same disease can’t get, and a long, happy life in Mar-a-Lago, assuming the residents of West Palm Beach, Fla., will allow you to reside there, which, right now, of course, is uncertain.
The media has a crucial role in our collective, public farewell to President Trump. The media will soon label him “former” president. He lost, decisively, the popular vote in November. Vice President-elect Joe Biden won the same number of electoral college votes – 306 – that Trump did when proclaiming his “landslide” victory in 2016. And the soon-to-be former president lost dozens of court challenges of rigged election, including all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has appointed a third of the nine justices.
He’s done. He’s over. Trump will soon be out of the public limelight. Time for us to move on. The media should treat Trump as such. Just as the media doesn’t repeat in follow-up coverage the name of mass shooters whose rampage inflicted so much harm, the media should ignore mentioning Trump by name. “Former president” will do. That’s all he merits, considering the harm and chaos he created. Trump, the reality-star-turned-president, by all accounts will loathe being foisted on the pile of publicity-deprived notables.
But like the title bestowed on the last player drafted each year in the National Football League college draft, President Trump at 12:01 p.m. Jan. 20, 2021, will become “Mr. Irrelevant.”
Richard Ringer
Uniontown