Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:55 pm
We have heard the mainstream media say a lot of ridiculous things in support of Republican candidates and remain silent in the case of some truly appalling utterances, but claiming Donald Trump is LGBT-friendly is really far out there.
And it’s not saying much. Especially when Trump’s new campaign manager, Paul Manafort, as much as said the candidate is no more than play-acting:
“Fixing personality negatives is a lot easier than fixing character negatives. You can’t change somebody’s character, but you can change the way a person presents himself.â€
Salon’s Sean Illing has correctly pointed out that this is flat out untrue, but that it sure does reveal a lot about Trump.
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Just as mainstream media glosses reveal a lot about their biases. In this case, NBC’s Hallie Jackson claiming Donald Trump “is considered one of the more LGBT-friendly Republican candidates.” Really? By whom? Trump supports discriminatory bathroom legislation. How is that LGBT friendly?
Obviously, it isn’t, but these are the same talking heads who support the idea that religious tyranny is a species of religious freedom. Watch and read the transcript from Media Matters for America:
HALLIE JACKSON: Ted Cruz, in a new online video, taking aim at Donald Trump’s criticism of a transgender bathroom ban in North Carolina.
TED CRUZ: This is not a reasonable debate over public policy. This is political correctness run amok.
JACKSON: Cruz, using Trump’s comments to try to boost his own conservative credentials, while hitting his rivals with a new online polling showing 64 percent of Republicans support the ban. But some of Trump’s backers aren’t bothered by it.
[…]
JACKSON: A top Trump aide, dismissing Cruz’s criticism, telling NBC News the senator is simply trying to stay relevant. Trump himself, not backing down.
DONALD TRUMP: Local communities and states should make the decision. And I feel very strongly about that.
JACKSON: While Trump is considered one of the more LGBT-friendly Republican candidates, he hasn’t talked much about those issues on the campaign trail. Not a typical part of his stump speech, and not mentioned tonight at his rally here in Delaware.
This is a fail of epic proportions. It would be nice if it were true but it’s not, as Trump has had quite a bit to say about who can use which bathroom, and none of it LGBT-friendly.
Apparently, now knowing that Trump is “projecting an image” in Manafort’s words, the mainstream media is willing to go along with this game and pretend each new iteration of Donald Trump is the new Donald Trump, while pretending each previous iteration of Donald Trump never existed.
Trump says the people protesting him are a con job, but with Manafort’s admission and a video record of each and everything Trump has said widely available online, it is clear that the only con job is Donald Trump himself aided and abetted by talking heads like Hallie Jackson.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
