Wendy
David Seymour, in an attempt to publicize his upcoming state of the nation speech on Waitangi Day, came up with the idea of calling the event, ‘Make Aotearoa Great Again’. (A better choice than ‘a year of delivery’ some spin doctor dreamed up for our great leader, which was destined to fail). But I digress.
He was no doubt thrilled when one of our woke broadcasters phoned him and requested an interview so she could sermonize on his Trump reference error. True to form Ferguson, bless her soul, had taken the bait and by default gave Seymour the platform he needed to make his point.
From the fixed, arrogant standpoint that anyone referencing, agreeing with or supporting the President is destined to fail, Susie and other journalists frame it in such a way that it is a known, accepted fact that he is persona non grata. One example is Breakfast’s John Campbell who lets his bias hang out on this and other issues whilst grandstanding as a great investigative journalist and (breathy) probing interviewer.
In other words, Ferguson (and others) are suffering from an advanced case of TDS. Seymour would have known this in adopting this mantra as a way to garner publicity. He would also have known that there are lots of people out there (the silent majority) who would appreciate his strategy and laugh at Susie’s lame comments about ‘alienating people’ and being ‘divisive’ in his reference to Trump. There is almost a sense of bullying from her, posing as the great journalist as she pushes her left-wing bias. No balance then Susie?
Seymour runs rings around his interviewers with his ability to articulate his views in a calm, logical manner, coupled with a keen intellect and strong belief in his subject matter. He will not be put off by emotive, subjective grandstanding by biased interviewers who already have their opinion firmly entrenched and are out to push it and denigrate him and his ideas.
Trump is a complex individual, currently presiding over a healthy economy and still experiencing success amongst Hillary’s deplorables (aka anyone who didn’t vote for her) and a growing number of other Americans, including minority groups.
Many of them, like me, openly admit they don’t particularly like his (at times) grating, thin-skinned, egotistical personality, but admire the way he is trying hard to keep the promises he made to the American people. He demonstrates, in his achievements, how important it is that leaders accomplish things which improve the lives of their people and are not just someone who looks good and can communicate well. Does that sound like anyone you know? Most importantly Trump is better than the alternative.
The key takeaway from this scenario is that the media do not seem to grasp that their opinion on this and other subjects is not the definitive view. I, personally, do not find the play on Trump’s slogan ‘alienating’ and ‘divisive’, Susie.
As Seymour informed you the tagline is one of the most successful campaign slogans in the last decade so; it is a clever idea to use it as it is so well recognized. Smart people don’t make decisions based on political correctness or fear of backlash from the radical and ill-informed, but on principle and whether the strategy will work.
The positive outcome of adopting the slogan is to quote Seymour, “It’s brought attention to our event and it means we can actually start talking about those real issues and I’m looking forward to it.”
Hope it goes well David.
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